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Empires of Labor: Coercion and the Making of the Modern World
From the seventeenth century to the First World War, both free and unfree labor were essential for building an empire. This ambitious study examines the relationship between capitalism and coercion across the British, French and Russian empires throughout centuries of economic transformation. Overturning conventional explanations of serfdom, slavery, indentured migration and wage labor, Alessandro Stanziani demonstrates the dominance of aristocratic capitalism across Europe and Eurasia until the end of the nineteenth century. He links the Industrial Revolution, the Great Divergence and the Great Transformation into a single narrative in which the coercion and emancipation of labor are crucial steps. Stanziani argues that, if the modern state is now beset with labor inequalities and tensions surrounding mobility, it is not because Western values have been hijacked but because they were built on empire, labor and coercion.
Book Details
- Publisher: Cambridge University Press
- Publish Date: Dec 18th, 2025
- Pages: 360
- Language: English
- Edition: undefined - undefined
- Dimensions: 0.00in - 0.00in - 0.00in - 0.00lb
- EAN: 9781009608596
- Categories: • Economic History
About the Author
Stanziani, Alessandro: - Alessandro Stanziani is Professor of Global History at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) and Senior Researcher at the CNRS. He is the author of Earth Capital: The Long History of Capitalism and Its Aftermath.
Praise for this book
'In a tour de force of four centuries of labor history across the British, French and Russian empires, Alessandro Stanziani develops a new view of the central role of coercion in the development of global capitalism. A fine-grained analysis deeply rooted in extensive archival research, he shows how serfdom, slavery, indenture and other forms of unfree labor structured the capitalist revolution deep into the nineteenth century. A book that effectively questions many cherished notions about the rise of the world we live in; required reading for anyone trying to come to terms with modern history.' Sven Beckert, author of Capitalism: A Global History
'A novel, erudite, and comparative exploration of empires, their labor politics, and social transformation by a master of world economic history. Stanziani's extensive research turns the tables on Eurocentric assumptions and produces a highly revisionist interpretation of industrialization, abolition, and the persistence of social inequity.' Jane Burbank, co-author of Post-Imperial Possibilities: Eurasia, Eurafrica, Afroasia
'Building on Stanziani's extensive research and insights into the bond between forced labour and capitalism, Empires of Labour offers a groundbreaking study of how labour systems have shaped political and economic change worldwide from the sixteenth century.' Tirthankar Roy, author of Monsoon Economies