The Routledge History of Slavery

by Gad Heuman (Editor), Trevor Burnard (Editor)

The Routledge History of Slavery is a landmark publication that provides an overview of the main themes surrounding the history of slavery from ancient Greece to the present day. Taking stock of the field of Slave Studies, the book explores the major advances that have taken place in the past few decades of study in this crucial field. Offering an unusual, transnational history of slavery, the chapters have all been specially commissioned for the collection. The volume begins by delineating the global nature of the institution of slavery, examining slavery in different parts of the world and over time. Topics covered here include slavery in Africa and the Indian Ocean World, as well as the Transatlantic Slave Trade. In Part Two, the chapters explore different themes that define slavery such as slave culture, the slave economy, slave resistance and the planter class, as well as areas of life affected by slavery, such as family and work. The final part goes on to study changes and continuities over time, looking at areas such as abolition, the aftermath of emancipation and commemoration. The volume concludes with a chapter on modern slavery. Including essays on all the key topics and issues, this important collection from a leading international group of scholars presents a comprehensive survey of the current state of the field. It will be essential reading for all those interested in the history of slavery.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Anthologies

368 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2010

Reviews

[Gary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whew. This is a big read. If you're going to read a single book on a particular subject, an anthology like this one is probably the way to go. The merits of the academic paper anthology format are, I suppose, much like the merits of the short story collection. That is, you get a wide range of contributors, and that range creates the kind of broad, over-arching scope of material that very few individuals are capable of expressing. The weaknesses are also the weaknesses of a short story collection. That is, some of the essays are going to be stronger than others, and the weaker ones suffer by comparison all the more because they are so proximate to better efforts.

Of course, the subject matter of this book might not be of interest to the casual reader. It does represent a massive aspect of human history, so I'd argue that this book (or one very like it, which I have yet to find) really is necessary for a decent understanding of world history, human activity and the nature of the culture we spring from. However, if you are a "pleasure reader" this book is not for you.

The editor did a very good job of sorting his contributors into a coherent progression. In fact, if you weren't able to recognize some of the differences in style between the writers, the book would seem like it was written by a single historian with a vast amount of knowledge at his/er disposal. The transition from one paper to the next is smooth and sensible. Not a mean feat considering it is the vastness of human history being addressed.

However, probably the greatest asset of this book lies as a resource for anyone interested in continuing his study on the subject. Every essay contains one of my personal favorite things in the known universe: a complete bibliography. OK, that's a bit of a strange thing, but I'll own it. I find the bibliographies of some books are more interesting than the books are themselves. I can't say that's the case for this book, as I'm not familiar with all the texts described, but those bibliographies are a gold mind (that's a typo--I meant to write "mine"--but I'm keeping it because it's accurate...) of information, and I'm sure I'll be turning to them in the future when my historiography cravings loom again.

[armin · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is good but then it’s got major flaws... the most notable one is that the authors of some 20 articles about the history of slavery are all white except for ONE! I mean.... seriously! The topics are interesting; I mean, as a person who focuses on slavery a lot, I personally knew very little about slavery in Asia, Ancient Rome or other places; the parts dedicated to these issues are very little and at the end of the day the book basically turns into what it was trying not to be: “slavery in the New World and the US”
There are cool sides to it including gender analysis or slave revolts and so on but then it sometimes turns to be very repetitive. I believe the book brings good issues on the plate but then fails to grapple with them adequately. It costs a lot, so if you wanna read it, please get it from a library!

[Simone · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read it for an exam at my university. It is very interesting and unlike manuals it is a kind of anthology of different articles from different scholars, it gives a detailed overview on the history of slavery. Most importantly, it takes into consideration slavery as a global institution and tries to break the common misconception that slavery is only an Atlantic institution originated with the rise of colonialism.