The Reckoning

“Tremendously impressive, the result of a lifetime of learning. Historical writing at its best”
—Marcus Rediker, author of The Slave Ship

“By concluding his decades-long project on New World slavery, and by drawing the attention of British readers to an often-neglected aspect of that history, Blackburn has fittingly capped a lifetime of scholarship.”
—Michael Taylor, Literary Review

“A comprehensive history of the final years of slavery in the Americas … The Reckoning provides important insight into why the United States political and commercial reality is where it’s at today.”
—Ron Jacobs, Counterpunch

“A magnificent conclusion to a quartet of books on New World slavery … in explaining the economics of the Second Slavery [Blackburn] never lets us forget the brutality under-pinning it. It kept me riveted throughout.”
—Chris Bambery, Counterfire

“Robin Blackburn, longtime editor of the New Left Review, is probably the foremost Marxist historian of New World slavery working today … With The Reckoning: From the Second Slavery to Abolition, 1776-1888, the historian provides the long-awaited concluding volume to his chronological trilogy on racial slavery in the New World.”
—Owen Dowling, Jacobin

“Slavery in America, Brazil, and Cuba relied on capitalist markets, which supplied credit and demand for slave-made goods. The Reckoning, Robin Blackburn’s monumental history, offers a dizzying account of the politics behind this system’s rise and fall.”
—Alec Israeli, Jacobin

“While historians have given us accounts of the second slavery before, Blackburn is one of the first to provide us with a comprehensive narrative of what one may call the ‘second abolition.'”
—Manisha Sinha, The Nation

“Towards the end of the 18th century, slavery seemed to be fading as an institution, yet the 19th century saw intense expansions of slavery and new levels of exploitation in Cuba, Brazil, and the Southern United States. Robin Blackburn is the author of several works on the history of Atlantic slavery, and The Reckoning is clear, concise, and comprehensive—an essential addition to the history shelves and a necessary antidote to historical amnesia.”
—Lit Hub

“An extraordinary accomplishment, revealing why writing the history of slavery from an Atlantic perspective is not only beneficial but also essential.”
—Journal of Southern History

“Impressive in scope, nuance and detail. The Reckoning is an invaluable read.”
—Capital & Class