"In the mid-nineteenth century, U.S. slavery was characterized by relentless expansion and unrelenting exportation, not only of commodities but also of ideas. Zach Sell traces U.S. slavery's significance to colonial land-based dispossessions on a global scale, showing how slavery molded the...

How it began: Great Britain and the developing world. The East India company -- Informal empire: Argentina; Egypt; China -- Varieties of colonialism: India, Nigeria -- How it continues: the United States and the developing world. Seeking influence abroad: Caribbean, Pacific Asia -- Fighting...

The cotton crisis: Lancashire, the American South, and the turn to "Empire Cotton" -- "The Black man's crop": The British Cotton Growing Association and Africa -- "The scientific redemption of Africa": Coercion and regulation in colonial agriculture -- "King Cotton's impoverished retinue":...

Silver, mercantilism, and the impulse for colonization -- The first decades of English American settlement, 1607- -- Monetary upheaval, recovery and the Dutch infiltration, 1640- -- Mercantilism, mints, clipping, smuggling, and piracy, 1660- -- Empire in crisis and flux, 1670- -- Showdown in...