The Sugar Barons - Couverture rigide

Parker, Matthew

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0091925835 ISBN 13 : 9780091925833

Editeur : Hutchinson, 2011

Synopsis

The contemporary image of the West Indies as paradise islands conceals a turbulent, dramatic and shocking history. For 200 years after 1650, the West Indies witnessed one of the greatest power struggles of the age, as Europeans made and lost immense fortunes growing and trading in sugar - a commodity so lucrative that it was known as white gold. This compelling book tells how the islands became by far most valuable and important colonies in the British Empire. How Barbados, scene of the sugar revolution that made the English a nation of voracious consumers, was transformed from a backward outpost into England's richest colony, powered by the human misery of tens of thousands of enslaved Africans. How this model of coercion and exploitation was exported around the region, producing huge wealth for a few, but creating a society poisoned by war, disease, cruelty and corruption. How Jamaican opulence reached its zenith, and its subsequent calamitous decline; and the growing revulsion against slavery that led to emancipation. At the heart of "The Sugar Barons" are the human stories of the families whose fortunes rose and fell with those of the West Indian empire: the family of James Drax, the first sugar baron, who introduced sugar cultivation to Barbados, as well as extensive slavery; the Codringtons, the most powerful family in the Leeward Islands, who struggled to fashion a workable society in the Caribbean but in the end succumbed to corruption and decadence; and the Beckfords, Jamaica's leading planters, who amassed the greatest sugar fortune of all, only to see it frittered away through the most extraordinary profligacy. "The Sugar Barons" reveals how the importance of the West Indies made a crucial contribution to the loss of the North American colonies, and explores the impact of the empire on Britain, where it still constitutes perhaps the darkest episode in our history.

A propos du livre

Quatrième de couverture :

'A shocking tale of corruption and brutality . . . an admirable and gripping history '

Sunday Times

' Very impressive - a meticulously researched piece of work, and so engagingly written . . . what a story !'

Andrea Levy, author of Small Island and Long Song

The familiar image of the West Indies as paradise islands conceals a turbulent past. For 200 years after 1650 they were the most fought over colonies in the world, as Europeans made and lost immense fortunes growing and trading in sugar - a commodity so lucrative that it was known as white gold.

Young men, beset by death and disease, an ocean away from the moral anchors of life in Britain created immense dynastic wealth but produced a society poisoned by war, sickness, cruelty and corruption.

The Sugar Barons explores the lives and experiences of those whose fortunes rose and fell with the West Indian empire. From the ambitious and brilliant entrepreneurs, to the grandees wielding power across the Atlantic, to the inheritors often consumed by decadence, disgrace and madness, this is a compelling story of how a few small islands and a handful of families decisively shaped the British Empire.

'A fascinating and bloody tale. . . an antidote to the modern strain of neo-conservative history that says empire was rather a good thing'

Financial Times

'A tumultuous rollercoaster of a book . . . Mr Parker tells an extraordinary, neglected and shameful history with gusto '

Economist

'A magnificent account of a bleak and torrid era, told with great humanity . . . as a portrait of the heat, horror and vanity of that time, The Sugar Barons is surely without equal '

Spectator

Présentation de l'éditeur :

For 200 years after 1650 the West Indies were the most fought-over colonies in the world, as Europeans made and lost immense fortunes growing and trading in sugar - a commodity so lucrative that it was known as white gold.

Young men, beset by death and disease, an ocean away from the moral anchors of life in Britain, created immense dynastic wealth but produced a society poisoned by war, sickness, cruelty and corruption.

The Sugar Barons explores the lives and experiences of those whose fortunes rose and fell with the West Indian empire. From the ambitious and brilliant entrepreneurs, to the grandees wielding power across the Atlantic, to the inheritors often consumed by decadence, disgrace and madness, this is the compelling story of how a few small islands and a handful of families decisively shaped the British Empire.

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Hutchinson
• Date d'édition: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0091925835
• ISBN 13: 9780091925833
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 464