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Article: The Slave Trade: The History of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1440-1870.
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- December 6, 1997
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Middle passage
THE SLAVE TRADE: THE HISTORY OF THE ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE, 1440-1870. By Hugh Thomas. Picador; 925 pages; K25. Simon & Schuster; $37.50
HUGH THOMAS, an adept of the broad sweep-of-history school, has tackled his latest subject, the human commerce between Africa and the Americas, brokered by Europeans, with assiduity. His archival knowledge of the Spanish empire, expanded by his earlier blockbusters on the Spanish civil war, Cuba and the conquest of Mexico, has stood him in good stead.
The Iberian initiative was critical in the development of one of Europe's most gruesome contributions to history. Lord Thomas takes his readers back to the ...