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A review by gregbrown
Empire of Cotton: A Global History by Sven Beckert
4.0
Make no mistake: this isn't one of those cutesy pop-history books that focus in on a single subject, but an extraordinary work of history making extraordinary claims. Beckert's book is a history of power. Power deployed by the state in concert with merchants and creditors. Power used to subjugate land and people towards the goal of growing and manufacturing cotton goods. Power that upended entire cultures just to get what it wanted.
For being just 450 pages (if we aren't counting the footnotes), Empire of Cotton is a long and slow read. The writing's clear and consistent throughout, but there's none of the pleasure in storytelling that you'd see in, say, Judt's Postwar. And at times the book is too encyclopedic to step up the pace. But man, this is an Important Book that I found utterly stimulating despite itself. Good stuff.
For being just 450 pages (if we aren't counting the footnotes), Empire of Cotton is a long and slow read. The writing's clear and consistent throughout, but there's none of the pleasure in storytelling that you'd see in, say, Judt's Postwar. And at times the book is too encyclopedic to step up the pace. But man, this is an Important Book that I found utterly stimulating despite itself. Good stuff.