Take a photo of a barcode or cover
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
Phew! That was a tough read. I am studying economics in school currently, and became interested in the realities behind capitalism and how the system came to be so exploitative and profit-over-people. I grabbed this book on the recommendation of Rachel Cargle, who is an incredible Black female entrepreneur and public academic. I was immediately intimidated by the size, as well as the minuscule text - this book is challenging, and its physical presence reflects that. However, I was immediately drawn in by the narrative style of Dr. Baptist. While presenting his arguments clearly and accessibly, Dr. Baptist draws from the lived experience of Black enslaved people in the U.S. Each person's story is told with empathy and humanity, and the arguments that the author makes are impactful and world-shattering (spoiler alert - capitalism is built on the backs of enslaved people, and America's wealth is a direct result of their torture). I am so glad that I have decided to embark on this journey of unlearning. The history that I learned in school is not the history of America, but the whitewashed history of the enslaver. Here's to living life eyes wide open.
This is an incredibly powerful and challenging book. The author details how exactly slavery was used to build up the incredible wealth and prosperity of our nation--and much of the rest of the world--on the backs and with the hands of enslaved African Americans. This should be required reading to truly understand the depth, breadth, and impact of slavery on every facet of contemporary life.
a truly excellent history of slavery as a developing system. panoramic in scope, but rooted in individual lives and dramas. at times the prose might turn a shade bombastic, but I appreciated the organizational conceit: Baptist frames each chapter as a meditation on a feature of slavery understood as a part of the body (e.g., the head, the left hand, the corpse). he uses this heuristic effectively and even poetically. highly recommended.
This is a rather astounding feat. A book that encapsulates the history of American slavery, but is readable and in terms presentable to a public audience. I genuinely think that's an accomplishment. The second thesis, that torture drove so much of the 'efficiency' of American cotton, is proven by admitting the narrative and affective evidence of survivors and their descendants, a tangible step in the direction of the kind of scholarly ethics I want to employ. It's not that this book has no faults, it's that what it does well means it is more than worth a read despite them.
challenging
dark
informative
slow-paced
An interesting nonfiction look at slavery, King Cotton, and how slavery was the driving force behind the American economy even in non-slave states. The book is well researched and thought provoking.
Too academic for right now - going to come back to this later.
The most compelling work of history I've read. Maybe ever. The economy Americans live in was created on the backs of slaves torn from their homeland. This book details specifically how that economy was built. Each chapter focuses on a part of the body--the hands, the blood, the breath--and explains in painful anecdotes and chilling statistics how capitalism in its American form came to dominate the poor, the disenfranchised, and, even, the wealthiest among us. Essential reading. So so so so so so so so so good.
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.
I wish I had enjoyed The Half Has Never Been Told because it has an important message and reveals some truths about American history that isn't taught in schools but I had difficulty getting past the style and structure. This is one of those books that could have been written in half the number of pages if the overbearing appeals for an emotional reaction from the reader were excised.
The book's structure of labeling each chapter as a body part was artificial but, having started down that path, the author labored to follow and justify it. He mints new terms and metaphors, like "whipping-machine", to lend substance to his theories and continuously recycles them for emphasis and credibility. He threads personal stories derived from letters or memoirs of several minor characters through distant chapters was cumbersome. We read a couple of paragraphs about one of possibly hundreds of minor characters added for effect in one chapter and then are expected to recall their stories several chapters later after many others had been thrown in along the way.
Having criticized the author for style, the premise is important to acknowledge be any student of history. He breaks new ground (at least for me) with theories and statistics about the reason for and results from "Manifest Destiny" and the push West, the primary importance of cotton in American economic growth for both North and South, antebellum domestic politics between Whigs/Democrats/Republicans centered around the future of slavery and, of course, the acceptance of slavery's savagery on levels the match any others in World history (see King Leopold's Ghost).
Bottom line, I think the book is important and worthwhile but wished it was edited better.
The book's structure of labeling each chapter as a body part was artificial but, having started down that path, the author labored to follow and justify it. He mints new terms and metaphors, like "whipping-machine", to lend substance to his theories and continuously recycles them for emphasis and credibility. He threads personal stories derived from letters or memoirs of several minor characters through distant chapters was cumbersome. We read a couple of paragraphs about one of possibly hundreds of minor characters added for effect in one chapter and then are expected to recall their stories several chapters later after many others had been thrown in along the way.
Having criticized the author for style, the premise is important to acknowledge be any student of history. He breaks new ground (at least for me) with theories and statistics about the reason for and results from "Manifest Destiny" and the push West, the primary importance of cotton in American economic growth for both North and South, antebellum domestic politics between Whigs/Democrats/Republicans centered around the future of slavery and, of course, the acceptance of slavery's savagery on levels the match any others in World history (see King Leopold's Ghost).
Bottom line, I think the book is important and worthwhile but wished it was edited better.