The Book

The book “Empire of Cotton” (2014) tells the history of globalized capitalism by taking the example of cotton as its focal point. It was precisely this raw material which for the first time in history systematically linked far away regions with each other producing a powerful fabric of production and retail chains. The global material history which the historian Sven Beckert traces, reaches from the integration of European cotton production in the transatlantic slave trade and colonialism to the establishment of global markets in the present. The book vividly explains these complex relations between collective amnesia and contemporary politics, between plantations and ports, between weaving looms and free trade zones, between violence and inequality in past and present and makes them tangible.

Where can I borrow or read the book?

The printed volumes of “Empire of Cotton”, both in English and German, can be borrowed with a valid library card from the State and University Library.

SuUB has licensed access to the e-book “Empire of Cotton”, also for both the English and German issue.
Members of universities in Bremen can access the E-Book from home as they do for all the licensed online books of the library.

Authorized users can use the limited-access e-resources off campus through the ZfN's (Center for Networks) VPN service. Users from the University of Bremen will require a ZfN user account to access this service, which connects and configures a proxy server through your web browser.

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/zfn/other-it-services/vpn.html

An overview of access to limited electronic media can also be found on the SuUB website:

https://www.suub.uni-bremen.de/home-english/info-en/remote-access/