The apocalypse of settler colonialism The roots of slavery, white supremacy, and capitalism in seventeenth-century North America and the Caribbean

With his typical craft and erudition and the scholarly architecture of his book, Horne (African American history, Univ. of Houston) may transform common understandings of the historical developments that led to the formation of the British Empire and the US. His short volume reveals how settler colonialism, the emergence of capitalism, the Atlantic slave trade, and the formation of white supremacy grew as interconnected processes within the British imperial system and, subsequently, in the US. In short, his argument is that inter-imperialist rivalries, fear of slave rebellions, the desire to acquire new lands, and responses to internal class dynamics produced greater demand for profits, an expanded slave trade, a racial slavery system, privileges for "white" identity, and the ascendancy of the merchant class. Of particular interest is the author's discussion of the role of the English merchant class, which wavered between republicanism and monarchism. The merchants used the Glorious Revolution to privatize the slave trade and unleash the productive forces that laid the foundations for capitalism and British imperialism, all based on the nascent triple structure of settler colonialism, white supremacy, and the enslavement of Africans. Summing Up: Recommended. All academic levels/libraries. --Joel Robert Wendland, Grand Valley State University