Gene Dattel Reading & Signing "Cotton and Race in the Making of America" at the Clinton A.M.E. Zion Church!

Noted historian and economist Gene Dattel, author of many history articles for various publications and the book The Sun that Never Rose, will be reading from and signing his new book, Cotton and Race in the Making of America. Join The Bookloft at the Clinton African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Great Barrington on February 27th at 2:30 PM for this historical event!

Gene Dattel has a long history as an economic advisor. A graduate of both Yale and Vanderbilt Law School, he has worked for both Salomon Brothers and Morgan Stanley, as well as government and private sectors. He is an advisory scholar for the New York Historical Society, and contributes his writing and performance skills to theater.

Cotton and Race in the Making of America explores the connection between slavery and cotton, and how, even after the Civil War, free black citizens could not escape the shadow of the cotton industry. Dattel demonstrated that it was not until mechanical cotton picking machines were invented that large numbers of African Americans could finally break free from the industrial prison that had contained them for over 150 years - and how even now black Americans live in a society built on the backs of their families.

Cotton and Race in the Making of America: The Human Costs of Economic Power (Hardcover)

By Gene Dattel, Gene Dattel

$28.95

ISBN-13: 9781566637473
Availability: Special Order - Subject to Availability
Published: Ivan R. Dee Publisher, 10/01/2009

"Cotton and Race in the Making of America is a bold, unflinching, evenhanded interpretation of the connection between cotton, race, and the American experience. Dattel explores the force of cotton’s economically productive, but socially devastating, march across America between 1787 and 1930.

This is an American, not a Southern, story; it is a vastly unappreciated tale that is central to America’s rise to economic power. Cotton may no longer be king, but its legacy endures. In order to understand American history it is necessary to understand the role of cotton."

- From Gene Dattel's website

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