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207 reviews for:
The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism
Edward E. Baptist
4.47 AVERAGE
207 reviews for:
The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism
Edward E. Baptist
4.47 AVERAGE
Wow! What a brutal, vivid, fascinating book. Quite the condemnation of the roots of modern capitalism and an excellent read for those who wonder at the idea of reparations.
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/05/books/review/the-half-has-never-been-told-by-edward-e-baptist.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/05/books/review/the-half-has-never-been-told-by-edward-e-baptist.html
Reading this book now was a comfort, as counter-intuitive as it may seem. But given it’s starting point, the book does end on a higher note (even though it does mention Jim Crow). But mostly it was a comfort because it feels right. It feels right to reclaim history and add one more tiny piece to the puzzle that is my understanding of the world.
And the book’s contribution to that understanding are significant. It sets out to prove that slavery was the defining force for young America (before and even after the Civil War), in all important realms: politics, economy, geography, society, religion and culture. And it succeeds on all counts. It also does so in a very readable and understandable manner and with beautiful poetic prose.
Lots of people have commented on how its language is not as dry and academic as they prefer and how it interweaves facts and eye-witness accounts (filled out and supported by many individual sources). Your preferences may vary (and personal taste always plays a central role in book enjoyment), but in my view the argument that this undermines the book’s claim is ridiculous. Why would adding flavor to statistical data make the data less relevant. If anything, given that history is a social science, showing how both period testimony and hard data point to the same conclusions make the conclusions more compelling. Analysis and weighing of sources is, after all, at the core of historical science. In any case, in my view this is history at its best because it weaves psychology, sociology, economics, law and politics together to paint a coherent picture of the period and place analyzed (America after the Revolution and before the Civil War). And thus you get a complete, nuanced, layered view.
On a personal note, this book reminded me of my own grievances and stoked my anger. My history has been stolen from me (I’m not American). All throughout school I suffered through textbooks and history classes presenting truncated views of history, glorifying national “heroes” and sometimes outright falsifying history by what they left out. Not to mention the dry drone of dates (the beginning and end of reigns, battles and church-building, of all things). Oh, and history officially ended shortly after 1945 in my country. I’ve since overcome my resentment of, and disinterest in, history, but I’ve never been able to make up for lost time, nor have the generations after me. Needless to say, our lack of understanding of our own history robbed us not only of our national identity but also (and that was obviously the goal) of our political voice and our activism. The plunder of our nation safely hidden, our politicians could rest easy for another couple of decades. And the glorifying nationalist textbooks created an ideal breeding ground for ethnic patriotism combined with pseudo-religious fervor (by which I mean glorifying a particular form of religion solely for its ethnic and nationalistic connections and not observing its actual tenets).
When the dust settled at the end of 2016, we had thus made a very similar and equally catastrophic choice in our own elections. Naturally, any and all subsequent protests have proven futile and the exploitation of our nation and its national resources continues unhindered by any popular opinion (if it even is popular opinion that thieving lying scoundrels should not rule our nation). So I consider stealing history from a country’s people a crime of the highest order and its ripple effects cannot be overstated.
And the book’s contribution to that understanding are significant. It sets out to prove that slavery was the defining force for young America (before and even after the Civil War), in all important realms: politics, economy, geography, society, religion and culture. And it succeeds on all counts. It also does so in a very readable and understandable manner and with beautiful poetic prose.
Lots of people have commented on how its language is not as dry and academic as they prefer and how it interweaves facts and eye-witness accounts (filled out and supported by many individual sources). Your preferences may vary (and personal taste always plays a central role in book enjoyment), but in my view the argument that this undermines the book’s claim is ridiculous. Why would adding flavor to statistical data make the data less relevant. If anything, given that history is a social science, showing how both period testimony and hard data point to the same conclusions make the conclusions more compelling. Analysis and weighing of sources is, after all, at the core of historical science. In any case, in my view this is history at its best because it weaves psychology, sociology, economics, law and politics together to paint a coherent picture of the period and place analyzed (America after the Revolution and before the Civil War). And thus you get a complete, nuanced, layered view.
On a personal note, this book reminded me of my own grievances and stoked my anger. My history has been stolen from me (I’m not American). All throughout school I suffered through textbooks and history classes presenting truncated views of history, glorifying national “heroes” and sometimes outright falsifying history by what they left out. Not to mention the dry drone of dates (the beginning and end of reigns, battles and church-building, of all things). Oh, and history officially ended shortly after 1945 in my country. I’ve since overcome my resentment of, and disinterest in, history, but I’ve never been able to make up for lost time, nor have the generations after me. Needless to say, our lack of understanding of our own history robbed us not only of our national identity but also (and that was obviously the goal) of our political voice and our activism. The plunder of our nation safely hidden, our politicians could rest easy for another couple of decades. And the glorifying nationalist textbooks created an ideal breeding ground for ethnic patriotism combined with pseudo-religious fervor (by which I mean glorifying a particular form of religion solely for its ethnic and nationalistic connections and not observing its actual tenets).
When the dust settled at the end of 2016, we had thus made a very similar and equally catastrophic choice in our own elections. Naturally, any and all subsequent protests have proven futile and the exploitation of our nation and its national resources continues unhindered by any popular opinion (if it even is popular opinion that thieving lying scoundrels should not rule our nation). So I consider stealing history from a country’s people a crime of the highest order and its ripple effects cannot be overstated.
excellent comprehensive story of slavery and capitalism that I didn't know before. really long and a bit tough to get through, even though necessary to tell "the half" that hasn't been told.
i liked some parts but i never got into it. this book was inaccessible for me
This is one of the better in-depth history books I've read recently. The author does an excellent job not just with his research but also with his storytelling ability. Baptist weaves the stories of slaves with the economic, social, and political issues and problems of the time. It made the book quite readable and kept the pages turning. It is both sad and enlightening at the same time.
Eloquent, horrifying, and complex, I think this may be the new go-to book if you want to read about the history of slavery. Baptist does a terrific job of weaving large stories out of the bits and pieces of testimony we have from former slaves. This book does a truly heroic job of combining a vast economic history with the story of the legal and philosophical changes that supported slavery, tying it to expansion and national politics and, most impressively, never losing sight of the human scale, and the human toll of slavery.
Very informative but very dense and I'm just not in the mood to read a dense book.
I learned a lot from this book and now wish I had taken notes as I read.
We all learn a brief history of U.S. slavery in school and many of us have most likely seen some sort of film adaptation of U.S. slave life. But hearing detailed personal accounts and well documented histories felt far more important and poignant.
Reading details of white people selling actual human beings, then shackling, torturing, raping, and working them like soulless machines for economic gain was not easy. My stomach wrenched and my eyes welled up with tears, over and over. Even if a few economists have contested Baptist's portrayal of early US capitalism, none of that changes what happened to real living and breathing human beings.
One of the things I loved about this book was that it inspired me to conduct further reading on multiple historical events that were either discussed or briefly mentioned by Baptist. Including but not limited to the Louisiana purchase, the removal of native peoples for the expansion of cotton fields, and the Haitian revoltion.
Side note: It's interesting to me that many white people speak of U.S. slavery as strictly being black history, when it's clearly white history as well. Of the first 12 U.S. presidents, eight were slave owners.
I highly recommend this book. The content was difficult to read but the story was easy to follow, including dates and specific events. I purchased the book [b:Slave Testimony: Two Centuries of Letters, Speeches, Interviews, and Autobiographies|1223412|Slave Testimony Two Centuries of Letters, Speeches, Interviews, and Autobiographies|John W. Blassingame|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1387716948l/1223412._SY75_.jpg|1211911][bc:Slave Testimony: Two Centuries of Letters, Speeches, Interviews, and Autobiographies|1223412|Slave Testimony Two Centuries of Letters, Speeches, Interviews, and Autobiographies|John W. Blassingame|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1387716948l/1223412._SY75_.jpg|1211911] edited by John W. Blassingame to reference alongside this book. It contains "two centuries of letters, speeches, interviews, and autobiographies" of former slaves. I particularly liked using the index to look up names of slaves that Baptist mentions in this book.
We all learn a brief history of U.S. slavery in school and many of us have most likely seen some sort of film adaptation of U.S. slave life. But hearing detailed personal accounts and well documented histories felt far more important and poignant.
Reading details of white people selling actual human beings, then shackling, torturing, raping, and working them like soulless machines for economic gain was not easy. My stomach wrenched and my eyes welled up with tears, over and over. Even if a few economists have contested Baptist's portrayal of early US capitalism, none of that changes what happened to real living and breathing human beings.
One of the things I loved about this book was that it inspired me to conduct further reading on multiple historical events that were either discussed or briefly mentioned by Baptist. Including but not limited to the Louisiana purchase, the removal of native peoples for the expansion of cotton fields, and the Haitian revoltion.
Side note: It's interesting to me that many white people speak of U.S. slavery as strictly being black history, when it's clearly white history as well. Of the first 12 U.S. presidents, eight were slave owners.
I highly recommend this book. The content was difficult to read but the story was easy to follow, including dates and specific events. I purchased the book [b:Slave Testimony: Two Centuries of Letters, Speeches, Interviews, and Autobiographies|1223412|Slave Testimony Two Centuries of Letters, Speeches, Interviews, and Autobiographies|John W. Blassingame|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1387716948l/1223412._SY75_.jpg|1211911][bc:Slave Testimony: Two Centuries of Letters, Speeches, Interviews, and Autobiographies|1223412|Slave Testimony Two Centuries of Letters, Speeches, Interviews, and Autobiographies|John W. Blassingame|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1387716948l/1223412._SY75_.jpg|1211911] edited by John W. Blassingame to reference alongside this book. It contains "two centuries of letters, speeches, interviews, and autobiographies" of former slaves. I particularly liked using the index to look up names of slaves that Baptist mentions in this book.
I decided to rate this on how much I enjoyed reading it, because if I judged it on the quality it would be a 5/5. The first half I felt like I was much too dumb for this book. It picked up in the second half as I had more prior knowledge, though most of that knowledge was changed with new information. This book will change and open your mind.
I wouldn't have made it through this book without Doug DeCelle's summary: https://www.douglasdecelle.net/the-half-has-never-been-told-summary-and-notes/
I wouldn't have made it through this book without Doug DeCelle's summary: https://www.douglasdecelle.net/the-half-has-never-been-told-summary-and-notes/
Very interesting, and a good read to get historical context on modern American capitalism. The only reason I gave it three stars is because even though it was written very well, I think the narrative was ordered strangely. Very informative on the history of America!