Negative Positive
Title: Some Needed Perspective
Review: Meltzer provides a readable overview of the role of slavery in human history. Any book that takes on a broad topic such as this is bound to come up short in some ways, but overall he does a creditable job of explaining slavery in various societies for the beginner. Too often Americans tend to particularize their history and fail to see the "big picture". Coming to understand the flow of the slave trade (where most slaves were shipped to the Islands and Brazil), how the British ended slavery, that slavery existed in South America for years after the United States Civil War and continued in the Arab countries helps put a different slant on the issue. Europeans, who are sometimes all too ready to judge the American experience, should consider Belgium's role in Africa.King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa.
Is the review positive or negative? 