History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

Not for Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade--and How We Can Fight It

Average customer rating:

Uncle Tom's Cabin for the twenty-first century
informative and inspiring
Great, informational book
BREAK THE CHAINS
An outstanding book

Not for Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade--and How We Can Fight It
David Batstone
Manufacturer: HarperOne
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Human Rights | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0061206717
Release Date: 2007-02-06

Book Description

Award–winning journalist David Batstone reveals the story of a new generation of 21st century abolitionists and their heroic campaign to put an end to human bondage. In his accessible and inspiring book, Batstone carefully weaves the narratives of activists and those in bondage in a way that not only raises awareness of the modern–day slave trade, but also serves as a call to action.

With 2007 bringing the 200th anniversary of the climax of the 19th century abolitionist movement, the world pays tribute to great visionary figures such as William Wilberforce of the United Kingdom and American Frederick Douglass for their remarkable strides toward framing slavery as a moral issue that people of good conscience could not tolerate. This anniversary serves not only as a commemorative date for battles won against slavery, but also as a reminder that slavery and bondage still persist in the 21st century. An estimated 27 million people around the globe suffer in situations of forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation from which they cannot free themselves. Trafficking in people has become increasingly transnational in scope and highly lucrative. After illegal drug sales and arms trafficking, human trafficking is today the third most profitable criminal activity in the world, generating $31 billion annually. As many as half of all those trafficked worldwide for sex and domestic slavery are children under 18 years of age.

Customer Reviews:

Uncle Tom's Cabin for the twenty-first century.......2007-10-09

This is one of those books that makes you want TO DO SOMETHING. Every chapter is a story of a slave, their slave owner, and the person and persons who rescues them. There is too much information and too many statistics to remain unchanged after reading it.

There is a chapter on the invisible children in Uganda who are kidnapped by the Lord's Resistance Army and forced to kill the adults in their village. The younger girls are given as wives to the older boys. If you caught trying to escape you are gang murdered. Thank God for the work World Vision and other organizations are doing to rescue them! There are chapters about sex slaves who are transported to America and other countries to be prostitutes. This is a well researched book to a huge problem that must be addressed.

informative and inspiring.......2007-10-05

I became interested in the issue of human trafficking after I read a NY Times article titled, The Girls Next Door, by Peter Landesman, in 2004. It "broke my heart" and ever since then I have been looking for a way to help stop this terrible plague of injustice. In an effort to become informed, I read the Amazon reviews of all the books on this subject and ordered several. This one, Not For Sale, is fantastic!

It gives facts, which are not presented in an expoloitative, titillating way, but will still probably "break your heart" too. Besides the facts, there are also actual examples of many of the forms of human trafficking, from the sexual trade to child soldiers, and slave labor. Yes, people are still buying and selling slaves! And, yes, here in the United States, too!

But the best part is that this book gives you examples of people who are finding ways to stop this plague. And, it also gives you resources, such as the names of organizations where you can send donations, and websites that you can contact.

Right now this plague flourishes because it is mostly invisible, even though it is happening all around us. But, once we are informed, we will no longer be blind, and there will be no dark corners where this travesty can exist.

I read this book in one day (yesterday), then today, I ordered 16 more copies, which I am going to distribute in my personal effort to help the world become informed. Obviously, I highly recommend this book!

Great, informational book.......2007-10-01

This book was fantastic - it gave great detail as well as moving stories, and then provided plenty of information at the end on organizations who are fighting against this crisis. That way folks like me and you can have somewhere to start to get involved.

I really recommend that everyone read it. The events that are described are so heartbreaking and awful, but this is stuff we need to know. I feel that those of us who are blessed with freedom and various resources (education and or time, money, creativity, networks of friends, homes, etc.) have a duty to use what we've been given to help people trapped in slavery (or other negative situations. Otherwise we're really wasting our time. Read it and loan it to a friend!

BREAK THE CHAINS.......2007-09-03

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about the scourge of human exploitation. As a volunteer for one of the ministries named in the book (NightLight), I personally have experienced how God breaks through and brings life and His light into the darkness of sexual exploitation. Perhaps you are called to be part of this rapidly growing abolitionist movement...are you a chainbreaker, an abolitionist, an emancipator?

"Not for Sale" presents the truth in an easy read that is NOT easy to forget or lay aside. It is a challenging message that grips your heart and mind. Slavery and human exploitation thrive in cultures of greed and domination - even in America. If you are moved by the book, purchase the dvd and become part of the Not for Sale campaign.

Together we can make a diference - JOIN THE MOVEMENT!

An outstanding book.......2007-05-16

As a literary critic for three national broadsheets in three continents (in addition to numerous magazines including Harper's Bazaar), I could not recommend this book more highly. Buy it.

Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route

Average customer rating:

Extraordinarily Insightful and Eloquent
Spectacular
Brilliant!
Roots 2.0

Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route
Saidiya Hartman
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Africa | History | Subjects | Books

Ghana | Africa | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0374270821
Release Date: 2007-01-09

Book Description

In Lose Your Mother, Saidiya Hartman journeys along a slave route in Ghana, following the trail of captives from the hinterland to the Atlantic coast. She retraces the history of the Atlantic slave trade from the fifteenth to the twentieth century and reckons with the blank slate of her own genealogy.

There were no survivors of Hartman’s lineage, nor far-flung relatives in Ghana of whom she had come in search. She traveled to Ghana in search of strangers. The most universal definition of the slave is a stranger—torn from kin and country. To lose your mother is to suffer the loss of kin, to forget your past, and to inhabit the world as a stranger. As both the offspring of slaves and an American in Africa, Hartman, too, was a stranger. Her reflections on history and memory unfold as an intimate encounter with places—a holding cell, a slave market, a walled town built
to repel slave raiders—and with people: an Akan prince who granted the Portuguese permission to build the first permanent trading fort in West Africa; an adolescent boy who was kidnapped while playing; a fourteen-year-old girl who was murdered aboard a slave ship.

Eloquent, thoughtful, and deeply affecting, Lose Your Mother is a powerful meditation on history, memory, and the Atlantic slave trade.

Customer Reviews:

Extraordinarily Insightful and Eloquent.......2007-07-22

A deeply moving combination of history, personal memoir and deep reflection,particularly on the heroic and aspirational legacy of slavery as seen by this wonderful writer.

Spectacular.......2007-03-26

Saidiya Hartman takes us on a journey that is intense, tough and thoroughly rewarding. Impressively, she learned as much about herself as she did about the past she sought, even more.
The beauty of going with her on this journey is that the reader has the same magnificent opportunity, hypnotically led by the author, to ponder and to gain personal insight perhaps too long submerged.

Brilliant!.......2007-01-18

Lose Your Mother is a story that weaves geneology with African American history. It's intimate and powerful, touching and complex. Universally connecting, it is a story of alienation and hope.

Roots 2.0.......2007-01-17

What "Roots" was to the Boomer Generation, "Lose Your Mother" could and should be to the Generation Next. Saidiay Hartman's writing styles fits perfectly for a generation that longs for and loves narrative, story, and first-hand journal accounts.

However, no one should thus assume that Hartman's writing lacks research credibility for she brilliantly weaves both rousing narrative and copious research to portray a powerful picture of one of history's ugliest stories: Middle Passage. She provides a fresh account of ancient wounds.

Hartman's book can and should make a renewed contribution to the healing of past hurts which still linger deep. Her passionate style and scholarly depth can help a nation move beyond suffering to healing hope.

Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction, Soul Physicians, and Spiritual Friends.

Average customer rating:

Another book on the Slave Trade
A MUST READ!
A History of the Middle Passage
Let history begin
highly informative but not well organized

The SLAVE TRADE
Hugh Thomas
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Exports & Imports | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Africa | History | Subjects | Books

General | Americas | History | Subjects | Books

General | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

Slavery & Emancipation | World | History | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0684810638

Amazon.com

The Slave Trade is a massive (900-page) book that attempts to document the entire history of the Atlantic slave trade, a sordid business that somehow prospered for more than four centuries. As the sheer heft of the book might indicate, the story is complicated. Much of the extensive research conducted by Hugh Thomas relates to rivalries both in Europe and Africa. Those who wonder how slavery could have existed in the United States may find revelatory the moral ambiguity of how the business of transporting slaves was conducted.

Book Description

After many years of research, award-winning historian Hugh Thomas portrays, in a balanced account, the complete history of the slave trade. Beginning with the first Portuguese slaving expeditions, he describes and analyzes the rise of one of the largest and most elaborate maritime and commercial ventures in all of history. Between 1492 and 1870, approximately eleven million black slaves were carried from Africa to the Americas to work on plantations, in mines, or as servants in houses. The Slave Trade is alive with villains and heroes and illuminated by eyewitness accounts. Hugh Thomas's achievement is not only to present a compelling history of the time but to answer as well such controversial questions as who the traders were, the extent of the profits, and why so many African rulers and peoples willingly collaborated. Thomas also movingly describes such accounts as are available from the slaves themselves.

Customer Reviews:

Another book on the Slave Trade.......2004-03-03

The Slave Trade is a massive work that attempts to explain the Atlantic Slave Trade which dominated the European and American waters for over four centuries. It covers the beginning when the Portuguese first set foot on Africa in the 1400's to the end of the American Civil War. The book is split into six different "books" which range from the herding of slaves into the ships to European and African attempts to abolish this trade. The author, whether purposely or by mistake, portrays the Slave Trade through the eyes of the slave traders themselves. The period of great interest for Thomas is the nineteenth century when the slave trade began to disappear.
When Great Britain abolished the trade in the early 1800's, it began, with the help of West African naval patrols, to suppress the trade still prosperous in Brazil and Cuba. Thomas shows how ineffectual these efforts were for so many years. He is one of the first to correct U.S. historians who assume the slave trade ended during that time. Many North American ships were still involved during that "illegal era," mostly coming from ports in New York, Baltimore, and especially other ports in New England.
Of course, with any 900 page description it is difficult to keep the reader interested simply because there is so much information out there. Thomas admits that writing on the slave trade produces "no new cultivation," yet he feels it is necessary so that it can perhaps "offer something for almost everyone."(11) Although filled with errors, it can be an excellent read for those interested in the Atlantic Slave Trade.

A MUST READ!.......2003-07-27

THE SLAVE TRADE: The Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade: 1440-1870 is, perhaps, the single most-important work dealing with the slave trade. This masterful work builds on and partially overlaps John Thornton's AFRICA AND AFRICANS IN THE MAKING OF THE ATLANTIC WORLD, 1400-1800 and Edward William Bovill's THE GOLDEN TRADE OF THE MOORS. It also provides an essential bridge between those works and Ira Berlin's MANY THOUSANDS GONE: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America & MAROON SOCIETIES: Rebel Slave Communities in the Americas (edited by Richard Price).

Starting with the first major shipload of African (white, café au lait and black) slaves taken in a razzia by Portuguese in 1444, Thomas briefly looks backward at the history of slavery among Christians, non-African Muslims and Africans - pagan, Christian and Muslim. He recounts the origins of the Atlantic slave trade - including the long-existing North African-Spanish conflict with mutual slave raids and the beginning of the coastal trade in West Africa associated with Prince Henry's desire for exploration, conquest, profit and religious zeal and the equal desire for conquest and / or profit of almost all African rulers and aristocrats, as well as of numerous merchants (especially Muslim and Mandingo), already familiar with the Trans-Saharan trade. Thomas recounts the early settlements in the Azores and Madeira and Cape Verde Islands, as well as the lengthy effort to conquer the Canary Islanders, including the guanches of Tenerife, and the explorations of Cadamosto. The trade began to be institutionalized by Agreements of mutual benefit between the west coast Africans and European traders (with increasing numbers of slaves being taken from the interior by coastal states)while the plantation system began to develop in Madeira and elsewhere. The fortress at El Mina (Sao Jorge da Mina) was established as well as Arguin and Luanda (which became one of the few exceptions to the principle of non-settlement - of Europeans in Africa - due to fears of antagonizing local rulers, losing trading rights and suffering debilitating and even deadly illnesses). Luso-Africans (persons claiming both Portuguese and African antecedents) increasingly took over the coastal trade in El Mina and Luanda. Despite the papal grant of Portuguese (extended to Spain when the two were temporarily united) monopoly over the trade, the English began entering the slave trade in 1562 under Captain John Hawkins and the Dutch began to be involved in the 1590s.

Thomas then describes the development of "corporations" given monopolies on trading slaves by the various European monarchs and the economic benefits accruing to various European towns, as well as the growing wealth, culture and influence of various West African towns involved the trade. In the 1600s, African slave began to trickle into North America followed by the eventual establishment of the slave-plantation system. Turning to the crossing, Thomas describes, in vivid detail, the horrible conditions slaves encountered aboard ship as well as the high rate of deaths for both (often shanghaied) sailors and human cargo and the inhumane treatment provided to both by the officers as well as the harshness suffered by the latter under the African captors. Included in this section (Book 4) is an account of the various non-human cargo brought to and from Africa.

Turning to the Abolition (of the Slave Trade, if not slavery, itself) movement, the author touches on the views, organizations and actions of political men like Pitt, Wilberforce, Benjamin Franklin and the Marquis de Lafayette as well as the anti-slavery philosophy of men like Montesquieu, Hume, Adam Smith and Burke (in opposition to the interests of men like Voltaire and Locke). In 1807, the reluctant slave owners, Madison and Jefferson, in America, enacted legislation banning Americans from involvement in the international trade of slaves while non-slaveholders William Pitt and William Wilberforce did the same in the British Empire. Great Britain began to pressure other nations to end the slave trade and many African states began to use more of their slave captives to produce goods for international trade in lieu of slave. Portugal, at the same time, began to trade in even greater numbers of slaves. African merchants also actively opposed the attempts by Britain's AFRICAN INSTITUTION to increase the industriousness and productivity of the general African populace due to the potential danger to their trading interests. Britain paid various African leaders to end the trade (although many captives were executed since the rulers could not sell them due to the abolitionist sentiments among Europeans and Americans). Still, slavery itself was not actually abolished in the British West Indies until 1838. In the mid-1850s Brazil and Britain neared war and Britain forced Brazil to adopt anti-slave trade measures in earnest. The book concludes with the end of Cuban involvement in the trade as Britain began to forcibly occupy some African states (setting the stage for the eventual "colonization" of the continent) in order to finally squash the trade - although the epilogue informs us that as late as 1980, 90,000 blacks are still reported as slaves to Arab masters.

It would not, of course, be fair to leave off without pointing some negligible errors in the book: First, the Sources and Notes section seems to have provided bold headings for some of the latter sections (books) but not the former. However, this does no discernable harm toward the body of the work and a few seconds study will clear up the confusion. In addition, while apparently relying on the best statistics available for the total number of slaves transported via the Atlantic / Trans-Atlantic journeys, the work fails to directly rebut some of the much larger numbers proposed by some historians. The author (in citing one minor source) also fails to respond to the criticisms of Sir Richard Burton and those almost identical ones of Orlando Patterson (who fails, however, to indicate his reliance on that noted bigot) on Mungo Park's reliability. However, such a response is readily available in Kate Ferguson Marsters' Introduction to Park's TRAVELS IN THE INTERIOR DISTRICTS OF AFRICA. Thomas also fails to explain why he differs with Bovill on the exact relationship of the Sanhaja and the Tuareg. All-in-all; however, these are minor points and hardly detract from the incredible depth, breadth, organization and vividness of this masterful work!

A History of the Middle Passage.......2002-10-28

The most important thing to note about the title of this brilliant book is that it is about the slave TRADE, not slavery per se. For descendants of slaves, this distinction may be pretty meaningless, but to the eighteenth century abolitionists it was critical. As Thomas explains, opponents of slavery such as Lord Wilberforce premised their campaign on the theory that the trade in slaves - with its horrendous "middle passage" in which African men, women and children were piled into rotting hulks for weeks on end - was far more deserving of abolition of than the practice of slavery itself. As Thomas points out, the logic of this position now seems extremely dubious, for even after the British and other European navies had suppressed the cross-Atlantic trade, many countries retained their slave plantations, most notably the Southern United States, Brazil and Cuba.

When one tallies up those who traded in slaves, one finds a scandalously large and non-exclusive club - virtually all the nations of Europe, and all the colonial and "liberated" powers of North America, starting with Henry the Navigator of Portugal and ending with the newly formed states of c. 19th Latin America. In 900 pages, Thomas chronicles a trade that covered four continents and four centuries. This is THE work on the slave trade.

Let history begin.......2002-09-19

The record of civilization is haunted by the dread percentage: the largest percentage of its overall duration saw the domination of slavery. Its seemingly endless persistence and relatively sudden abolition reminds us that the 'way things are' is not an argument for the 'way things should be', and that injustice persists in part because our thinking is flawed Thomas' work is a very well-researched account of modern slavery from the fifteen century until its final overthrow in the nineteenth. Although much of Northern Europe was close to seeing salvery dying out in the medieval period its endemic existence as a constant and sudden last phase in the rise of capitalism can be traced backwards via the Portuguese voyages of discovery, as this initiated the last centuries of the disastrous and maleficent Atlantic trade to the Americas. This work is quite comprehensive as to the facts, without commentary. The suddenness of the abolition period is sometimes ascribe to the emergence of the capitalist system, yet there seems to be something missing in that account. Did Rousseau denunciation spring from questions of economic efficiency. The history of slavery seems always an account of men mesmerized by their worlds, finding its evils the basis of phantom normality, men without a history as automatons in their blindness. We inherit the labors of those who woke up to history to let it at last begin. Very useful account at nine hundred pages.

highly informative but not well organized.......2002-07-20

I learned a great deal about the Atlantic slave trade from this book. Among other things,I hadn't realized how extensive the English involvement in the trade was or that there were slaves in Europe itself, even in the UK in the 18th century. The book is long in number of pages but short on summary and analysis. It has mind-numbing chapters of detail about individual slavers, but rarely a coherent description of where things stood at a given point in time. Also it would be helpful to be more familiar than I was with the general history of the West Indies, particularly the British West Indies, and with Spanish and Portuguese colonialism in the Americas because the book seems to assume that readers don't need much background on these topics. I thought it picked up speed in later chapters when it began talking about the struggles in Europe, particularly the UK, to end the slave trade - here it seemed like the author was on more familiar ground dealing with British politics, conflicts between European countries and so forth. The organization of the book is hard to follow and the chapter titles are not very helpful, so going back and trying to find information is quite difficult. The information in the book is fascinating, however, so it is still well worth reading.

Average customer rating:

Enthralling
*Contains Spoilers*
Good but not Great!
Not entirely convincing, but rich in detail
Bristol made real. Characters not so much.

A Respectable Trade
Philippa Gregory
Manufacturer: Touchstone
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0743272544

Book Description

Bristol in 1787 is booming, a city where power beckons those who dare to take risks. Josiah Cole, a small dockside trader, is prepared to gamble everything to join the big players of the city. But he needs capital and a well-connected wife.

Marriage to Frances Scott is a mutually convenient solution. Trading her social contacts for Josiah's protection, Frances finds her life and fortune dependent on the respectable trade of sugar, rum, and slaves.

Into her new world comes Mehuru, once a priest in the ancient African kingdom of Yoruba, now a slave in England. From opposite ends of the earth, despite the difference in status, Mehuru and Frances confront each other and their need for love and liberty.

Customer Reviews:

Enthralling.......2007-10-06

Phillipa Gregory is an amazing story teller. She has woven a story rich in culture and history. It is so easy to get lost in her language. The way she describes the scene makes me feel like I am there. You can see the rich colors, smell and feel what she is describing. Not always pleasant when she's descibing a fish market, ha ha, but makes you feel like you are walking down the streets in England admist the hustle bustle. The story line of A Respectable Trade is not always pleasant, but it follows what it really would have been like to live in that time. She makes me feel for her characters. Phillipa Gregory is the master of historical fiction.

*Contains Spoilers*.......2007-10-01

*****Spoilers*****

The book was overall a decent afternoon read but some serious logistical questions remain.

*If Frances had created a "bank" with her investments why would she fall into such despair at the families ruin upon learning of the new Hot Well?

*As others have mentioned the transition from slave to lover were not particularly convincing.

*If someone was making 70 pounds on a strict drop off from point A-B.... Why would they train slaves for over a year for what was it low 100'ish pounds? That doesn't even make any sense.

*What is the purpose of the "Merchant Venturer's" ruining Cole to the point where he couldn't repay any debt? Hence them not getting paid at all. It was all borrowed money in the end no one was paid.

*Upon freeing her slaves at her death why didn't Frances bequeath them the bank instead of her new husband and SIL who didn't even bother to attend her death?

*How does a woman (Elizabeth) "prepare" herself to nurse?

*Seriously, who can disguise being full-term pregnant? Robes or not....

I think I could go on and on. Bottom line, flaws and all it was a decent Saturday Afternoon read.

Good but not Great!.......2007-09-26

This book was rich in detail but was really lacking in some areas. I continually lost interest and was not convinced at the reality of the characters in the story. I have read many other books written by Phillipa and have thoroughly enjoyed them. I was unable to put down many of her books about the Boleyn girls and the Virgin Lover was great too. I felt like this book could have been half as long and would have been complete....try Phillipa's other books, they are great!

Not entirely convincing, but rich in detail.......2007-09-19

Accepting that she doesn't have any better prospects at the age of 34, Frances Scott enters into a marriage of convenience with a Bristol trader. She is soon after presented with a shipload of African slaves and instructed to school them in English and domestic duties so that they may be sold as servants to wealthy English households. With time, Frances begins to doubt the common assertion of the time that the slaves are animals and cannot be educated. One in particular, Mehuru, challenges everything she has been taught about the slave trade.

Gregory's prose is once again breathtaking and meticulous. Unfortunately, the story itself was lacking in some areas. Frances is not much of a heroine; she isn't particularly likable and never seems to have an opinion of her own. I wasn't convinced of Frances' and Mehuru's love, having observed them seemingly going from distaste to affection with nothing in between.

Mehuru was by far the most interesting character, and I regret that we are not allowed to get to know him better. The most entertaining parts of the story involved his acclimatization to English society. Amusing are the scenes in which he is demonstrated comparing inferior aspects of English culture to those of his homeland (and the reader is forced to agree), and his descriptions of how ghastly the pale English people look. My favorite quote: "She is a white woman," he said, trying to reassure himself, discounting his insight. "They all look sick to me."

Bristol made real. Characters not so much........2007-09-05

*Could contain spoilers*

I went into this book with some expectation that it would be better than "Fallen Skies," which left me greatly disappointed with the sketchy characterizations. This book, however, continued that disappointment. Most of the characters in this book suffer from two dimensions (at most). Some, like Sarah Cole, remained one-note throughout. What struck me most was that both Mehruru and Frances were not pitiable in the deserving sense (as the premise surely demanded), but pitiful in the contemptuous sense. I couldn't care one way or another how their lives turned out. Mehuru's reasons for loving Frances so deeply were not convincingly drawn. And while I understand that Gregory wanted to illustrate the captive conditions that Frances suffered, she was so weak and so unsympathetic in her inactions & submission that I despised her for most of the book.

Starting around page 250, I gave up on trying to enjoy it and instead decided to appreciate the detail of the Bristol atmosphere (the only evocative portion of the entire book - even the descriptions of the hellish slave holds seemed generic) and laugh out loud at the insane bouts of dialogue and erratic behavior of the characters (i.e., meek and mild Frances embarking on a wide-eyed, disheveled screaming fit at Josiah about the duplicity of the Merchant Venturers).

Gregory didn't seem engaged with these characters at all, though an interview segment at the end of the book implies that she was. But the treatment of the characters seems at arm's length or, at best, haphazard. For instance, Sarah disappears for about 100 pages of the book, although the majority of the action takes place inside the house where, presumably, Sarah is still living. At the end, Frances lays in bed, heavily pregnant, and arouses no suspicions due to a convenient array of bedclothes. Perhaps Gregory intended these absurd oversights as a way to show how disengaged the characters had become with each other, but it just so happened to disengage this reader as well. By the end I was as listless as the pathetic, throat-clutching Frances. But the book read fast (a week) and I MSTed the heck out of it, so the entertainment value was high.

I hear her Tudor novels are good, so I'll stick with this author for another go. But so far, it's 0 for 2.

2 stars for the book. 1 extra star for added MST3K material.

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Capitalism and Slavery is definitely food for the brain.
Capitalism and Slavery
A wonderful thesis withstanding the tests of time
Misunderstanding of Islamic slavery
Caribbean History

Capitalism and Slavery
Eric Williams
Manufacturer: The University of North Carolina Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0807844888

Book Description

Slavery helped finance the Industrial Revolution in England. Plantation owners, shipbuilders, and merchants connected with the slave trade accumulated vast fortunes that established banks and heavy industry in Europe and expanded the reach of capitalism worldwide.

Eric Williams advanced these powerful ideas in Capitalism and Slavery, published in 1944. Years ahead of its time, his profound critique became the foundation for studies of imperialism and economic development. Binding an economic view of history with strong moral argument, Williams's study of the role of slavery in financing the Industrial Revolution refuted traditional ideas of economic and moral progress and firmly established the centrality of the African slave trade in European economic development. He also showed that mature industrial capitalism in turn helped destroy the slave system. Establishing the exploitation of commercial capitalism and its link to racial attitudes, Williams employed a historicist vision that set the tone for future studies. In a new introduction, Colin Palmer assesses the lasting impact of Williams's groundbreaking work and analyzes the heated scholarly debates it generated when it first appeared.

Customer Reviews:

Capitalism and Slavery is definitely food for the brain........2006-08-19

This is a very, very excellent piece of work. I read and studied this book when I was a teenager in high school in Trinidad. At that time I was required to study the book as part of our Caribbean History syllabus. That was over 13 years ago. So as an adult I decided to purchase the book and appreciate the information. And boy this was the best decision I ever made. I recommend people of all races and backgrounds to read this book. As the first Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago Dr. Eric Williams has left us with a gift.

Capitalism and Slavery.......2006-05-11

The basic theory underlying Eric Williams's Capitalism and Slavery is that slavery in the colonies, particularly the West Indies so far as this analysis is concerned, brought about capitalism, and thereby led to its own decline.

The first five chapters of the book explain the nature of British economics prior to the American Revolution. Synthesizing information rather than expressing his own view, Williams discusses triangular trade among England, the African coast, and the slave-holding colonies. In essence, England exported goods and ships, Africa exported slaves, and the colonies exported slave-produced raw materials.

American independence destroyed the mercantilist scheme of triangular trading. The ex-colonies now had no incentive to trade with the West Indies at their monopoly prices, instead turning to French islands for their sugar, at considerably lower prices. Consequently, British businessmen were no longer interested in giving economic protection to the West Indies because doing so without mainland North America would cost them money. One basic tenet of Adam Smith's capitalism is that business should be efficient and profitable, and monopolies simply were neither. The laissez-faire approach, or Smith's "invisible hand," meant eliminating monopolies and letting economics take its course.

During this time the Industrial Revolution also occurred, generating new machinery, most notably Watt's steam engine, and simplifying the extraction of raw materials. Ironworks were now much more efficient, for example, as was the process of turning wool into useable cloth. These advantages put Great Britain in a position to economically dominate the world. During this time also Spanish colonies in South America began breaking away from Spain, opening up vast regions for British trade. Similarly, Asia became a possibility for a wide variety of goods, most notably, in the scope of Williams' book, East Indian sugar. All these opportunities and Britain's economic superiority culminated in the end of monopolistic practices.

Slavery had precipitated these developments by generating fantastic wealth through triangular trading; without slavery, that trade scheme would not have existed. Once these developments came to pass, however, slavery proved itself largely pass?. Without the monopoly on West Indian sugar, slave trading became substantially less profitable. At the same time, when the American mainland split from Great Britain, suddenly Britain was no longer dependent on slavery for economic success, but instead could be a global distributor for goods. Furthermore, abolitionists in England gave cry to the crime of slavery, since they were no longer directly dependent on it, and eventually Britain banned the slave trade.

Williams's analysis is interesting and well worth reading. That said, his assertion that slavery declined is only partly true; it was alive and well in the southern United States. Furthermore, while Williams claims slavery brought about triangular trading, which in turn brought about the Industrial Revolution, one wonders if slavery simply expedited the arrival of the Industrial Revolution. Finally, he focuses to a significant extent on British humanitarianism in ending slavery; cynically, one must consider the relevance of slavery to those humanitarians, and how many there were after the Industrial Revolution.

A wonderful thesis withstanding the tests of time.......2006-03-21

I recently read this book for graduate school and highly recommend it. This book was written in 1940 and while critics have been able to pick at a few details within the book, noone has every successfully disproven his entire thesis - that the rise of industrial capitalism would not have been possible without the existence profits derived from slavery and the slave trade. Williams does a splended job of illustrating how slavery influenced all facets of the triangular trade, which in turn shaped Britian into an economic power. It also brings put the economic reasons for the abolitionist movement (namely, that abolitionists were motivated by free-trade, no necessarily compassion in their opposition to the slave trade).This is a must-have book for anyone interested in a strictly economic look at slavery, it's rise, fall and demise.

Misunderstanding of Islamic slavery.......2005-11-13

The last two reviewers who seemed to criticize Williams for not discussing other forms of slavery miss the point. Williams was not engaged in some sort of West bashing but attempted to explain the significance of slavery in the development of the Caribbean. Insofar as Islam is concerned, the reviewers once again miss the essential point. Rather than investigate what Islam actually says about slavery they go with a knee-jerk assumption. Here is what Kecia Ali has written about slavery in Islamic society:

"The Qur'an, which Muslims believe to have been revealed by God to the Prophet Muhammad in the seventh century, makes numerous references to slaves and slavery (e.g., Q. 2.178; 16.75; 30.28). Like numerous passages in the Hebrew bible and the New Testament, the Qur'an assumes the permissibility of owning slaves, which was an established practice before its revelation. The Qur'an does not explicitly condemn slavery or attempt to abolish it. Nonetheless, it does provide a number of regulations designed to ameliorate the situation of slaves. It recommends freeing slaves, especially "believing" slaves (Q. 2.177). Manumission of a slave is required as expiation for certain misdeeds (Q. 4.92; 58.3) and another verse states that masters should allow slaves to purchase their own freedom (Q. 24.33).

The Qur'an also suggests certain means of integrating slaves, some of whom were enslaved after being captured in war, into the Muslim community. It allows slaves to marry (either other slaves or free persons; Q. 24.32; 2.221; 4.25) and prohibits owners from prostituting unwilling female slaves (Q. 24.33). Despite this protection against one form of sexual exploitation, female slaves do not have the right to grant or deny sexual access to themselves. Instead, the Qur'an permits men to have sexual access to "what their right hands possess," meaning female captives or slaves (Q. 23.5-6; 70.29-30). This was widely accepted and practiced among early Muslims; the Prophet Muhammad, for example, kept a slave-concubine (Mariya the Copt) who was given to him as a gift by the Roman governor of Alexandria.

Traditional Islamic law (fiqh) elaborates significantly on the Qur'anic material concerning slavery. The enslavement of war captives is regulated, along with the purchase and sale of slaves. While it is not permissible to enslave other Muslims, the jurists clarify that if a non-Muslim converts to Islam after enslavement, he or she remains a slave and may be lawfully purchased and sold like any other slave. (This rule closes a potential loophole allowing for slaves to gain their freedom by the simple fact of conversion.) The law also prescribes penalties for slave owners who maltreat or abuse their slaves; these penalties can include forced manumission of the slave without compensation to the owner.

Islamic law devotes special attention to regulating the practice of slave marriage and concubinage, in order to determine the paternity and/or ownership of children born to a female slave. A man cannot simultaneously own and be married to the same female slave. The male owner of a female slave can either marry her off to a different man, thus renouncing his own sexual access to her, or he may take her as his own concubine, using her sexually himself. Both situations have a specific effect on the status of any children she bears. When female slaves are married off, any children born from the marriage are slaves belonging to the mother's owner, though legal paternity is established for her husband. When a master takes his own female slave as a concubine, by contrast, any children she bears are free and legally the children of her owner, with the same status as any children born to him in a legal marriage to a free wife. The slave who bears her master's child becomes an umm walad (literally, mother of a child), gaining certain protections. Most importantly, she cannot be sold and she is automatically freed upon her master's death."

As for the Aztec, they had a system of slavery that also came with a bundle of rights, far different from the chattel slavery of the European variety.

Caribbean History.......2004-12-03

Although there may be complainants about Dr. Williams not addressing certain forms of slavery throughout history it has to be kept in mind that his thesis was about the hows and whys of African enslavement in the Caribbean. Williams firmly argues and details how today's culture of racism and capitalism was born.
This book is extremely well done and a great beginner for anyone interested in the topic of Caribbean history.

Transformations in Slavery: A History of Slavery in Africa (African Studies)

Average customer rating:

Good info, bad presentation
An essential work
Islam laid the framework for the Atlantic Slave Trade

Transformations in Slavery: A History of Slavery in Africa (African Studies)
Paul E. Lovejoy
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0521784301

Book Description

This history of African slavery from the fifteenth to the early twentieth century examines how indigenous African slavery developed within an international context. Professor Lovejoy discusses the medieval Islamic slave trade and the Atlantic trade as well as the enslavement process and the marketing of slaves. He considers the impact of European abolition and assesses slavery's role in African history. The book corrects the accepted interpretation that African slavery was mild and resulted in the slaves' assimilation. This new edition incorporates recent research, revised statistics on the slave trade demography, and an updated bibliography.

Customer Reviews:

Good info, bad presentation.......2007-09-10

Holy cow.

This book is repetitive as all hell, and is apparently written for fourth graders. The text is excruciating to read. The information underneath the nonsense is useful, but parsing it from the dreadful writing is inglorious labor.

An essential work.......2004-12-13

Anyone interested in Slavery in Africa must pick this book up. The author, not interested with the fate of the slaves but rahter focusing on the actual process and transformations of slavery in Africa lends his qonderful analysis to the Altantic slave trade and the Islamic slave trade. Here he gives the reader all the important facts. FOr instance he documents how more then 2.3 million slaves were shipped by Arab slavers to North Africa and beyond from 1600-1800, at the same time as 7 million were shipped across the atlantic. Drawing on a wide range of sources this book tells the tale of slavery down to the minute detail. From who were the buyers to where the cources of slaves were, to the brutal methods used to kidnap the slaves themselves. A social and economic analysis as well as a cultural understanding is given to the slave trade. Most important this book casts light on the huge numbers of slaves sent across the Sahara to the slave markets of the Islamic empire. The only small drawbacks are a few minor generalizations made in the introduction but otherwise this is a masterful account.

Seth J. Frantzman

Islam laid the framework for the Atlantic Slave Trade.......2001-09-27

Paul Lovejoy, in his study of the Transformation in Slavery within Africa from 1450 to 1900, poses that slavery in Africa changed due to external influences such as the Islamic trans-Saharan trade and the Trans-Atlantic Trade, and due to the dynamics of internal forces such as a social structure based on ethnicity and kinship. The transformation that took place was the emergence of "a system of slavery that was basic to the political economy of many parts of the continent," a system that expanded through the end of the 19th Century, structured on the "interaction between enslavement, the slave trade, and the domestic use of slaves within Africa." The transformation occurs in three stages: from 1450 to 1600, the Islamic trade; from 1600 to 1800, the Trans-Atlantic trade, and the 19th Century, the internalization as a result of the breakdown of exterior slave trade.

Woman, Child for Sale: The New Slave Trade in the 21st Century

Average customer rating:

2 stars simply becacuse the author picked an important subject
they sent me a library book
Trite and shallow
Not one of the best on the subject
Human Trafficking Essential

Woman, Child for Sale: The New Slave Trade in the 21st Century
Gilbert King
Manufacturer: Chamberlain Bros.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1596090057
Release Date: 2004-08-31

Book Description

Every year, there are more than 4 million victims of human trafficking around the world, from forced prostitution and pornography, to sweatshop and migrant labor. Some estimates put the figure at 50,000 human slaves living in the United States, through fraud, coercion and outright kidnapping, prompting U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell to claim that the United States is determined to stop "this appalling assault on the dignity of men, women and children."

But Powell made those remarks back in 2002 and, if anything, human trafficking is on the rise around the world. Today's slave trade is estimated to generate more than $7 billion in annual revenues--all of it "exploitation of the most innocent and vulnerable," according to President George Bush, who has pledged millions of U.S. dollars to support organizations working to free these slaves.

Woman, Child--For Sale examines the horrors of these black market operations that kidnap and purchase women and children and move them across borders, erasing their identities and forcing them into a ruinous life of slavery. The book takes an in-depth look at:

* Personal Stories of Rescued Sex Slaves and Survivors
* The New Slave Traders: Who are they?
* The World's Worst Human Trafficking Offenders
* Fighting the New Slave Trade

Woman, Child--For Sale details the explosive and heartbreaking stories behind the nameless, statistical nightmare that is human slavery in the 21st century.

Customer Reviews:

2 stars simply becacuse the author picked an important subject.......2006-09-07

Lacks just about everything:
insight, depth, substance, reasearch, a professional approach.. It reads like an essay I would have written in high school. Don't waste money on it. Your time (and money) is better spent on Wikipedia.

they sent me a library book.......2006-07-10

The seller sent me a library book from the Salt Lake City Library.
The book itself isn't very good. It talks alot about Tapestry against poligamy and is written by one of the members. The book is a hodge podge of sometimes crappy and sometimes interesting stories of women who've escapped poligamy.
The stories tend to be to brief and vague to create to much care.

Trite and shallow.......2006-07-06

This book does a huge disservice to the serious issue of human trafficking. It is very poorly researched, highly derivitive, and badly written. It does not even begin to grapple with the complications of the global trade in human beings but instead relies on sensation and titillation. I would not accept this from an undergraduate.

There is a real need for accessible information on the subject of human trafficking in order to make individuals, communities and governments aware of what is going on and how they can work to stop this sad trade. Unfortunately this book does not even begin to meet that need.

Not one of the best on the subject.......2006-06-22

I've read quite extensively on the topic of sex trafficking, as I wrote my MA thesis on trafficking in Europe and I have to say that I was disappointed with this book. The research was not terribly original, as he basically rewrote passages from higher quality works like "Disposable People" by Kevin Bales and "The Natashas" by Victor Malarek (both of which I highly recommend). Much of the information can be found on the State Department's website so why it needed to be reprinted in book form is beyond me. I gave it two stars simply because I think it is an issue that receives little coverage and any book, no matter how poorly written, is important.

Human Trafficking Essential.......2005-11-21

Gilbert King does for this one specific topic, human trafficking, what 'Illicit : How Smugglers, Traffickers and Copycats are Hijacking the Global Economy' does for the vast array of illegal trade: a thorough and provocative study of the crime, including as much relevant information as currently available to the public. At times a bit repetitive, but this can be forgiven in light of the large amount of information King delivers.

This is the fourth book to read in understanding human trafficking, all available from Amazon. First, read 'Race Against Evil: The Secret Missions of the Interpol Agent Who Tracked the World's Most Sinister Criminals;' then 'Illicit : How Smugglers, Traffickers and Copycats are Hijacking the Global Economy;' and 'The Natashas : Inside the New Global Sex Trade.'

Sacred Hunger (Norton Paperback Fiction)

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Sacred Hunger
"But that sacred hunger we spoke of justifies all."
the Inhumanity of Salvery
History woven into a spell
The nature of freedom

Sacred Hunger (Norton Paperback Fiction)
Barry Unsworth
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0393311147

Customer Reviews:

Sacred Hunger.......2007-05-07

I have been reading for over 50 years: novels, history, philosophy, religion, travel, and more. This novel is in the top 3 that I have ever read. Dynamic, traumatic, true, feeling, heart-rending, uplifting, exciting, emotional, questioning, pathos in style, need I say more? If your heart can take some pain and understand the gain that can come from an experience, then you must go for this novel. Superb is a minor complement. And one can not read it over a weekend--it is too deep and fraught and breath-taking--you will need some time to take a breath and say WOW!--ready to go on to the next page of the story. Go for the depth of it.

"But that sacred hunger we spoke of justifies all." .......2007-02-20

While the slave trade of the late 1700s provides the backdrop for this worthy novel, slavery is not its foremost theme. Indeed, the story's main character, Erasmus Kemp, is a well-to-do white man. The "sacred hunger" of which the title speaks is that certain something that lies deep inside each of us, the one that motivates and drives us to change the world...sometimes for the better, but more often for the worse. "Nothing a man suffers will prevent him from inflicting suffering on others. Indeed, it will teach him the way..." is a truth readers see their eyes opened to time and time again...first, in a utopian society forged by the Liverpool Merchant's uprisers that at its core is anything but utopian, and then again even more vividly in Kemp's stop-at-nothing revenge tactics. Harboring deep-seated anger over perceived past transgressions, the sum of his existence will boil down to one hate-filled moment. Readers will walk away from this novel contemplating their own reason for being and perhaps be inspired to embrace a more worthy sacred hunger of their own.

the Inhumanity of Salvery.......2006-02-02

Sacred Hunger is a very deep and engaging book, and portrays slavery as more inhumane than most of us ever would have realized.
The book's title is essentially synonymous with its theme-greed. Unsworth demonstrates how the desire for money and power led imperialist nations, such as England, to engage in such terrible practices. Unsworth effectively shows that the upper class's desire for economic prosperity can distort their view of humanity so much that they find putting a price on another human's life acceptable. Apart from the desire for money, Unsworth examines another area of greed-Revenge. Erasmus Kemp travels half way around the world, in search of his hated cousin, desiring only to see his death. Erasmus is left to feel quite empty when his cousin dies before Erasmus is able to see him hanged.
Sacred Hunger also contains profound irony. The reader learns that it was actually black Africans who were the ones selling the slaves to the European merchants. Accordingly, the most advanced and "civilized" nations were the ones who actually had laws that legitimized such a barbaric market.
Sacred Hunger is an excellent novel because it details the English slave trade from the point of view of the wealthy men who pioneered it, as well as the people who were subjected to its unimaginable cruelty.

History woven into a spell.......2005-12-31

Good writers can "spin a good yarn" from the point of view of one, perhaps two or three, characters. The better writers (in my opinion) are good at getting into the minds of several of their own diverse creations. The very best writers must do that and more; they must be masterminds, able to weave these separate tales into a whole rope to hang their realized universe upon. Barry Unsworth has achieved mastermind status here in Sacred Hunger.

Sacred Hunger is a story that explores 17th Century Britain's quest to increase its empire through financial means (though most of us are more familiar with Britain's wartime strategies of that period). Through the eyes of men from all walks of life, we see the birthing, launch and journey of a merchant ship bound for the slave trade in Africa. Individual human dramas course through the tale: the merchant Kemp who is pinning his last hopes upon the profits from this voyage; his son Erasmus, whose future as an upwardly mobile husband-to-be depends on a perfect reputation; members of the crew who are kidnapped or tricked into signing on; a captain who secretly barters human blood for safe passage with unknown deities; and the ship's doctor, Matthew Paris, for whom this posting is a strange penance for his sins past.

Matthew Paris slowly develops as the sympathetic underdog, observing and participating in the slave trade with steadily growing sense of conviction and dread. I believe he is Unsworth's archetype of the best of our civilized Western world, with all of his intelligence and compassion. Erasmus Kemp is Paris' counter, amoral and ruthless once his youthful hopes for romance have begun to sour. We follow into the turnings of their minds most often throughout this tale, and it is through these two that we glimpse Unsworth's best insights into the Great Question of human nature that the author is exploring, namely: would mankind, if shed of the evils of modern civilization and living in Paradise, be able to abide together peacefully?

Forgive me for inserting this paragraph here: Although female points of view are conspicuously absent for most of Sacred Hunger's narrative, it is a mark of Unsworth's regard for women that their characters demonstrate the most courage and common sense of all the people in this story. One almost gets the sense that the author is slyly hinting that if the base egos and ambitions of the men were removed entirely from the picture, the answer to the Great Question might be yes. But that may just be my own particular bias showing:)

Unsworth proves tops at insights into the lowliest and loftiest themes. He is convincing with his portrayals of both the speech of the 18th Century English upper classes, the harsher mutterings of the sailors and the hybrid languages of Africans and islanders. He is faithful in historical details of both the opulent and the guttural, without losing any of his philosophical scope. Rich, poetic imagery saturates Sacred Hunger, and in the end that is as good a reason as any to spend some hours on this book. Read it for that, and for the many days of ponderings that you will be left with once you are done.
-Andrea, aka Merribelle

The nature of freedom.......2005-12-23

A sweeping story enfolding a moral and philosophical debate about the nature of freedom, this book is filled with detail about the slave trade and fascinating as a fount of knowledge. But it goes further than most Afro-centric slave narratives in paying as much attention to the ship-folk, the traders, and the owners, as to the slaves themselves. It also contains one marvelously-realized character in the surgeon-scientist Matthew Paris--a portrait that gains chiaroscuro towards the end of the book by the author's ability to shade Paris' idealism and show its failings as well as its strengths. If the narrative were only a bit tighter, the strands of life on sea and on land more tightly connected, and the enmity between Paris and his cousin Erasmus (son of the ship's owner) given a less arbitrary basis, this would be a five-star book for me, rather than merely four.

I do not entirely agree with those reviewers who praise Unsworth for the beauty of his language. He writes well, certainly, and the book, though long, is an easy read. But he does not have many passages that made me want to linger for the writing alone, as I did, say, in Patrick O'Brien's MASTER AND COMMANDER. There are other novels on my booklist which have a similar historical scope and just as easy a style--Iain Pears' DREAM OF SCIPIO or Mark Helprin's SOLDIER OF THE GREAT WAR--but they have passages of searing visionary intensity which I did not (quite) find in the Unsworth.

What in the end made me glad to have read SACRED HUNGER was Unsworth's philosophical interest. His central theme--how man imposes his will upon others--is present everywhere, even in the choice of a version of THE TEMPEST as the play being rehearsed during Erasmus' courtship of a neighbor's daughter. The various aspects of that theme all come together in the Florida section, which I read enthralled in one sitting, and that pulled my opinion up considerably; I was especially impressed by his subtle portrayal of a failing Utopia. But until the very end, the two threads of the story (in England and at sea) are kept so far apart that when the two cousins finally come back together, they are no longer matched as equals, either in temporal power or spiritual depth.

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Modern slavery made clear
From the City Lights Bookstore reviews:

Understanding Global Slavery: A Reader
Kevin Bales
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0520245075

Book Description

Although slavery is illegal throughout the world, we learned from Kevin Bales's highly praised exposé, Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy, that more than twenty-seven million people--in countries from Pakistan to Thailand to the United States--are still trapped in bondage. With this new volume, Bales, the leading authority on modern slavery, looks beyond the specific instances of slavery described in his last book to explore broader themes about slavery's causes, its continuation, and how it might be ended. Written to raise awareness and deepen understanding, and touching again on individual lives around the world, this book tackles head-on one of the most urgent and difficult problems facing us today.
Each of the chapters in Understanding Global Slavery explores a different facet of global slavery. Bales investigates slavery's historical roots to illuminate today's puzzles. He explores our basic ideas about what slavery is and how the phenomenon fits into our moral, political, and economic worlds. He seeks to explain how human trafficking brings people into our cities and how the demand for trafficked workers, servants, and prostitutes shapes modern slavery. And he asks how we can study and measure this mostly hidden crime. Throughout, Bales emphasizes that to end global slavery, we must first understand it. This book is a step in that direction.

Customer Reviews:

Modern slavery made clear.......2007-08-01

This is an amazing book. Bales is the current guru on the topic of slavery in the modern world. He carefully explains the differences between what used to be considered slavery (such as owning a person) and the modern version of holding people in bondage until they are "used up" and can simply be tossed aside. He gives examples of the various forms this takes, all horrifying. This is a "must read" for citizens of a global world.

From the City Lights Bookstore reviews:.......2006-05-25

Each of the chapters in Understanding Global Slavery explores a different facet of global slavery. Bales investigates slavery's historical roots to illuminate today's puzzles. He explores our basic ideas about what slavery is and how the phenomenon fits into our moral, political, and economic worlds. He seeks to explain how human trafficking brings people into our cities and how the demand for trafficked workers, servants, and prostitutes shapes modern slavery.

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