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Book Summary and Reviews of The Slave Ship by Marcus Rediker

The Slave Ship by Marcus Rediker

The Slave Ship

A Human History

by Marcus Rediker

  • Critics' Consensus:
  • Published:
  • Oct 2007, 448 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

The slave ship was a machine that manufactured modernity. As it moved across the Atlantic, the world changed. It joined Europe, Africa, and the Americas, creating enormous wealth and untold misery, and its hellish voyages continue to cast a shadow over our lives. Marcus Rediker, a preeminent historian the maritime Atlantic, unravels its history with unmatched knowledge of the material changes and moral ruptures its created. Slave Ship is the best of histories, deeply researched, brilliantly formulated, and morally informed.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Starred Review. Groundbreaking...Painful as this powerful book often is, Rediker does not lose sight of the humanity of even the most egregious participants, from African traders to English merchants." - PW.

"I was hardly prepared for the profound emotional impact of The Slave Ship: A Human History. Reading it established a transformative and never to be severed bond with my African ancestors who were cargo in slave ships over a period of four centuries." - Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple.

This information about The Slave Ship was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Author Information

Marcus Rediker

Marcus Rediker is Distinguished Professor of Atlantic History at the University of Pittsburgh and author of The Slave Ship: A Human History and Villains of All Nations: Atlantic Pirates in the Golden Age.

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