"The epic story of the rise and fall of the empire of cotton, its centrality in the world economy, and its making and remaking of global capitalism. Sven Beckert's rich, fascinating book tells the story of how, in a remarkably brief period, European entrepreneurs and powerful statesmen recast the world's most significant manufacturing industry combining imperial expansion and slave labor with new machines and wage workers to change the world. Here...

The main characters, Bles Alwyn and Zora, are two young black rural Alabamians of the early 20th [century] who struggle against white supremacy, peon-masters, robber barons, political corruption--and in Zora's case, extreme misogyny--to improve their lives and those of their brethren and sistren. Everyone in the novel is wonderfully rendered in three full dimensions--especially among the supporting cast, Mary Taylor, Northern white schoolteacher cum...

"Two complete novels by 'one of the greatest and most gifted of Western writers'. (Historical Novel Society) Bitter Trail: Tough teamster Frio Wheeler hauls cotton from Texas to Mexico. But as the Civil War rages through the South, Wheeler must contend with the most difficult challenges he's ever faced, including imprisonment with the bandidos in league with Union sympathizers and the betrayal of his best friend--his former partner and brother of...

Read about the importance of cotton in America's history and learn about the lives of people who picked it and worked with it.