Slave Empire (Paperback)

Padraic X. Scanlan

ISBN 10: 1472142330 / ISBN 13: 9781472142337

Published by Little, Brown Book Group, London, 2022

About this Item

Paperback. 'Engrossing and powerful . . . rich and thought-provoking'Fara Dabhoiwala, Guardian'Path-breaking . . . a major rewriting of history'Mihir Bose, Irish Times'Slave Empire is lucid, elegant and forensic. It deals with appalling horrors in cool and convincing prose.'The EconomistThe British empire, in sentimental myth, was more free, more just and more fair than its rivals. But this claim that the British empire was 'free' and that, for all its flaws, it promised liberty to all its subjects was never true. The British empire was built on slavery. Slave Empire puts enslaved people at the centre the British empire in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In intimate, human detail, Padraic Scanlon shows how British imperial power and industrial capitalism were inextricable from plantation slavery. With vivid original research and careful synthesis of innovative historical scholarship, Slave Empire shows that British freedom and British slavery were made together. The idea that the British empire was built on freedom is a myth. Britain rose to global power in the eighteenth century on the backs of enslaved workers. And although Britain was the first European empire to abolish slavery, even British abolitionism was shaped by the slave empire. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9781472142337

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Slave Empire (Paperback)
• Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group, London
• Publication Date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1472142330
• ISBN 13: 9781472142337
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

'Engrossing and powerful . . . rich and thought-provoking'
Fara Dabhoiwala, Guardian

'Path-breaking . . . a major rewriting of history'
Mihir Bose, Irish Times

'Slave Empire is lucid, elegant and forensic. It deals with appalling horrors in cool and convincing prose.'
The Economist

The British empire, in sentimental myth, was more free, more just and more fair than its rivals. But this claim that the British empire was 'free' and that, for all its flaws, it promised liberty to all its subjects was never true. The British empire was built on slavery.

Slave Empire puts enslaved people at the centre the British empire in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In intimate, human detail, Padraic Scanlon shows how British imperial power and industrial capitalism were inextricable from plantation slavery. With vivid original research and careful synthesis of innovative historical scholarship, Slave Empire shows that British freedom and British slavery were made together.

About the Author

Dr Padraic X. Scanlan earned a BA (Hons) in History from McGill University in 2008, and a PhD in History from Princeton University in 2013. He is Assistant Professor in the Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources and the Centre for Diaspora & Transnational Studies at the University of Toronto and a Research Associate at the Joint Centre for History and Economics at the University of Cambridge. He has also held appointments at the London School of Economics and Harvard University.