Slavery from Roman times to the early transatlantic trade /

Although the world little needs another short history of slavery and the slave trade, this particular work fills in certain obscure corners in ways that are valuable even to the knowledgeable reader. Phillips, a specialist on the economic history of late medieval Spain, traces the history of slavery as a Mediterranean institution from the Romans through medieval Europe, the Moslem Middle East, pre-European West Africa, the Iberian peninsula, the islands of the eastern Atlantic, and Latin America to 1650. Along the way, the reader is given a history of Mediterranean economic institutions, particularly sugar production, that were transferred with slavery over time and space. The chapters on African and Islamic slavery are short and simplistic but those on early Medieval Europe, Iberia, and the Canary Islands are unique in contemporary literature. The short chapter on Roman slavery is one of the best summaries in print. Phillips's survey is descriptive rather than theoretical but it could be used easily by the beginner or by the expert for its nicely written summation of contemporary scholarship. There are 33 pages of notes, an excellent 19-page bibliography of modern research organized by chapter, an index, and 4 maps (that are of little value). Public and undergraduate libraries.-R.T. Brown, Westfield State College