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SusanJ asked this question about Empire of Cotton: A Global History:
Can someone help me understand why cotton was such a big deal? I understand about supply/demand with respect to price - new technology and globalization and whatnot brought the price down, and allowed for a lot of production, but what makes the "demand" for cotton so great? Is it the fashion aspect? Certainly most folks I know have way more clothes than they'll ever wear, and keep buying more... But still...
John McDonald The importance of cotton goes far beyond fashion or comfort. Beckert's central thesis is that cotton production, transportation, brokering, and market…moreThe importance of cotton goes far beyond fashion or comfort. Beckert's central thesis is that cotton production, transportation, brokering, and marketing, and cotton trading, did more to drive industrialization and make it sophisticated than any other economic activity. Of course, this means that cotton, for example, would have to compete for the title with shipping or the development of railroads and steel making. I found the book too hyperbolic about cotton, although I agree with Beckert's point about its economic significance, and frankly, there is very little that has to be said and repeated over and over about the varying types of cotton produced in every principality and village in India, the American South, or elsewhere.

Beckert also emphasizes (and he is correct) that the production of cotton from the earliest known time and in all parts of the world, not just the American South, perpetuated systems of slavery and caste systems based on involuntary servitudes. These caste and caste-like systems persevere today, and even where they do not legally, the long term effects are felt in opportunities to rise above the station one is born to.

Beckert really has written a book that scholars and students will refer to as the authoritative history about cotton, the cotton trade, and cotton cultures. His contribution is palpable, and if he hasn't already won academic prizes, he probably is on short lists for such recognition.

The book, unfortunately, is far too dense for non academics who thrive from reading and understanding economic and cultural history. I wondered throughout how far into the book readers like me, who enjoy economic and cultural histories, are willing to go before they just give up the ghost. Is it necessary to know that cotton is cultivated in certain parts of India can be woven with fewer or greater number of threads than that produced in other parts of the world, for example? Or, that cotton is such a tremendous contribution. I am digressing from the questions you ask, but my motivations are simple: non academics deserve the benefit of Beckert's perspective. Why not hire an experienced editor who is not an academic, someone writing or editing for the New Yorker, for instance?

Stephen Greenblatt showed us in The Swerve, that this could be done and readable, brilliantly and suavely written and edited prose together with immensely interesting social history can be the kind of book ordinary readers will curl up with and discuss at coffee with their buddies. I did. Someone like Beckert will have no trouble finding such a person his information being that good. I wish Thomas Picketty had done the same for his book about capitalism.

The alternative is to write 2 books--one for the scholars who will find such works indispensable and another one for those who are curious about this fascinating subject.(less)
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Empire of Cotton
by Sven Beckert
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