Empire of Cotton: A Global History

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　　棉花帝國，從一開始就以奴隸與園主、商人與政客、工人與資本家等不同利益團體為支點，不斷掙扎傾斜。歷史上有一段短暫時期，歐洲企業家以及有權有勢的政客曾結合帝國的擴張、奴役勞力與受薪工人，一同形塑棉業這個全球最重要的製造業。



　　作者Sven Beckert從棉花帝國的歷史，爬梳出這些經驗如何開創接下來的現代資本主義世界，包括資本主義所創造出的龐大財富，以及直至現在都還令世界紛擾不已的階級不平等問題等。



　　細微透徹的分析描寫，《Empire of Cotton》將改變我們對現代資本主義的理解，無疑是今年最擲地有聲的重量級歷史之作。

WINNER OF THE BANCROFT PRIZE - A Pulitzer Prize finalist that’s 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.

＂Masterly ... An astonishing achievement.＂ --The New York Times

The empire of cotton was, from the beginning, a fulcrum of constant global struggle between slaves and planters, merchants and statesmen, workers and factory owners. Sven 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.

In a remarkably brief period, European entrepreneurs and powerful politicians recast the world’s most significant manufacturing industry, combining imperial expansion and slave labor with new machines and wage workers to make and remake global capitalism.

作者簡介

　　Sven Beckert is the Laird Bell Professor of American History at Harvard University. Holding a PhD from Columbia University, he has written widely on the economic, social, and political history of capitalism. He has been the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including from Harvard Business School, the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library, and the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History. He was also a fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.