cotton

Patrick Luck on How the American Slavery Economy Shifted from Tobacco to Cotton and Sugar

Historians have long recognized that the southern economy shifted from tobacco and indigo cultivation toward cotton and sugar in the late 18th century. A new book examines this revolutionary economic change and how free and enslaved Louisianans experienced it. 

NYT editorial cites work of Harvard's Sven Beckert and Cornell’s Edward Baptist

The Times takes clothiers to task for exploiting workers in textile factories.

The brutal history of cotton debunks many of the most popular myths about capitalism.

by Eric Herschthal

Sven Beckert’s remarkable and unsettling new book, "Empire of Cotton: A Global History," puts capitalism in a new light.