Tropical Babylons
Sugar and the Making of the Atlantic World, 1450-1680
Edited by Stuart B. Schwartz
368 pp., 6.125 x 9.25, 12 illus., 21 tables, 3 maps, 11 figs., notes, index
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Paperback ISBN: 978-0-8078-5538-6
Published: September 2004 -
E-book EPUB ISBN: 978-0-8078-9562-7
Published: January 2011 -
E-book PDF ISBN: 979-8-8908-7122-0
Published: January 2011
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Focusing on areas colonized by Spain and Portugal (before the emergence of the Caribbean sugar colonies of England, France, and Holland), these essays show that despite reliance on common knowledge and technology, there were considerable variations in the way sugar was produced. With studies of Iberia, Madeira and the Canary Islands, Hispaniola, Cuba, Brazil, and Barbados, this volume demonstrates the similarities and differences between the plantation colonies, questions the very idea of a sugar revolution, and shows how the specific conditions in each colony influenced the way sugar was produced and the impact of that crop on the formation of "tropical Babylons"--multiracial societies of great oppression.
Contributors:
Alejandro de la Fuente, University of Pittsburgh
Herbert Klein, Columbia University
John J. McCusker, Trinity University
Russell R. Menard, University of Minnesota
William D. Phillips Jr., University of Minnesota
Genaro Rodríguez Morel, Seville, Spain
Stuart B. Schwartz, Yale University
Eddy Stols, Leuven University, Belgium
Alberto Vieira, Centro de Estudos Atlanticos, Madeira
About the Author
Stuart B. Schwartz is George Burton Adams Professor of History and Master of Ezra Stiles College at Yale University. He is author or editor of several books, including Slaves, Peasants, and Rebels: Reconsidering Brazilian Slavery.
For more information about Stuart B. Schwartz, visit
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Reviews
"The handiest volume on the subject of sugar. . . . Well produced. . . . Clear, readable prose."--Businesss History Review
"Breathtaking. . . . Offer[s] stimulating insights. . . . Might produce some stimulating comparative discussion."--Choice
"Each chapter is well-written, well-argued, and freighted with authority. . . . The contributors have certainly raised discussion to a new plateau. For anyone interested in the historical geography of the sugar industry and in the early Atlantic economy this book is, to use a colloquialism, a 'must read.'"--Agricultural History
"[This book is] the basic source for the early Atlantic sugar sector."--EH.NET
"[An] excellent collection of essays. . . . An excellent summary for the specialist and a valuable introduction for the non-specialist."--H-Atlantic
"Tropical Babylons makes a substantial overall contribution to several connected fields. It provides considerably new information about the rise of the Atlantic sugar complex with interesting details on the relationship between slavery and sugar making as well as the complex nature of the early sugar trade in Europe."--Franklin W. Knight, The Johns Hopkins University
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