"This study of the transfer of slave plantations from the eastern Mediterranean to the tropical New World demonstrates [Curtin's] insight into transregional patterns. The detail in his wide-ranging account is impressive, and it provides the reader with an informative overview."

-- David A. Chappell, Journal of World History

Submitted by Publisher, March, 2001

Over a period of several centuries, Europeans developed an intricate system of plantation agriculture overseas which was quite different from the agricultural system used at home. Though the plantation complex centered on the American tropics, its influence was much wider. Much more than an economic order for the Americas, the plantation complex had an important place in world history. These essays concentrate on the intercontinental impact.