War Capitalism: Notes on Sven Beckert’s Empire of Cotton #envhist

Sven Beckert’s Empire of Cotton examines the significant influence that the institution of slavery had on the foundation of the United States’ role in cotton production and dawning of global capitalism. In the years following the treaty of independence of 1783, the areas in the upper South where enslaved people were concentrated experienced a severe …

World History Texts: The Mongol Conquest in World History

It was Jerry Bentley who informed us that the term world history means different things to different people whether it is an “entire history of all the world’s people” or “a comparison of experiences across the boundary lines of societies.”[1] In the text “The Mongol Conquest in World History” Timothy May illuminates the importance of …

World History Texts: Paul Cobb’s The Race for Paradise

Paul Cobb’s “The Race for Paradise: An Islamic History of the Crusades” intervenes with our existing knowledge of the Crusades in compelling new ways. The work centers the Islamic frame of reference in analyzing the events of the Crusades. What emerges is a study that not only provides new understanding of the phenomena occurring within …