My wife has expressed interest in the book Sugar in the Blood. It delves deeply into the social history of one island in the Caribbean, Barbados. It was the center of great developments: the enrichment of Europe via sugar production, the thriving trade in African slaves, the English Civil War and the founding of Southern U.S. culture from Charleston Bay, and, crucially, the invention of racial categories in order to advance control of populations by the landed aristocracy.
So as all these events swirl around this little island, I thought it would be a propos to then give her Richard Haass’ The World, which explains the facets of these events, i.e. how the events fit into world history, plus the institutions that make up nations, economies, movements and their ideologies, religions, etc.
Pat’s Polemics
On-going brilliance
