Trouble of the World: Slavery and Empire in the Age of Capital

Abstract

research, most of which deal with racial slavery in the Atlantic world, the singularity of which is recalled again and again as well as slavery in Antiquity. Specialization is not by nature negative. Global, comparative history is illuminating, of course, which makes this book unique and necessary. It should develop, however, parallel to specialized research conducted on a more micro level of analysis. Even though the French historiography of slavery (in particular racial slavery) has dramatically expanded in the past 20 years, one should be wary of too strong a global turn that could, in the end, obscure the lives and intimate histories of enslaved people across time and space. Les mondes de l’esclavage, as Ismard explains in the introduction, does not mean to ignore enslaved agency and more generally the way enslaved people contributed to the making of the societies where they lived and worked and in which they played the role of major actors. It does not do that, but generalizations, comparisons and world histories can push the enslaved people to the background while creating a fantasy of ‘histoire totale’. Les mondes de l’esclavage is a must-read and the French global history trend in which it fits should be encouraged. It will be best used, however, if it fuels many more attempts at much needed specialized research. There is a nagging issue across the book. All the entries are followed by short bibliographies; however, many of the authors quoted or mentioned in the entries are not referenced in those bibliographies (take the example of Katherine Paugh in the ‘Démographie’ entry, p. 471). In the absence of footnotes, it complicates the possibility of checking references, all the more so since the book bibliography seems incomplete. Les mondes de l’esclavage. Une histoire comparée targets the general public as well as researchers. That may explain why referencing rules have been adapted in this way. Maybe the issue could be corrected in a second edition or in an English translation.