A Global History

Capitalism

No other phenomenon has shaped human history as decisively as capitalism. It structures how we live and work, how we think about ourselves and others, how we organize our politics. Sven Beckert situates the story of capitalism within the largest conceivable geographical and historical framework in this fascinating new book. 
Capitalism, argues Beckert, was born global. Emerging from merchant communities across Asia, Africa and Europe, capitalism’s radical recasting of economic life rooted itself only gradually. Then it burst onto the world scene, as European states and merchants built a powerful alliance that would propel them across the oceans. This epic drama corresponded at no point to an idealized dream of free markets. All along, state-backed institutions and imperial expansions shaped its dynamics. 
Capitalism decenters the European perspective, highlighting agency, resistance, innovation and ruthless coercion around the world through to the present with the rise of Asian economies, particularly China. Sven Beckert doesn’t merely tote up capitalism’s debits and credits in this monumental book, but allows us to think afresh about the past to help us reimagine the future.

Sven Beckert is Laird Bell Professor of History at Harvard University. His last book, Empire of Cotton, won many prizes, including the Bancroft Prize and the Philip Taft Prize. It was also a finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for History, shortlisted for the Cundill Prize in Historical Literature and was chosen by the New York Times as one of the ten best books of the year.

No other phenomenon has shaped human history as decisively as capitalism. It structures how we live and work, how we think about ourselves and others, how we organise our politics. Sven Beckert situates the story of capitalism within the largest conceivable geographical and historical framework in this fascinating new book. 
 
Capitalism, argues Beckert, was born global. Emerging from merchant communities across Asia, Africa and Europe, capitalism’s radical recasting of economic life rooted itself only gradually. Then it burst onto the world scene, as European states and merchants built a powerful alliance that would propel them across the oceans. This epic drama corresponded at no point to an idealised dream of free markets. All along, state-backed institutions and imperial expansions shaped its dynamics. 
 
Capitalism decentres the European perspective, highlighting agency, resistance, innovation and ruthless coercion around the world through to the present with the rise of Asian economies, particularly China. Sven Beckert doesn’t merely add up capitalism’s debits and credits in this monumental book, but allows us to think afresh about the past to help us re-imagine the future.

Sven Beckert

A masterpiece of the historian's craft: combining a global scope with concern for the nuances of individual experience, Beckert tracks the fortunes of a single commodity, cotton, across six continents and thousands of years. That sweeping project is driven by the attempt to unravel the causes and consequences of one overarching puzzle: "why, after many millennia of slow economic growth, a few strands of humanity in the late eighteenth century suddenly got much richer." On the way to his answer, Beckert uncovers a history he claims "provides the key to understanding the modern world." . . . The belief that discovering the origins of economic growth might unlock modernity's secrets raises questions that are even more tantalizing

A fascinating and profound examination of the history of a crop that played a transformative role in the making of the modern world. Beckert manages to keep in view a remarkable cast of characters, from planters and slaves in the United States to British industrialists and factory workers, and farmers in India, Egypt, and China. The Empire of Cotton is global history as it should be written

Masterly . . . Deeply researched and eminently readable, "Empire of Cotton" gives new insight into the relentless expansion of global capitalism.  With graceful prose and a clear and compelling argument, Beckert not only charts the expansion of cotton capitalism. . . he addresses the conditions of enslaved workers in the fields and wage workers in the factories.  An astonishing achievement

Persuasive . . . brilliant . . . Beckert's detailed narrative never scants the rich complexity of the cotton trade's impact on many different societies

Empire of Cotton' proves Sven Beckert one of the new elite of genuinely global historians.  Too little present-day academic history is written for the general public. 'Empire of Cotton' transcends this barrier and should be devoured eagerly, not only by scholars and students but also by the intelligent reading public. The book is rich and diverse in the treatment of its subject. The writing is elegant, and the use of both primary and secondary sources is impressive and varied. Overviews on international trends alternate with illuminating, memorable anecdotes . . . Beckert's book made me wish for a sequel

Important  . . .a major work of scholarship that will not be soon surpassed as the definitive account of the product that was, as Beckert puts it, the Industrial Revolution's 'launching pad

Hefty, informative, and engaging . . . Beckert's narrative skills keep the story of capitalism fresh and interesting for all readers

Beckert is a big-order thinker. His book offers a masterly picture of the empire of cotton as an economic system that held together myriad different parts...Beckert's ability to write a history on this scale is impressive indeed

Sven Beckert's Empire of Cotton: A Global History is certainly a must-read for specialists as well as the lay reader. The lucid style and the wide canvas, both in time and space, make the book riveting

A New History of Global Capitalism

For about 900 years, from 1000 to 1900, cotton was the world's most important manufacturing industry. It remains a vast business - if all the cotton bales produced in 2013 had been stacked on top of each other they would have made a somewhat unstable tower 40,000 miles high. 
 
Sven Beckert's superb new book is a history of the overwhelming role played by cotton in dictating the shape of our world. It is both a gripping narrative and a brilliant case history of how the world works.

Sven Beckert

Praise for Empire of Cotton

A masterpiece of the historian's craft: combining a global scope with concern for the nuances of individual experience, Beckert tracks the fortunes of a single commodity, cotton, across six continents and thousands ...

A fascinating and profound examination of the history of a crop that played a transformative role in the making of the modern world. Beckert manages to keep in view a remarkable cast of characters, from planters and ...

Masterly . . . Deeply researched and eminently readable, "Empire of Cotton" gives new insight into the relentless expansion of global capitalism. With graceful prose and a clear and compelling argument, Beckert not ...

A masterpiece of the historian's craft: combining a global scope with concern for the nuances of individual experience, Beckert tracks the fortunes of a single commodity, cotton, across six continents and thousands ...

A fascinating and profound examination of the history of a crop that played a transformative role in the making of the modern world. Beckert manages to keep in view a remarkable cast of characters, from planters and ...

Masterly . . . Deeply researched and eminently readable, "Empire of Cotton" gives new insight into the relentless expansion of global capitalism. With graceful prose and a clear and compelling argument, Beckert not ...

A masterpiece of the historian's craft: combining a global scope with concern for the nuances of individual experience, Beckert tracks the fortunes of a single commodity, cotton, across six continents and thousands ...

A fascinating and profound examination of the history of a crop that played a transformative role in the making of the modern world. Beckert manages to keep in view a remarkable cast of characters, from planters and ...

Masterly . . . Deeply researched and eminently readable, "Empire of Cotton" gives new insight into the relentless expansion of global capitalism. With graceful prose and a clear and compelling argument, Beckert not ...

Books by Sven Beckert

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter