John’s answer to “Can someone help me understand why cotton was such a big deal? I understand about supply/demand wi…” > Likes and Comments
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thanks so much for this very helpful reply - I'm going to try to figure out what other books you've commented on - I also like economic and cultural history books...
Susan: If you like cultural-economic history, I recommend you read Swerve by Professor Greenblatt. It is not nearly as detailed as The Empire of Cotton, but Greenblatt gives his perspective in a highly readable way. By the time I finished reading it a few years ago, I had formed the opinion that the information in the book created a perspective that assists a reader in understanding how societies formed in a way that projected them into the modern era.
thanks for the suggestion - I just requested a copy of The Swerve from the library --
John, you’ve nailed this book’s essence. I’m a non-academic but I read avidly on interesting topics, e.g., salt or longitude. I didn’t realize that this book on cotton was essentially an economic discussion. Still, this exposure to capitalism in action vis-a-vis cotton has been interesting and instructive. I totally agree with you about editing. I found that Beckert’s need to cite from what seems to have been an inexhaustible number of sources resulted in him repeating himself over and over again. This has made for a really long read! I’m on page 344, with about another 100 pages to go before he starts on 167 pages of notes, bibliography, and index. I will do those 100 pages and call it a day. Actually, month is more accurate. I normally read 1-2 books a week, but this one has taken me a month so far. Dense indeed.
Virginia: The beauty of carefully editing any written material is that the point being made becomes clearly stated and unobstructed by extraneous material. Beckert, the author of the Empire of Cotton, had (has) terrific economic, historic, and commercial stories to tell, but I found some of each story became obscure by the excess, superfluous writing. This happens with a lot of authors. I remember reading the fictional trilogy by Jason Matthews, a former intelligence operative who actually was able to express a lot about the tradecraft of intelligence gathering and operations through his fiction but his stories bogged down repeatedly. I just assumed his editors refused to insist that he cut about 1/4-1/3 of the material and had lost control over the content of the books.
Too bad. That laxity is certain to lose readers in the long run. Thanks for your comments, by the way.
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Aug 09, 2017 04:32AM
thanks so much for this very helpful reply - I'm going to try to figure out what other books you've commented on - I also like economic and cultural history books...
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Susan: If you like cultural-economic history, I recommend you read Swerve by Professor Greenblatt. It is not nearly as detailed as The Empire of Cotton, but Greenblatt gives his perspective in a highly readable way. By the time I finished reading it a few years ago, I had formed the opinion that the information in the book created a perspective that assists a reader in understanding how societies formed in a way that projected them into the modern era.
thanks for the suggestion - I just requested a copy of The Swerve from the library --
John, you’ve nailed this book’s essence. I’m a non-academic but I read avidly on interesting topics, e.g., salt or longitude. I didn’t realize that this book on cotton was essentially an economic discussion. Still, this exposure to capitalism in action vis-a-vis cotton has been interesting and instructive. I totally agree with you about editing. I found that Beckert’s need to cite from what seems to have been an inexhaustible number of sources resulted in him repeating himself over and over again. This has made for a really long read! I’m on page 344, with about another 100 pages to go before he starts on 167 pages of notes, bibliography, and index. I will do those 100 pages and call it a day. Actually, month is more accurate. I normally read 1-2 books a week, but this one has taken me a month so far. Dense indeed.
Virginia: The beauty of carefully editing any written material is that the point being made becomes clearly stated and unobstructed by extraneous material. Beckert, the author of the Empire of Cotton, had (has) terrific economic, historic, and commercial stories to tell, but I found some of each story became obscure by the excess, superfluous writing. This happens with a lot of authors. I remember reading the fictional trilogy by Jason Matthews, a former intelligence operative who actually was able to express a lot about the tradecraft of intelligence gathering and operations through his fiction but his stories bogged down repeatedly. I just assumed his editors refused to insist that he cut about 1/4-1/3 of the material and had lost control over the content of the books. Too bad. That laxity is certain to lose readers in the long run. Thanks for your comments, by the way.
