Trade History

A sweeping case that, in a world of trade disputes, higher tariffs, and broader geopolitical uncertainty, a new age of economic localization will put an end to the last half century of globalization—by one of the preeminent economic journalists writing today “This invaluable book is as bold...

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 1848, the British East India Company, having lost its monopoly on the tea trade, engaged Robert Fortune, a Scottish gardener, botanist, and plant hunter, to make a clandestine trip into the interior of China - territory forbidden to foreigners - to steal the closely guarded secrets of tea horticulture and manufacturing. For All the Tea in China is the remarkable account of Fortune's journeys into China - a thrilling narrative that combines history, geography, botany, natural science, and old-fashioned adventure.

Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark are internationally renowned investigative journalists. In Deception, they reveal the decades-long story of Pakistan's nuclear program - and how the United States has been complicit in the spread of nuclear arms. Based on hundreds of interviews from around the world, this work will force Americans to reexamine national priorities.

The never-before-told inside story of the rebuilding of the World Trade Center — an epic tale of business, politics, and engineering by the man who spent two decades working to make it happen After the terrorist attacks of 9/11 destroyed the World Trade Center, New Yorkers and Americans faced...

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.

From the dazzling spectacle of Day of the Dead to the enduring legacy of Frida Kahlo, ¡Viva Mexico! explores the people, places and cultural traditions that define this vibrant country. You’ll discover how Mexican food, festivals, music and family all play a part in shaping modern Mexican...

Ambassador C. Donald Johnson's The Wealth of a Nation is an authoritative history of the politics of trade in America from the Revolution to the Trump era.

Journey on the Silk Road, and discover trade, cultures, and adventures from the ancient world! Step onto the fabled Silk Road, an epic network of ancient trade routes that spanned thousands of miles and linked the East and West for centuries. In The Silk Road, embark on a captivating voyage through time and terrain, where cultures converged, goods flowed, and history unfolded.

In 2008, American journalist Jere Van Dyk was kidnapped and held for 45 days. At the time, he had no idea who his kidnappers were. They demanded a ransom and the release of three of their comrades from Guantanamo, yet they hinted at their ties to Pakistan. In The Trade, Jere Van Dyk uses the sinuous path of his own kidnapping to explain the recent rise in the taking of Western hostages across the greater Middle East.

The Atlantic Slave Trade is a crucial examination of one of history’s most horridly significant epochs, detailing its impact on the world, particularly in West Africa. You will be taken on an emotional and intellectual voyage, examining the horrifying ocean passages suffered by millions, the sociopolitical tides in West Africa, and the ultimate act of abolition.

A stunning behind-the-curtain look into the last years of the illegal transatlantic slave trade in the United States.

The Silk Road, which has been understood as a generalized route of trade between the East and the West, is different from European, North African, and Near Eastern trade routes because until recently, it has been understood as solely being a land route; in fact, it was believed to be the longest overland trade route in human history. The history of the Silk Road is extremely complex. It cannot be told as a singular chronological narrative.

Peter Pond, a fur trader, explorer, and amateur mapmaker, spent his life ranging much farther than Milford, Connecticut, where he was born and died (1740-1807). He traded around the Great Lakes, on the Mississippi and the Minnesota Rivers, in the Canadian Northwest, and was a partner in Montreal’s North West Company. Knowing 18th-century North America on a scale that few others did, Pond drew some of the earliest maps of western Canada. David Chapin presents Pond’s life as part of a generation of traders who came of age between the Seven Years’ War and the American Revolution.

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 timely, in-depth, and vital exploration of the American labor movement and its critical place in our society and politics, from acclaimed labor reporter Hamilton Nolan. Inequality is America’s biggest problem. Unions are the single strongest tool that working people have to fix it...

At a fort in Cabo Vermelho in 1779, Sisi, a West African girl with a gift for languages, works as a translator for her English enslavers. She was separated from her younger brother after they were kidnapped from their village by the ahosi, fierce female warriors who serve a neighboring king—and her guilt over her failure to protect him has never left her. When unexpected news reaches the fort, Sisi must find her voice, for her brother’s sake and for her own.

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...

Abolitionism was the movement that strove to end slavery in the United States. The abolitionists saw slavery as a stain and an affliction on the United States and made it their goal to eradicate slave ownership. Abolitionists produced anti-slavery literature, sent petitions to Congress, and ran for political office.

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. Initially a slaving vessel itself, the Black Joke was captured in 1827 and repurposed by the Royal Navy to catch its former compatriots. Over the next five years, the vessel liberated more enslaved people than any other in Britain’s West Africa Squadron.