Waterstones Empire of Cotton
105 ratings
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Price: £14.99
Brand: Waterstones
Description: WINNER OF THE 2015 BANCROFT PRIZE WINNER OF THE 2015 PHILIP TAFT PRIZEFINALIST FOR THE 2015 PULITZER PRIZE FOR HISTORYSHORTLISTED FOR THE 2015 CUNDHILL PRIZE IN HISTORICAL LITERATURE Economist BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2015' Knowledgeable and stunning' Orhan Pamuk 'A masterpiece of the historian's craft' The Nation For about 900 years, from 1000 to 1900, cotton was the world's most important manufacturing industry. It remains a vast business - if all the cotton bales produced in 2013 had been stacked on top of each other they would have made a somewhat unstable tower 40,000 miles high. Sven Beckert's superb new book is a history of the overwhelming role played by cotton in dictating the shape of our world. It is both a gripping narrative and a brilliant case history of how the world works. Waterstones Empire of Cotton - shop the best deal online on thebookbug.co.uk
Category: Books
Merchant: Waterstones
Product ID: 9780141979984
Delivery cost: 2.99
ISBN: 9780141979984
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Author: Liam Kelleher
Rating: 5
Review: When a passer by sees one reading a book on cotton, they might think it rather irrelevant in our western lives. Indeed our 5 dollar t -shirts give rise to the belief that cotton is a low value commodity of little importance. I daresay this might be one of the best books I have ever read in tying in many pieces of history between the 1600s and 1950s. In essence the book begins with the fact that if one was to own a cotton garment made in India in the 1600s you would have been the talk of the town, quite different from today. India was the powerhouse of the industry, growing, weaving and making garments ready for selling. These made their way via onshore traders to Europe via the Middle East. Magellan changed that world for ever and sea faring European nations became the traders, going around South Africa and establishing bases in India. Beckert highlights that cotton growing needs cheap land, labour and capital. There was plenty of this in the States around the 1750s. Cotton growing exploded in the Deep South with the exploration of slavery. A new web of transport was formed. Bales of Cotton would make their way from the states to Liverpool, where they would be spun by the newly industrialised spinning machines. The garments were then loaded onto vessels and take to Africa and were used to buy slaves, who were then taken to the States or the West Indies. Of course the States gained freedom from Britain and Britain shortly afterwards banned slavery at the start of the 1800s. British colonial cotton production in the West Indies fell and they became totally reliant on cotton from the States. Therefore the US Civil war threw this world into a state of panic as the ending of slavery meant Britain needed an alternative. Back to India and Egypt and the rapid expansion of colonialism in those countries. Britain built railroads not out of altruism but to bring down transport costs. High interest rates forced small farmers off their land and instead to become workers. British colonial states were squeezed of every penny for the benefit of manufacturers in northern England. Indian emancipation after WW2 didn’t bring happiness. China began to make major inroads as a major manufacturer and forcing cotton prices down by forcing labour workers to go harder. It became less about technological innovation and more about perspiration. The explanation of Cotton, even without slavery, has always relied on the explotation of people. From the farmers in India, the workers in England, the vessels that transport the good etc. This book is a simply amazing at tying together the strands and weaving a web of astonishing analysis. Even the aknowledgements are interesting. Many many years of work clearly went into this book as seen by the 100 page of notes. Superb job.
Author: mattyblue
Rating: 1
Review: Booked arrived damaged
