History with impact
One of the little-known advantages of becoming a Patron Passport member at Destinations Booksellers is the ability to preview top titles months before they come out. All we ask is that the patron provide us with a brief review for us to share with others and to help us evaluate interest in the title.
Frequent patron Edward Parish, who was completely bowled over by Adam Hochschild's King Leopold's Ghost, agreed to review the writer's newest book, Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire's Slaves. It's available now and on prominent display in hardcover at $26.95, but for blog readers who mention it this week, we're making it available for $22.95.
Here's Ed's review:
Upon finishing the new book by Adam Hochschild, I had the same feelings as I did after completing Hochschild's master novel King Leopold's Ghost.
Hochschild is a wonderful story teller and uses his in-depth research to tells us how men in London in 1787 got together to try and end slavery. Along the way, they would pioneer most of the tools citizen activists still rely on today, from wall posters and mass mailings to boycotts and lapel pins.
Within five years, more than 300,000 Britons were refusing to eat the chief slave-grown product - sugar; London's "in crowd" wore antislavery badges created by Josiah Wedgwood; and the House of Commons had passed the first law banning the slave trade.
Also Hochschild tells us of Thomas Clarkson's lifelong crusade against slavery and the slave-trade. Clarkson formed working relationships with several of the most important emerging figures of the anti-slavery movements in Britain, including James Phillips, Granville Sharp, and William Dillwyn, and Clarkson is credited with bringing M.P. William Wilberforce into the movement at the formation of the Quaker-influenced Committee for Abolition (1787).
The continued efforts of the Committee to lobby Parliament and raise the consciousness of the British people to the cruelties of the slave trade resulted, in 1788, in the introduction of legislation before Parliament to curb the harshest forms of treatment, though it was not until 1807 that a bill to end the slave trade managed to pass both houses.
This is an essential read to remind all of us on the horror that was inflicted upon the race of the African people and work to see that it never happens again.
My rating for this read is *****
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By coincidence, my daughter Schuyler, who is a senior at the University of Southern California, spent Friday evening with Adam Hochschild. By phone, we shared with Adam our excitement about this newest book and informed him that the patrons of Destinations Booksellers are partial to non-fiction, and serious history in particular. It's not beyond the realm of possibility that we could arrange an author appearance by Hochschild in the future.
Frequent patron Edward Parish, who was completely bowled over by Adam Hochschild's King Leopold's Ghost, agreed to review the writer's newest book, Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire's Slaves. It's available now and on prominent display in hardcover at $26.95, but for blog readers who mention it this week, we're making it available for $22.95.
Here's Ed's review:
Upon finishing the new book by Adam Hochschild, I had the same feelings as I did after completing Hochschild's master novel King Leopold's Ghost.
Hochschild is a wonderful story teller and uses his in-depth research to tells us how men in London in 1787 got together to try and end slavery. Along the way, they would pioneer most of the tools citizen activists still rely on today, from wall posters and mass mailings to boycotts and lapel pins.
Within five years, more than 300,000 Britons were refusing to eat the chief slave-grown product - sugar; London's "in crowd" wore antislavery badges created by Josiah Wedgwood; and the House of Commons had passed the first law banning the slave trade.
Also Hochschild tells us of Thomas Clarkson's lifelong crusade against slavery and the slave-trade. Clarkson formed working relationships with several of the most important emerging figures of the anti-slavery movements in Britain, including James Phillips, Granville Sharp, and William Dillwyn, and Clarkson is credited with bringing M.P. William Wilberforce into the movement at the formation of the Quaker-influenced Committee for Abolition (1787).
The continued efforts of the Committee to lobby Parliament and raise the consciousness of the British people to the cruelties of the slave trade resulted, in 1788, in the introduction of legislation before Parliament to curb the harshest forms of treatment, though it was not until 1807 that a bill to end the slave trade managed to pass both houses.
This is an essential read to remind all of us on the horror that was inflicted upon the race of the African people and work to see that it never happens again.
My rating for this read is *****
----------------------------------
By coincidence, my daughter Schuyler, who is a senior at the University of Southern California, spent Friday evening with Adam Hochschild. By phone, we shared with Adam our excitement about this newest book and informed him that the patrons of Destinations Booksellers are partial to non-fiction, and serious history in particular. It's not beyond the realm of possibility that we could arrange an author appearance by Hochschild in the future.
posted by All4Word at 7:44 PM
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