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A review by dclark32
The Empire of Necessity: Slavery, Freedom, and Deception in the New World by Greg Grandin
3.0
Grandin has burned the midnight oil conducting research for this book and he has a talent for descriptive prose, but I really don't understand the book's organizational logic. I think the book is about slavery, but I'm honestly not certain. He mines the lives of the principal actors in a particularly dramatic slave revolt for insights on the workings of slavery at the beginning of the 19th century, but gets so bogged down in tangential details that the narrative thread is lost for chapters at a time. There is hardly an aspect of his characters' lives that Grandin does not see fit to include.
Thus, in a relatively modest book (273 pages before notes), we get four chapters on sealing, extended interludes about Herman Melville, an epilogue about the history of the United States (Empire of Necessity is concerned with South America), and extended discussions about everything from maritime insurance practices to the religious views of Amasa Delano's brother. It is really quite bizarre. I learned a lot, yes, but it's all fragmentary.
There is no reason that an historian cannot use a single story to build narrative interest, and use a well-chosen life to illuminate broader trends. Grandin, by contrast, can't seem to decide whether he is writing a narrative history or a survey. His meandering very much limits the utility of what could have been a great book.
3/5
Thus, in a relatively modest book (273 pages before notes), we get four chapters on sealing, extended interludes about Herman Melville, an epilogue about the history of the United States (Empire of Necessity is concerned with South America), and extended discussions about everything from maritime insurance practices to the religious views of Amasa Delano's brother. It is really quite bizarre. I learned a lot, yes, but it's all fragmentary.
There is no reason that an historian cannot use a single story to build narrative interest, and use a well-chosen life to illuminate broader trends. Grandin, by contrast, can't seem to decide whether he is writing a narrative history or a survey. His meandering very much limits the utility of what could have been a great book.
3/5