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hamroach's review against another edition
5.0
Vivid in its descriptions and extensively sourced. Grandin's writing style is very engaging, and the story drew me in as well. I recommend this book to anyone that wants to think about the cognitive dissonance of life.
author_d_r_oestreicher's review against another edition
4.0
About 210 years ago, there was a slave revolt aboard the Tryal off the coast of Chile. The novella Benito Cereno by Herman Melville is based on this incident. Now over 150 years after Melville published, The Empire of Necessity by Greg Grandin is an historical accounting of the circumstances around that slave revolt.
This history draws on both the historical record and Melville's novella. Throughout the book, reference is made to Melville. I found the book reminiscent of Moby-Dick in structure. Rather than a straight narrative, the author includes digressions on life at sea.
In this history, seal hunting takes the place of whaling in Moby Dick. Various digressions expound on the life and technology of seal hunters. Like Melville, Grandin demonstrates broad interests in all aspects of the world surrounding the core story.
This is an excellent book for those interested in what the world was like beyond the often told story of slavery, but not ignoring slavery either.
For more see: http://1book42day.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-empire-of-necessityu-by-grag-grandin.html
This history draws on both the historical record and Melville's novella. Throughout the book, reference is made to Melville. I found the book reminiscent of Moby-Dick in structure. Rather than a straight narrative, the author includes digressions on life at sea.
In this history, seal hunting takes the place of whaling in Moby Dick. Various digressions expound on the life and technology of seal hunters. Like Melville, Grandin demonstrates broad interests in all aspects of the world surrounding the core story.
This is an excellent book for those interested in what the world was like beyond the often told story of slavery, but not ignoring slavery either.
For more see: http://1book42day.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-empire-of-necessityu-by-grag-grandin.html
bookandateacup's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
4.0
ethanhedman's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
reflective
fast-paced
4.25
Grandin analyses the slave uprising on the Tryal, and its interception by the Perseverance and its captain, Amasa Delano (relative of FDR). Grandin gives an all-encompassing dissection of empire, slavery, and expansion in the New World, while analyzing the different market, historical, and human forces at work that led to everyone being where they were in 1805 off the coast of Chile. The author infuses Benito Cereno and Moby Dick by Herman Melville as a corollary to how the forces at play on the Tryal interact with the seemingly pre-destined historical course the United States seemed to be on.
Ultimately I believe Grandin sees Delano as a representation of the entrapment of Americans in history. That even when infrequently well-intentioned, people are largely bound to the political, social, and historical forces of their time and place.
"The Duxbury preachers who supported independence told him that one's fate was not predestined, that man had reason and free will, which gave him the power to make of himself what he would. But for the hapless Delano, faith in reason and free will became its own enchantment, blinding him to the ties that bound men together, that set the limits of who succeeded and who failed, and that decided who was free and who wasn't." (258)
"In the United States, a purer ideal of freedom has come to hold sway, at least among some, based on the principles of liberal democracy and laissez-faire economics but also on a more primal animus, an individual supremacy that not only denies the necessities that bind people together but resents any reminder of those necessities." (273)
Ultimately I believe Grandin sees Delano as a representation of the entrapment of Americans in history. That even when infrequently well-intentioned, people are largely bound to the political, social, and historical forces of their time and place.
"The Duxbury preachers who supported independence told him that one's fate was not predestined, that man had reason and free will, which gave him the power to make of himself what he would. But for the hapless Delano, faith in reason and free will became its own enchantment, blinding him to the ties that bound men together, that set the limits of who succeeded and who failed, and that decided who was free and who wasn't." (258)
"In the United States, a purer ideal of freedom has come to hold sway, at least among some, based on the principles of liberal democracy and laissez-faire economics but also on a more primal animus, an individual supremacy that not only denies the necessities that bind people together but resents any reminder of those necessities." (273)
qdony's review against another edition
5.0
Me parece muy interesante la forma que tiene Grandin de plantear su ensayo a partir del episodio que luego dio lugar al Benito Cerreno de Herman Melville. Usando el episodio como epicentro, el libro se dedica a desglosarlo en sus componentes básicos ampliando cada vez más el contexto; en espiral, como quien dice. Así explica el fenómeno de la esclavitud y el tráfico de esclavos (entre otras cosas) en américa latina y el resto del mundo a finales del siglo XVIII y principios del XIX. Es informativo, apasionante, espeluznante y muy ameno.
PD. Aquí llegué, por asociación de ideas, después de leer Bioko (aunque el libro ya lo tenía).
PD. Aquí llegué, por asociación de ideas, después de leer Bioko (aunque el libro ya lo tenía).
naum's review against another edition
5.0
Fascinating, gripping in-depth exploration of the players and context of the 1805 event where Captain Amasa Delano (FDR ancestor) & ship encounter a Spanish ship, off the coast of S. America, whose slaves mutinied and enacted a ruse that captain Cerreno was still in charge, and not them actually calling the shots. The incident was immortalized in a Herman Melville (*Moby Dick* author) novella, though it takes some liberties with Delano's memoir recollection of the event.
Grandin possesses a compelling writing style as he profiles the principle players, politics of the age, the prism of which Melville was peering from almost 50 years later, the paradox of the dawn of Age of Liberty coinciding with the massive uptick in slave trade, the life of a sealer (and whalers) captains and crew, the seeds of liberty blown by American revolution, etc.
Grandin possesses a compelling writing style as he profiles the principle players, politics of the age, the prism of which Melville was peering from almost 50 years later, the paradox of the dawn of Age of Liberty coinciding with the massive uptick in slave trade, the life of a sealer (and whalers) captains and crew, the seeds of liberty blown by American revolution, etc.