Writing the History of Slavery

Description

Exploring the major historiographical, theoretical, and methodological approaches that have shaped studies on slavery, this addition to the Writing History series highlights the varied ways that historians have approached the fluid and complex systems of human bondage, domination, and exploitation that have developed in societies across the world. The first part examines more recent attempts to place slavery in a global context, touching on contexts such as religion, empire, and capitalism. In its second part, the book looks closely at the key themes and methods that emerge as historians reckon with the dynamics of historical slavery. These range from politics, economics and quantitative analyses, to race and gender, to pyschohistory, history from below, and many more. Throughout, examples of slavery and its impact are considered across time and place: in Ancient Greece and Rome, Medieval Europe, colonial Asia, Africa, and the Americas, and trades throughout the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Also taken into account are thinkers from Antiquity to the 20th century and the impact their ideas have had on the subject and the debates that follow. This book is essential reading for students and scholars at all levels who are interested in not only the history of slavery but in how that history has come to be written and how its debates have been framed across civilizations.

David Stefan Doddington is Senior Lecturer in North American History at Cardiff University, UK Enrico Dal Lago is Professor of American History at National University of Ireland, Galway, UK

This is a fascinating volume on the historiography of slavery. It has interesting chapters on how historians have approached the global history of slavery and concepts such as empire, capitalism and antislavery. The book also deals with the methods and perspectives historians have used to explore slavery, including race, gender and memory. A valuable and important collection. * Prof. Gad Heuman, Emeritus University of Warwick, UK * This is the best collection of studies on the historiography, methodologies and theoretical approaches to the comparative and transnational histories of slavery. The approaches are discussed in general terms followed by excellent illustrative studies. Doddington and Dal Lago deserve high praise for the expertise and thoroughness of their selection, organization and editing of chapters that are all very informative. The authors cover their assigned areas thoroughly and accessibly, offering clear views of their specialties in styles that are often lively and inviting. The work will be indispensable for both specialists interested in alternate approaches, researchers new to the study of slavery, and teachers and students seeking context and greater depth in their study of the many cutting edge histories of the world's slaveries. * Orlando Patterson, John Cowles Professor of Sociology, Harvard University, USA * Important reading for anyone interested in writing about slavery and its historiographical traditions, this is a hugely ambitious and multifaceted book featuring interpretations of slavery by a number of historians writing from diverse historiographical, intellectual and analytical perspectives. Deliberately spanning wide chronological and geographical contexts, the authors included reflect upon a variety of theoretical, thematic and methodological approaches for exploring slavery. * Emily West, Professor of American History, University of Reading, UK * Writing the History of Slavery is a must-read for students and specialists of the history of slavery. This important book provides an accessible examination of the methodological challenges historians of slavery have been and are still confronted to and how the multifarious methods implemented to overcome them have influenced the historiography of slavery. * Lawrence Aje, Associate Professor of American History, Paul Valery University of Montpellier, France *