Empire of Cotton

Why it’s on the list: Beckert’s Bancroft-winning global history of the cotton industry — how European merchants and statesmen built the first genuinely worldwide manufacturing complex out of imperial expansion, slave labor, machines and wage work.

Where I heard about it

• Michael Pettis (@michaelxpettis) — opening a ten-post thread on X, September 2025: “It’s a bit repetitive in its main theses, and sometimes a bit of a slog, but well worth reading for those interested in the history of trade and industrial policy.”

Connections

• Globalization — cotton as the first global supply chain.
• Industrial Policy — the state’s hand in building the industry, which is Pettis’s reason for the recommendation.
• Manufacturing — the industry the modern factory system was invented to serve.