Empire of Cotton

A Global History

By: Sven Beckert

Narrated by: Jim Frangione

Length: 20 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

Sven Beckert's rich, fascinating audiobook tells the story of how, in a remarkably brief period, European entrepreneurs and powerful statesmen recast the world's most significant manufacturing industry, combining imperial expansion and slave labor with new machines and wage workers to change the world. Here is the story of how, beginning well before the advent of machine production in the 1780s, these men captured ancient trades and skills in Asia, combined them with the expropriation of lands in the Americas and the enslavement of African workers to crucially recast the disparate realms of cotton that had existed for millennia. We see how industrial capitalism then reshaped these worlds of cotton into an empire, and how this empire transformed the world. The empire of cotton was, from the beginning, a fulcrum of constant global struggle between slaves and planters, merchants and statesmen, farmers and merchants, workers and factory owners. In this as in so many other ways, Beckert makes clear how these forces ushered in the world of modern capitalism, including the vast wealth and disturbing inequalities that are with us today. The result is a book as unsettling as it is enlightening: a book that brilliantly weaves together the story of cotton with how the present global world came to exist.

©2014 Original material by Sven Beckert. Recorded by arrangement with Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc. (P)2014 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Takeaways

Very comprehensive review. If nothing else you could read the first chapter/prologue and epilogue and get an appreciation for how third one plant has changed the world.

Should be titled "Empire of Slavery"

This book details the beginnings of cotton production very well. A thorough history is given up through the present age. However, when the author reaches the time period where cotton was produced in America by slave labor, he gets really bogged down and loses focus.

Too many statistics

I expected more of a story. This read like an Economics 2 treatise. Reader was dry.

war capitalism, industrial slavery, global markets

technical innovation, profitable endeavors, war capitalism, industrial slavery, global markets, state and corporate collusion, financial empire

The real History of the Modern world

This book provides s true basis to understand the wealth of the western world and the cruelty, slavery, and dispossession of native peoples that built it.

good work listening

This book was super informative and in depth look at the world cotton industry over time.

Thought confirming

A basic text on the underside of capitalism. First rate historical account of the interaction of oppression, industry and nation states.

A bit of a capitalist basher

The author clearly had an ax to grind with capitalism and based on what I know from other sources I think that some of his conclusions missed the mark by a good bit. However on the whole I thought it was a good book and I'm glad I listened to it.

history of a mammoth and neglected industry

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Few know of the power of this empire

Who was your favorite character and why?

no characters here

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

The origins of the industrial revolution

Surprised by how much I learned

I originally didn't think I would get through this book. But the further into it I got, the more I learned, especially about the civil war. It certainly gave me another perspective on world relationships.