Make a Book Review Empire of Cotton by Sven Beckert - 825 Words

Make a Book Review: Empire of Cotton by Sven Beckert (Essay Sample) Content: Name:Instructor:Course:Date:Book Review: Empire of CottonGlobal history is important for scholars as it explains progress in different parts of the world. They explain civilizations, globalizations, economic and political systems. The importance of this history is to the students, lecturers and reading public. Sven Beckert has published a book, Empire of Cotton that explains the role played by cotton in human history. In his 615 paged book he draws the dynamics of changes in the cotton era and how it steered the growth of companies. In summary, he explains the struggle between the slaves and planters, the European market and the fall of cotton markets. The book is gorgeous with a lot of sources; both primary and secondary that make reading believable.The major origin of cotton was India and China where there was large scale growing. Due to the massive production and the smaller internal market the other parts of the world were the best markets (Beckert, 7). Europe mad e their manufacturing industry to respond to the production demands of cotton. They made fabrics and sold to other countries including America. Becket then brings in a twist of the story where he mentions the industrial revolution which came along with agricultural revolution as contributing to the rise in the demand for cotton (Beckert, 7). As most people worked on their farms, Europe developed their industries to bring in the largely produced cotton. Later after they had taken cotton from India and China, they would sell the developed fabrics to the western countries like America.With the developed cotton industries, the Europeans took slaves from Africa to America. They used cotton to trade for the slaves. The sellers of slaves obtained cotton fabrics in exchange. The beautiful fabrics was an attraction to the people, and they had the urge to sell more saves. Some were sold to America. The role of slaves was later necessary for the Americans and the Europeans (Beckert, 123). Besi des, Empire of Cotton outlines the technological benefits and developments of that period. During the 18th and 19th century, North England grew as a result of the cotton industry. Trade was marveling, and the people decided t increase their cotton productions. The revolution was not to the advantage of all as the slaves were in hard labor to produce more from the mills.The desires of the people and millers brought globalization and world capitalism in action. Due to cheap labor in America, most millers wanted to migrate from north England to the Southern American region. According to Empire of Cotton, there were two movements, first the American south then the third world countries. The flow to the third world countries was because of high competition in acquiring cheapest labor and ready cotton from the people. The productions were later affected by the American Civil war (Beckert, 519). During that instability, the market for cotton begun to fall. The growing of cotton declined si gnificantly until it was lost. People had resorted to growing other crops and other economic activities for income.The Empire of Cotton brings in the study of world history. Global world history is explained in several ideas. Issues of agricultural revolution, industrial developments, wars, slave trade and the fall of cotton are included in the book (Phalem, 45). It describes how agriculture led to the industrial revolution. Growing of cotton pushed some countries to set up industries for the manufacture of cotton and their products. Later, we understand the world trade across continents. Slaves and selling of cotton from Africa and Europe respectively. When the market became unstable, the people started migrating in search of cheap labor from other places. Wars in America had also prompted the setting up of industries to areas that had extensive growing of cotton. Finally, the instability in the world market led to the drop in cotton industries. Most people had stopped growing the crop because of the declining ma...