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208 reviews for:
The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism
Edward E. Baptist
4.48 AVERAGE
208 reviews for:
The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism
Edward E. Baptist
4.48 AVERAGE
This should be required reading!!! An in-depth look at how America became the great country that it is because of the worst institution ever created - slavery.
Spectacular. The book touches on so many issues surrounding slavery and the impact that we still feel. Topics I never considered like how the institution shaped music, art, religion, and the things you do think about like politics and migration of people.
In today's climate, everyone should read this book.
In today's climate, everyone should read this book.
This broke my heart, over and over and if you think you, white folks including myself, understand the horrors of slavery, you have no idea until you learn about what happened once outside slave traders were cut off and the west opened up.
Being the "Mamie" in Ole Virginia, while offensive was horrific, make no mistake, but this, being stolen from your family, some of them even free black people and shipped around Florida only put up on the block, sometimes with little clothing, to be sold to cotton barons that looked at you as nothing more than the shovel or the seed they bought. Revolting, ignorant, assinine, etc. doesn't even begin to cover it and the torture they faced if they didn't fill their everchanging quotas.
One thing that was really highlighted beside the horror was the breaking of the myth that black people at that time were better dancers, singers, etc and that was all they were good for. When every damn thing including your autonomy is taken away from you, the brave find a way to keep a bit of themselves and many did this by developing the one thing they were allowed, their creativity. It wasn't an innate or stereotypical racist thing, it was a this is the only way I have left to express my pain, my sorrow, hope, joy, anything to put one foot in front of the other before you beat me again.
That portion reminded me so much of [b:Man's Search for Meaning|4069|Man's Search for Meaning|Viktor E. Frankl|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1535419394s/4069.jpg|3389674], some found their own ways to cope or even rebel. I loved that.
While I am here, this BS in the news of 2019 is embarrassing and unacceptable. Virginia schools, this month alone have hit the idiot and thoughtless button twice. One school had, what in my day would have been plainly called a PE Obstacle Course and called it Escape from Slavery. Um, what were you all thinking and what was wrong with just calling it an obstacle course?
Then they had the Governor's wife handing out cotton and asking white and black students to imagine being enslaved and having to pick it. SMH
All I can think of is they are trying to distract from the Governor and Lt. Governor's issues...not gonna do it.
Being the "Mamie" in Ole Virginia, while offensive was horrific, make no mistake, but this, being stolen from your family, some of them even free black people and shipped around Florida only put up on the block, sometimes with little clothing, to be sold to cotton barons that looked at you as nothing more than the shovel or the seed they bought. Revolting, ignorant, assinine, etc. doesn't even begin to cover it and the torture they faced if they didn't fill their everchanging quotas.
One thing that was really highlighted beside the horror was the breaking of the myth that black people at that time were better dancers, singers, etc and that was all they were good for. When every damn thing including your autonomy is taken away from you, the brave find a way to keep a bit of themselves and many did this by developing the one thing they were allowed, their creativity. It wasn't an innate or stereotypical racist thing, it was a this is the only way I have left to express my pain, my sorrow, hope, joy, anything to put one foot in front of the other before you beat me again.
That portion reminded me so much of [b:Man's Search for Meaning|4069|Man's Search for Meaning|Viktor E. Frankl|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1535419394s/4069.jpg|3389674], some found their own ways to cope or even rebel. I loved that.
While I am here, this BS in the news of 2019 is embarrassing and unacceptable. Virginia schools, this month alone have hit the idiot and thoughtless button twice. One school had, what in my day would have been plainly called a PE Obstacle Course and called it Escape from Slavery. Um, what were you all thinking and what was wrong with just calling it an obstacle course?
Then they had the Governor's wife handing out cotton and asking white and black students to imagine being enslaved and having to pick it. SMH
All I can think of is they are trying to distract from the Governor and Lt. Governor's issues...not gonna do it.
informative
This book acts as an antidote to many of the false myths and narratives surrounding American Slavery that still exist today. The author did an excellent job of showing how slavery was a financial powerhouse that propelled the economies of the south and north and how it benefitted a number of foreign economies as well. He produced evidence that showed that the domestic slave trade stayed strong and multiplied throughout the years leading up to the American Civil War (with the only exceptions occurring during periods of recession and depression). The author makes a strong case for his hypothesis that slavery would have continued on without major interruptions for as long as possible if war had not broken out.
The book is most powerful though when the author shared stories about enslaved individuals and their kin that showed the true brutality of violence and the shattered families and social histories slavery left in its wake. If anything, I wish the book had dedicated more time to these stories instead of the complex national and international credit schemes that helped the institution thrive up to the war.
The book was exhausting at times with its level of detail, but that quality helped me to understand how deeply the nation’s economy was intertwined with the institution.
The book is most powerful though when the author shared stories about enslaved individuals and their kin that showed the true brutality of violence and the shattered families and social histories slavery left in its wake. If anything, I wish the book had dedicated more time to these stories instead of the complex national and international credit schemes that helped the institution thrive up to the war.
The book was exhausting at times with its level of detail, but that quality helped me to understand how deeply the nation’s economy was intertwined with the institution.
dark
emotional
informative
sad
slow-paced
As far as proving its thesis, this book is among the most exhaustive and persuasive I've ever read. If you're finished with it and remain unconvinced America's ascendance as an economic power wasn't directly due to the unjust and horrendous practice of chattel slavery, the problem is certainly not with the book itself. My main issue was that the author seemed to have a hard time maintaining any sort of voice to make this read as much more than a compelling research paper. It's a tragic book, due to its content, but not necessarily a stirring one; it doesn't mishandle the subject of slavery, but there's an odd lack of pathos here that made it a little difficult to keep up with. The most moving portions of the book come from the words of others, primarily quotes from slaves themselves or their descendants. Occasionally, the author tries to inject his argument with some personality, but it falls flat. Regardless, I really do think this is an extremely important book as it speaks to an uncomfortable but unavoidable fact about American power: that the land of the free was only able to become what it is now by slavery. And it does so comprehensively and indisputably.
'twas magisterial, huge. A very thorough stroll over the (now) USA's history of slavery, the cruelty, the effectively universal acceptance 'mongst the white folks.
For anyone else: 5 stars. For me, well, I more wanted to be interested that actually was, so it didn't grab me that much, so 4
For anyone else: 5 stars. For me, well, I more wanted to be interested that actually was, so it didn't grab me that much, so 4
I really enjoyed this book. First what I didn't like about the book. I do not have a background in economics business or banking so the technical aspects those great historical moments were lost on me. I skimmed over that because I just was not interested. However I do understand and appreciate the historical significance of the results of all of those incidence now what I did like about the book. I have read a lot of different books about slave conditions slave narratives about women in slavery and white women during Antebellum. this is the first book that I read that really summarizes how capitalism developed in the United States why it developed and how the US is still dealing with the effects of establishing a nation based on slave labor. this book reminded me of a Ken Burns movie. The author did not merely give a timeline of events or present each topic based on a definition. he told the story of us capitalism and slavery based on how it related to each body part the human body. For instance the head the legs the feet the heart. I highly recommend this book for those who want to have an unbiased and unfiltered you probably knighted states capitalism developed.
I thought this book was incredible in scope, organization, and craft. I definitely had a hard time paying attention to the text during the interludes about politics, but the author continued to call me back with the very human interludes.
I learned a lot from this book, although I think it merits a re-read in a physical copy/would be a great text for a college class, because it's difficult to get all of it from a casual listen.
I learned a lot from this book, although I think it merits a re-read in a physical copy/would be a great text for a college class, because it's difficult to get all of it from a casual listen.