The Antislavery Debate or Scientific Culture and the Making of the Industrial West

The Antislavery Debate: Capitalism and Abolitionism as a Problem in Historical Interpretation

Author: John Ashworth

This volume brings together one of the most provocative debates among historians in recent years. The center of controversy is the emergence of the antislavery movement in the United States and Britain and the relation of capitalism to this development.
The essays delve beyond these issues, however, to raise a deeper question of historical interpretation: What are the relations between consciousness, moral action, and social change? The debate illustrates that concepts common in historical practice are not so stable as we have thought them to be. It is about concepts as much as evidence, about the need for clarity in using the tools of contemporary historical practice.
The participating historians are scholars of great distinction. Beginning with an essay published in the American Historical Review (AHR), Thomas L. Haskell challenged the interpretive framework of David Brion Davis's celebrated study, The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution. The AHR subsequently published responses by Davis and by John Ashworth, as well as a rejoinder by Haskell. The AHR essays and the relevant portions of Davis's book are reprinted here. In addition, there are two new essays by Davis and Ashworth and a general consideration of the subject by Thomas Bender.
This is a highly disciplined, insightful presentation of a major controversy in historical interpretation that will expand the debate into new realms.

Table of Contents:

	Preface
	Contributors
	Introduction	1
Pt. 1	The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution, 1770-1823	15
1	What the Abolitionists Were Up Against	17
2	The Quaker Ethic and the Antislavery International	27
3	The Preservation of English Liberty, I	65
Pt. 2	The AHR Debate	105
4	Capitalism and the Origins of the Humanitarian Sensibility, Part 1	107
5	Capitalism and the Origins of the Humanitarian Sensibility, Part 2	136
6	Reflections on Abolitionism and Ideological Hegemony	161
7	The Relationship between Capitalism and Humanitarianism	180
8	Convention and Hegemonic Interest in the Debate over Antislavery: A Reply to Davis and Ashworth	200
Pt. 3	The Debate Continued	261
9	Capitalism, Class, and Antislavery	263
10	The Perils of Doing History by Ahistorical Abstraction: A Reply to Thomas L. Haskell's AHR Forum Reply	290
	Index	311

Interesting textbook: Whose Detroit or Queer Globalizations

Scientific Culture and the Making of the Industrial West

Author: Margaret C Jacob

As more historians acknowledge the central significance of science and technology in the making of the first Industrial Revolution, the need for a good, general history of the achievements of the Scientific Revolution has grown. Scientific Culture and The Making of the Industrial West explains this historical process by looking at how and why scientific knowledge became such an integral part of the culture of Europe. Seeking to understand the cultural origins of the Industrial Revolution of the eighteenth century, this text first looks at the scientific culture of the seventeenth century, focusing not only on England but following through with a study of the history of science and technology in France, the Netherlands, and Germany. Comparative in structure, this text explains why England was so much more successful at this transition than its continental counterparts. It also integrates science with worldly concerns, focusing mainly on the entrepreneurs and engineers who possessed scientific insight and who were eager to profit from its advantages, demonstrating that during the mid-seventeenth century, British science was presented within an ideological framework that encouraged material prosperity. Readable summaries of the major scientific achievements are included to better communicate the central innovations of the period, and recent scholarship is added to help enhance the discussion of the integration of science into Western culture. Blending the history of science and technology with cultural history, this text is ideal for early modern European history courses, as well as for courses in cultural studies and the history of science.