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Bury The Chains
Prophets And Rebels In The Fight To Free An Empire's Slaves
by Adam Hochschild
The historian takes us back to late 18th century England, where a group of twelve men were the impetus for a burgeoning human rights movement that worked to free hundreds of thousands of slaves worldwide.
Houghton Mifflin, 480 pages
01/07/2005
$26.95
ISBN: 0618104690
Nonfiction
History
All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...
Entertainment Weekly Jennifer Reese
[Hochschild's] descriptions of West Indian slavery in Bury the Chains will make you want to put down the book and shut your eyes in horror.
Kirkus Reviews
A powerfully inspiring tale of how a few—a persistent few—can eventually convince the many to question their most fundamental beliefs.
Publishers Weekly
It's a brilliantly told tale, at once horrifying and pleasurable to read.
Library Journal Frederick J. Augustyn Jr.
In gruesome detail, the reader learns that profits from the slave trade ironically provided the funds for university libraries, hospitals, poorhouses, and elegant residences. [15 Nov 2004, p.70]
Chicago Sun-Times Debra Bruno
There are few books that could serve as a required and much-loved text for a high school history class and also a compelling Sunday afternoon read for anyone. This is one of those books.
Christian Science Monitor Gerard DeGroot
Extraordinary... A blend of bitter and sweet. Gut-wrenching descriptions of the cruelty inflicted upon slaves are juxtaposed with deeply inspiring tales of men and women determined to end the suffering. Hypocrisy intertwines with virtue; goodness with venality.
San Francisco Chronicle Jason Thompson
A gripping and inspiring account of the abolitionist crusade. In it, he deftly teases out the movement's significance in terms of the activist techniques that evolved from it.
Washington Post Steven Mufson
Riveting... The dedicated members of that campaign surely deserve a monument; until then, they have this splendid book.
The Guardian Robin White
This is a wonderful book, full of richness and colour - a celebration of many people's achievements. It's a testimony to both evil and goodness: a story in which, for once, goodness wins.
Daily Telegraph Ian Thomson
Gripping... Hochschild has a novelist's flair for narrative, and this is a horrifically readable history.
Daily Telegraph Max Hastings
For all its terrible theme, Hochschild's book is not in the least depressing, because it is suffused with admiration for the courage and enlightenment of the men and women who crusaded against this evil, and finally prevailed.
The Independent Roz Kaveney
[Hochschild] is extraordinarily good on the way that the movement brought together people who went on to other political commitments.
Chicago Tribune Eric Arnesen
A powerful, elegantly written and often moving book, "Bury the Chains" offers us a vivid and compelling tale of men--idiosyncratic, persistent, dedicated and moralistic--at the reins of a novel movement to overthrow a powerful, well-entrenched and brutal institution.
Houston Chronicle James D. Fairbanks
While Bury the Chains may not tell the full story, it does offer powerful and moving portraits of some little-known but truly remarkable champions of human rights.
The Onion A.V. Club Donna Bowman
Serves as both a thrilling history of the movement to abolish Britain's slave trade, and a case study of moral evolution.
The Economist
It is not an enjoyable read, but it is stirring and unforgettable.
The Spectator Sam Leith
It is discriminating, packed with anecdote and quotation, and really well written.
Los Angeles Times Robin Blackburn
By far the most readable and rounded account we have of British anti-slavery, a campaign that, as the author rightly claims, helped to change the world and can be seen as a prototype of the modern social justice movement. [9 Jan 2005, p.R8]
The New Yorker
His capacious narrative is both disturbing and fascinating, and not without its ironies: when Parliament finally did abolish slavery, in 1833, plantation owners were generously compensated for their loss of "property."
Salon Priya Jain
Teeming with anecdotes and incidents in several countries, filled with characters who pop up for a few paragraphs only to disappear from the story until years later, Bury the Chains isn't the smoothest read, but it is amazingly thorough... Thankfully, the book is also entertaining.
Booklist Vanessa Bush
Hochschild... brings drama and incredible research to this thrilling look at the little-celebrated abolition movement in Britain and its reverberations throughout modern democracies. [1 Sept 2004, p.2]
Boston Globe Richard Brookhiser
Bury the Chains suffers, however, from a major flaw, which I can only call Hochschild's dislike of Christianity. He seldom misses an opportunity to mock and belittle it, and since many of the figures in his story are devout Christians, even clergymen, he is kept busy.
The New York Times Book Review Marilynne Robinson
Vast, entrenched and profitable as the slave trade was, how did they manage to bring it to an end? That they did end it is assumed by Hochschild rather than proved by him. It seems a little odd in a historian to use the improbability of a movement's success as grounds for heightened admiration, rather than for heightened attention to other contributing factors.
The Nation Daniel Lazare
There's no doubt that British humanitarianism was selective in terms of whom to feel sorry for and whom not to. Abolition did not succeed in Britain until it transcended the narrow middle-class moralism that Hochschild celebrates.
 The average user rating for this book is 9.3 (out of 10) based on 3 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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