Pulitzer Prize-winner David Brion Davis here provides a penetrating survey of slavery and emancipation from ancient times to the twentieth century. His trenchant analysis puts the most recent international debates about freedom and human rights into much-needed perspective. Davis shows thatslavery was once regarded as a form of human progress; playing a critical role in the expansion of the western world. It was not until the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that views of slavery as a retrograde institution gained far-reaching acceptance. Davis illuminates this momentoushistorical shift from "progressive" enslavement to "progressive" emancipation; ranging over an array of important developments--from the slave trade of early Muslims and Jews to twentieth-century debates over slavery in the League of Nations and the United Nations. In probing the intricateconnections among slavery; emancipation; and the idea of progress; Davis sheds new light on two crucial issues: the human capacity for dignifying acts of oppression and the problem of implementing social change.
#1445568 in Books 2015-11-16Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.50 x .31 x 5.51l; .39 #File Name: 194373710X132 pages
Review
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful. I highly recommend it.By CustomerIt is said that to the victor goes the spoils. In the case of the Civil War the spoils have been the writing of its history. Lochlainn Seabrook dispels the purposeful and politically driven false narrative of the Battle of Fort Pillow through scholarly and factual laden documentation. The documentation is so well done that the reader almost has a sense of being there. This book is simply the irrefutable truth about what happened at Fort Pillow before; during and after April 12; 1864. I highly recommend it.0 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Five StarsBy Renee L. SullivanVery accurate and well-written!
