Allen offers important insights that are likely to inform the debate on the Indian Ocean slave trade for years.… The volume’s annotated tables alone speak to several years of painstaking research on a variety of sources … a significant contribution that should find a place in the library of any scholar of the slave trade. — African Studies QuarterlyBetween 1500 and 1850; European traders shipped hundreds of thousands of African; Indian; Malagasy; and Southeast Asian slaves to ports throughout the Indian Ocean world. The activities of the British; Dutch; French; and Portuguese traders who operated in the Indian Ocean demonstrate that European slave trading was not confined largely to the Atlantic but must now be viewed as a truly global phenomenon. European slave trading and abolitionism in the Indian Ocean also led to the development of an increasingly integrated movement of slave; convict; and indentured labor during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries; the consequences of which resonated well into the twentieth century. Richard B. Allen’s magisterial work dramatically expands our understanding of the movement of free and forced labor around the world. Drawing upon extensive archival research and a thorough command of published scholarship; Allen challenges the modern tendency to view the Indian and Atlantic oceans as self-contained units of historical analysis and the attendant failure to understand the ways in which the Indian Ocean and Atlantic worlds have interacted with one another. In so doing; he offers tantalizing new insights into the origins and dynamics of global labor migration in the modern world.
#711888 in Books Gallman J Matthew 2015-04-15 2015-04-15Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.20 x .80 x 9.30l; .0 #File Name: 0820348104272 pagesLens of War Exploring Iconic Photographs of the Civil War
Review
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. A Lens Can Be A PrismBy T. BernerWhat a great idea! Ask 26 of the most prominent historians of the Civil War to choose a Civil War photograph and write an essay on it. The choices are divided into five sections: photos of leaders; soldiers; civilians; victims and placesThe variety of the results are terrific. Some essayists chose to provide a detailed analysis of the photo itself; such as Hans Holzer's exploration of why there are comparatively so many photos of Lincoln or Joan Waugh's insightful examination of what a casual pose of General Grant says about him as a man. Others choose to reveal why a particular photo inspired them to become an historian. Still others choose to illuminate an obscure corner of the Civil War; such as Elizabeth Varon's fascinating account of how City Point; Virginia; rose from hamlet to "nerve center of the Union war effort" to hamlet again; all in two years. The book ends appropriately with Steven Woodworth's superb account of the Grand Review; the North's victory parade.In fact; what I considered to be the weakest essay yielded; on reflection; the strongest lesson of the book. Jane Schultz writes about a photo of a woman named Annie Etheridge Hooks. Ms. Hooks appears to have had an unusual war. She accompanied a Michigan regiment through a large part of the war. She was apparently much beloved of the soldiers. Was she a nurse? A camp follower? A mascot? None of it is clear. Instead Ms. Schultz devotes her time to speculating whether Ms. Hooks was a Native American because of her "high cheek bones" (shades of Elizabeth Warren!) and a long abstract discussion about gender assignments in 19th Century America. What we don't get is much about Annie Hooks.Now perhaps there is not much in the historical records about Annie Hooks as Ms. Schultz contents (although she doesn't mention whether she consulted the regimental history of Annie Hooks' regiment; certainly the first place one would look) and the author clearly sympathizes with Ms. Hooks; but the effect of her essay is to de-personalize; de-individualize and; consequently; de-humanize Annie Hooks; the same way that slavery tried to de-humanize African-Americans. Ms. Schultz's essay; then; is an important lesson that the great harm of stripping someone of their individuality was not confined to white Southern slaveowners; but is a constant threat to human dignity by all of us. We all are fighting our own Civil War. Lens of War reminds of how hard that can be.3 of 4 people found the following review helpful. A Thousand WordsBy Christian SchlectA book that succeeds on a number of levels. It provides the reader; whether new to the Civil War or one more familiar with this great combat; with a series of informative essays sparked by notable photographs. One usually learns something about the historian essayists themselves and about what is of special interest to them. It may be the horses and mules used in such quantity by the armies. It may be a key military staging area; such as City Point. It may be the slave newly freed still situated within the ruins of some Southern city.Or; it may be the photograph of a dashing southern general who fired the imagination of a boy who later became an historian.Unsurprisingly; these essays will prompt the interested reader to discover other and more detailed historical accounts.The editors; Gallman and Gallagher; have done a fine job in putting this volume forward to the public.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Five StarsBy raeGreat book for Civil War photos!
