This is the first full-scale comparative study of the nature of slavery. In a work of prodigious scholarship and enormous breadth; which draws on the tribal; ancient; premodern; and modern worlds; Orlando Patterson discusses the internal dynamics of slavery in sixty-six societies over time. These include Greece and Rome; medieval Europe; China; Korea; the Islamic kingdoms; Africa; the Caribbean islands; and the American South. Slavery is shown to be a parasitic relationship between master and slave; invariably entailing the violent domination of a natally alienated; or socially dead; person. The phenomenon of slavery as an institution; the author argues; is a single process of recruitment; incorporation on the margin of society; and eventual manumission or death.Distinctions abound in this work. Beyond the reconceptualization of the basic master-slave relationship and the redefinition of slavery as an institution with universal attributes; Patterson rejects the legalistic Roman concept that places the "slave as property" at the core of the system. Rather; he emphasizes the centrality of sociological; symbolic; and ideological factors interwoven within the slavery system. Along the whole continuum of slavery; the cultural milieu is stressed; as well as political and psychological elements. Materialistic and racial factors are deemphasized. The author is thus able; for example; to deal with "elite" slaves; or even eunuchs; in the same framework of understanding as fieldhands; to uncover previously hidden principles of inheritance of slave and free status; and to show the tight relationship between slavery and freedom.Interdisciplinary in its methods; this study employs qualitative and quantitative techniques from all the social sciences to demonstrate the universality of structures and processes in slave systems and to reveal cross-cultural variations in the slave trade and in slavery; in rates of manumission; and in the status of freedmen. Slavery and Social Death lays out a vast new corpus of research that underpins an original and provocative thesis.
#580922 in Books Ingramcontent 2015-11-16Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.30 x 1.80 x 5.80l; .0 #File Name: 067450481X592 pagesParis at War 1939 1944
Review
1 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Five StarsBy Priscilla MacNealEnjoying12 of 12 people found the following review helpful. Psychological Drama of Occupation from Both Sides.By EdBThis is the third book I have read on the French Resistance during the German Occupation of France. This book focuses on the Parisians reaction to the occupation before; during and at the overthrow of the Germans in Paris. The author does a wonderful job of presented various viewpoints of both French citizens and the German occupiers. I really was surprised how detailed the author was able to describe how various people reacted during the different stages of the occupation from the initial shock of the Armistice to the long years of occupation. This is a strong narrative history that held my interest the entire time. This books rates as the best book on the Occupation that I have read so far.8 of 8 people found the following review helpful. A MUST READ !By PatrickI agree with the previous reviewer that this is the best book on the subject. The author tells the remarkable story in an easy to follow narrative; filled with true-life monsters and heroes; but; most of all; the everyday people that populated Paris during those tragic years. The humiliation of defeat is followed by the years of hunger and cold; and the steadily rising terror inflicted by the occupiers on the population. As I read the book I felt the same hopeless despair that Parisians of the time must have felt; then a sense of hope as Mr. Drake tells of the Allies approach; and finally the joy of liberation.There were so many descriptions of the roundups; of innocent people being herded into buses and trains on their way to their grim destination; that it became desensitizing to some degree. And what became of the seemingly endless supply of French policemen and German soldiers who seemed so willing to do the work of the devil? Not enough of them were brought to justice; I'm sure. But Mr. Drake doesn't deal with anger or vindictiveness; he does what a good author does and simply tells the story. He does describe the fate of many of the major figures; a satisfying if a bit anticlimactic ending to the story.I've read many books on the subject - this is the best!
