Trade History

As World War II wound down in 1945 and the cold war heated up, the skilled trades that made up the Conference of Studio Unions (CSU) began a tumultuous strike at the major Hollywood studios. This turmoil escalated further when the studios retaliated by locking out CSU in 1946. This labor unrest unleashed a fury of Red-baiting that allowed studio moguls to crush the union and seize control of the production process, with far-reaching consequences.

In the early 1990s, North America was the vibrant center of an increasingly democratic and revitalized western hemisphere. The United States and Canada were close allies working together to implement a bilateral free trade agreement and build an integrated manufacturing and export economy. By the late 2000s, the economic and diplomatic ties between the two countries were strained as policies stagnated or slipped backward and passports were needed to cross the border for the first time in history.

Though the importance of hats is easy to overlook, it was deadly serious in more ways than one, impacting the beavers and birds used to make fashionable hats, the environment of the region, and the people fighting over the resources. Beaver hats put the Dutch, British, and French in conflict, and later the Americans and Canadians.

A dissident faction of the Clan, the alternate universe group of families that has traded covertly with our world for a century or more, have carried nuclear devices between the worlds and exploded them in Washington, DC, killing the President of the United States. Now they will exterminate the rest of the Clan and keep Miriam alive only long enough to bear her child, the heir to the throne of their land in the Gruinmarkt world.

A riveting, heart-stopping family memoir that blends art, obsession, and love as the author searches for the spectacular jeweled egg that consumed her father’s dreams—and spelled her family’s downfall. When she was eleven years old, Serena Kutchinsky’s life changed forever. Her father...

John Newton was the master of a slave ship, later becoming a beloved Anglican priest and an ardent abolitionist. His conversion to Christianity began in 1748, and in 1764 he was accepted in the priesthood. However, it took him a while to denounce the slave trade as the pamphlet "Thoughts upon the African Slave Trade" was only published in 1787. Its impact was immediate and it became quite influential. Graphically describing the horrors of the slave trade, the publication is a moving confession of repentance for the author’s part in the hideous trade in human beings.

An ancient secret. A forgotten science. A battle for the future of humanity. Seven thousand years ago, as he lay dying on the battlefield of Lanka, Ravana whispered a secret to Lakshmana about a mysterious technology that held the key to Ayodhya's prosperity and the world's destiny. For...

Trade and Taboo addresses the creation of disrepute in ancient Roman society. What made someone disreputable in the eyes of Romans, and how did this effect their everyday life? The book tracks the shifting application of stigmas of disrepute between the Republican period and the later Roman Empire (45 BCE-565 CE) by following various Roman professionals. Through the lives of funeral workers, town criers, tanners, mint workers, and even bakers, Bond asks how certain tradesmen coped with stigmatization.

In the grand scheme of things, very little is known of Mansa Musa’s life. We know that he was one of the greatest emperors of the Mali Empire. And we know that he was actually one of the richest men of all time due to the enormous gold deposits in West Africa that were under his dominion, but large parts of Mansa Musa’s life remain a mystery.

A heady blend of international intrigue, social theory, botanical lore, and ecological study, The Cactus Hunters offers complex insight into species extinction, conservation, and more-than-human care.

A groundbreaking history of the Black Joke, the most famous member of the British Royal Navy’s anti-slavery squadron, and the long fight to end the transatlantic slave trade. The most feared ship in Britain’s West Africa Squadron, His Majesty’s brig Black Joke was one of a handful of ships...

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Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the United States, is an American icon. To many, he is a symbol of values, sacrifice and determination. Modern notions of nationalism, liberty, and constitution all owe...

Coal mining in the UK dates back to Roman times, but in the 21st century, has practically disappeared. In this history, Jeremy Paxman charts our vital relationship with coal and all the extraordinary change it has fuelled. Told through the stories of real people, Paxman travels the regions of the UK where communities were built around coal, to the industrial revolution, to the beginnings of time and coal’s geological formation, to the great tragedies such as Aberfan, and to the picket lines of the miners’ strike.

Radama—the young, savvy ruler of the rising military power in Madagascar. Robert Townsend Farquhar—governor of the British island colony of Mauritius, whose plantation economy depends on slave labor. James Hastie—an enterprising East India Company sergeant, ready to take on a risky mission. In the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, as Britain and France face off in the southwest Indian Ocean, the destinies of these three characters intertwine.

From ancient Sumerian grain tablets to Roman coins, paper bills, digital wallets, and blockchain—What Is Money? is the clearest, most explosive breakdown of the one system we all live inside… and almost never question. This book doesn’t just explain money. It exposes it. Inside, you’ll discover: Why gold was never about value—it was about worship. How paper promises replaced vaults of truth. The role of kings, gods, banks, and empires in shaping what we spend. Why fiat currency is a magic trick—powered by belief. How credit, code, and crypto are rewriting the entire game.

When Queen Elizabeth arrived in Lower Fort Garry, Manitoba, in 1970, she was, like many foreign leaders, greeted with a reception and offered tokens by her hosts. What was different about this occasion, however, were the gifts offered: live elk and beaver. In the long-standing tradition of the Hudson’s Bay Company, should the King or Queen arrive in the lands governed by the charter King Charles II granted in 1660, he or she would be presented with two elk and two beavers by the company officials.

The ocean shapes our history. From the birth of humanity, oceans have separated and connected cultures. They have entranced and terrified generations. And they have shaped history in critical ways. Maritime trade. Naval warfare. Ocean exploration. Across the centuries, the ocean became a site for scientific advances and a highway for globalization. The Ocean Blue explores the way seas influence human history, from the ancient world to today.

From the writers behind the acclaimed documentary series Enslaved, starring Samuel L. Jackson, comes a rich and revealing narrative of the true global and human scope of the transatlantic slave trade. The trade existed for 400 years, during which twelve million people were trafficked and two million would die en route. In these book, we meet the remarkable group Diving with a Purpose (DWP) as they dive for sunken slave ships all around the world.

In 2001, at 47, Thomas DeWolf was astounded to discover that he was related to the most successful slave-trading family in American history, responsible for transporting at least 10,000 Africans to the Americas. His infamous ancestor, U.S. senator James DeWolf of Bristol, of Rhode Island, curried favor with President Jefferson to continue in the trade after it was outlawed.

No one present at the Battle of Cape Lopez off the coast of West Africa in 1722 could have known that they were on the edge of history. This obscure yet fierce naval battle would have a monumental impact on British colonies and the future of slavery in America.