Michael L. Bush

This book is a collection of academic essays on the theme of servitude and ranges widely through time and place. A variety of researchers present case studies of slavery and serfdom ; however the themes are desperate and while it is valuable to gather these studies in one volume this book does not exhaust the subject matter. a collection of works is always difficult to manage and the editor, Michael Bush has attempted cohesion and comparative analysis in his introductory chapter . Engerman and Kolchin also contribute comparative chapters, Considering the role of Africa in the slave trade and extensive literature and history of slavery in Africa, disappointly there is nothing here on African slavery. the book is the product of a conference held at the University of Manchester in 1994 . There is no discussion as to the criteria used to select the published chapters/ contributions . In my opinion there is too little economic analysis and data as both slavey and serfdom were economic systems for organizing land ownershio and use and driving production over many centuries. a key question is why did both systems endure for so many centuries over so much of the world, Overall this is a solid work likely to interest historians and legal scholars.… (mere)