The Empire of Necessity: The Untold History of a Slave Rebellion in the Age of Liberty - Softcover

Grandin, Greg

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1780746458 ISBN 13: 9781780746456

Publisher: Oneworld Publications, 2015

Synopsis

One morning in 1805, off a remote island in the South Pacific, seal hunter and abolitionist Captain Amasa Delano climbed aboard the Tryal, a distressed Spanish slaver. He spent all day on the ship, sharing food and water, yet failed to see that the slaves, having slaughtered most of the crew, were now their own masters. Later, when Delano realized the deception, he chased the ship down, responding with barbaric violence. Greg Grandin follows this group of courageous slaves and their persecutor from the horrors of the Middle Passage to their explosive confrontation.

A page-turning and profoundly moving account of obsessive mania, imperial exploitation, and lost ideals, The Empire of Necessity captures the epic clash of peoples, economies, and faiths that was shaping the so-called New World and the Age of Revolution.

About this title

Review:

'The Empire of Necessity is scholarship at its best. Greg Grandin s deft penetration into the marrow of the slave industry is compelling, brilliant, and necessary.'

(Toni Morrison)

'In this multifaceted masterpiece, Greg Grandin excavates the relentlessly fascinating history of a slave revolt to mine the enduring dilemmas of politics and identity in a New World where the Age of Freedom was also the Age of Slavery. This is that rare book in which the drama of the action and the drama of ideas are equally measured, a work of history and of literary reflection that is as urgent as it is timely.'

(Philip Gourevitch, co-author of the The Ballad of Abu Ghraib)

'Greg Grandin has done it again. Starting with a single dramatic encounter in the South Pacific he has shown us an entire world: of multiple continents, terrible bondage and the dream of freedom. This is also a story of how one episode changed the lives of a sea captain and a great writer from the other end of the earth. An extraordinary tale, beautifully told.'

(Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopold s Ghost)

'Greg Grandin is one of the best of a new generation of historians who have rediscovered the art of writing for both serious scholars and general readers. This may be his best book yet... a work of astonishing power, eloquence and suspense, a genuine tour de force.'

(Debby Applegate, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of H)

'Rooted in an event known primarily through the genius of Herman Melville's transcendent Benito Cereno, [Wretched Tryal] is a stunning work of research done all over the rims of two oceans, as well as beautiful, withering storytelling. This is a harrowing story of Muslim Africans trekking across South America, and ultimately a unique window on to the nature of the slave trade, the maritime worlds of the early nineteenth century, the lives lived in-between slavery and freedom all over the Americas, and even the ocean-inspired imagination of Melville. Grandin is a master of grand history with new insights.'

(David W. Blight, author of A Slave No More)

'Grandin has written a gripping, lavishly researched account of high seas drama, as well as the trials of the slaves before and after their revolt. Equally fascinating is the thesis Grandin advances: that in 1804 human political liberty and abject bondage were both rising apace often advanced by the very same people... Compulsively readable.'

(Christian Science Monitor)

'[Grandin] writes with the skills of a fine novelist. With herculean archival research, he traces the backstory of each of the main participants... the owner of the slaves, the Spanish captain, the Yankee captain, and those slaves whose paths to the fateful revolt can be tracked or at least surmised. Then Grandin extends their stories beyond the revolt to the ends of their lives. Each life story leads through the explosive contradictions of the Age of Revolution...Inventive, audacious, passionate.

(Los Angeles Review of Books)

'For nearly four centuries, as Greg Grandin writes in his powerful new book, slavery was the flywheel that drove the global development of everything from trade and insurance to technology, religion and medicine... Through a remarkable feat of research he establishes a strong narrative line... Harrrowing.'

(New York Times Book Review)

'Grandin's pen is exquisite, the descriptions are lively and sensuous. But he is also deeply reflective. The book has import that extends beyond the interest of the story. He is, as scholars often say, making an intervention, challenging how we see the world and its history... Exciting and illuminating.'

--(San Francisco Chronicle)

About the Author:

Greg Grandin is author of Fordlandia, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. A professor of history at New York University, he has written for the New Statesman, New York Times, and others, and has been a Guggenheim Fellow. He lives in New York.

About this edition

• Publisher: Oneworld Publications
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1780746458
• ISBN 13: 9781780746456
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384