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Time on the Cross: The Economics of American Slavery Revised ed. Edition

4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 111 ratings
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First published in 1974, Fogel and Engerman's groundbreaking book reexamined the economic foundations of American slavery, marking "the start of a new period of slavery scholarship and some searching revisions of a national tradition" (C. Vann Woodward, New York Review of Books).

In an Afterword added in 1989, the authors assess their findings in the light of recent scholarship and debate.
Previous page
  1. ISBN-10
    0393312186
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0393312188
  3. Edition
    Revised ed.
  4. Publisher
    W. W. Norton & Company
  5. Publication date
    August 17, 1995
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    5.5 x 0.9 x 8.3 inches
  8. Print length
    336 pages
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"With one stroke [this book] turned around a whole field of interpretation and exposed the frailty of history done without science."
― New York Times Book Review

From the Back Cover

Time on the Cross is at once a jarring attack on the methods and conclusions of traditional scholarship and a lucid, highly readable analysis of the special American problem - black slavery.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company; Revised ed. edition (August 17, 1995)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0393312186
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0393312188
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.9 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.9 x 8.3 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 111 ratings

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  1. Robert William Fogel

    Robert William Fogel

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    Stanley L. Engerman

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Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
111 global ratings
This copy was so marked up with purple marker it was very distracting to try and read.
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Top reviews from the United States

Liberty Blacksmith
5.0 out of 5 stars Must read for History Buffs
Reviewed in the United States on March 4, 2024
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Very well written (non-technical) synopsis of their technical papers dealing with the economics of chattel slavery pre War Between the States. Contrary to the prevailing opinion, before this came out in 1976, slavery as economically viable and thriving and not likely to die out.
Interesting ramifications for the factory system and division of labor for the industrial age as well. Must read this book !
One person found this helpful
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Westernflyer
5.0 out of 5 stars Nobel Peace Prize Winner in Economics Professor Fogel came to the amazing conclusion that on the whole
Reviewed in the United States on June 2, 2016
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In the course of discovery in old US Government documents, Nobel Peace Prize Winner in Economics Professor Fogel came to the amazing conclusion that on the whole, Southern Slaves fared better overall physically in diet and housing than many of the so called, "Free Working Class People" in the Industrialized Northern States. Slaves were treated much better than we are taught today because in a slave economy their worth is a substantial monetary investment. The facts in the archived US Government documents; production records, bills of lading for food, etc. are irrefutable. In my opinion, the author's conclusions run contrary to the politicaly correct speech of today making for a challenging and thought provoking book.
The Southern States use of slave labor made them a, "economic juggernaut" poised to overtake the Industrialized Northern States economically prior to the Civil War. Of course, we can not put any price on a person's freedom and the author does not suggest otherwise.
17 people found this helpful
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steven B. horan
4.0 out of 5 stars very informative
Reviewed in the United States on August 7, 2013
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Good book a little repetitive on some topics, gives a new perspective on that era in time and the economic perspective.
3 people found this helpful
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philip
5.0 out of 5 stars The Truth Be Told Hard Nails Research
Reviewed in the United States on August 19, 2017
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This is an outstanding work on slavery in the U.S. The author takes the reader across time from Colonial America to the Reconstruction tragedy years. The work is the idea ideal for the serious observer of history being a product of years of outstanding research. It is actually written as a two volume set. The first takes a serious non-emotion look at Slavery in America with outstanding references. The observations of the author are based on formulamatic surveys found in vol. 2. The reader can rest assured that volume 1 is a stand alone book after I read vol. 2 which explains in detail the equations used and buttresses the information of vol. 1. This is a must for the serious researcher. I highly recommend both volumes.
7 people found this helpful
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ISNM
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book
Reviewed in the United States on October 18, 2022
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New material
One person found this helpful
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LOU TOPASH
5.0 out of 5 stars Most accurate
Reviewed in the United States on November 17, 2019
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I started to read this book that was presented in "Book of the Month" in Readers Digest (1974). I read a little & stopped. I wanted to read it from the book so I ordered the book. I could NOT put it down.
3 people found this helpful
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John Gelhard
1.0 out of 5 stars The Authors Don't Value Freedom
Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2023
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Apparently the authors would choose prison if it raised their standard of living.
3 people found this helpful
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Joan C Wrenn
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing analysis, overall impact needs wider thought
Reviewed in the United States on August 27, 2015
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Amazing analysis. Hard to figure out how to take it - of course slavery was terrible, but the economic implication is that it wasn't so bad (economically), especially compared with the time since Emancipation. Then try to weigh the economic impact vs the social, family, educational impact, and it puts the economic impact at the bottom of the list, convincing me that we still have a Very Long way to go to repair all the damage to millions of families.
8 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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giuliano
4.0 out of 5 stars time on the cross
Reviewed in Italy on April 27, 2013
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libro base per capire la visione più recente dell'economia schivista negli stati del sud. vincitore dell'unico premio nobel assegnato alla storia economica
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S. Smith
3.0 out of 5 stars A too favourable view of Slavery
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 20, 2012
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This book is about a highly sensitive and controversial subject. Its main aim is to shift the debate on slavery away from an anecdotal approach based on impressions to one based on their "cliometric" or statistical methodology, a method which discounts whatever is not measurable. Unfortunately its central aim, which should make it a critical contribution to the study of North American slavery, is overshadowed by the authors' apparent desire to provoke controversy. Its other failing is its authors' unwillingness to engage fully with the brutal nature of slavery, claiming that it is not relevant to their economic study.

Fogel and Engerman attack the historians they regard as economically illiterate, particularly Ulrich Phillips. Phillips believed that slavery was an inefficient user of incompetent labour, financially unprofitable and doomed to failure in competition with free labour, and that it inhibited the economic development of the southern USA. He also argued that the aim of plantation society was less to make money than to control and "civilise" its black slaves and that its leaders were benign patriarchal landlords, not crude exploiters.

Fogel and Engerman disagree on every point. They challenge Phillips' stereotype of slaves as incompetent or inefficient. They also argue that southern farms using slave gang labour were more efficient than northern free farms, and that gang labour was efficient and well managed, often by black managers. Their economic evidence for this efficiency seems credible. However, they also show that gang labour involved forcing slaves to work in conditions in which free labour, black or white, would refuse to work except for wages that would make the plantations uneconomic. The apparent efficiency of gang labour was therefore based on compulsion not purely on economic factors.

Secondly, they argue that the material conditions of slaves were not inferior to those of free farmers, including southern poor-whites. Here, their estimates are based on limited data (often planters' rough estimates) of food produced on southern plantations, or on national, mainly northern, averages frequently from post civil war years. This not only makes their conclusions on living standards dubious, but suggests a less than impartial acceptance of unsuitable data to prove their assumptions.

Fogel and Engerman seem largely insensitive to the human consequences of slavery. They excuse this, claiming that their study is about the economics of slavery in comparison with free farming. This looks like an evasion: Phillips, who they rightly criticise, tried to describe the whole phenomenon of pre-Civil War slavery and these authors' attack on him and others is not limited to economics. For example, their attacks on 19th century accounts of bad plantation conditions, not only from convinced abolitionists, are close to an apology for the plantation system.

Overall, the authors prove some, but not all, of the points they make on the efficiency of slavery, but only in in purely economic terms. However, their optimistic views on the material conditions of slaves and their minimising of its brutality and oppression detract from the value of their account. If you read this book, read it critically, and be aware of its limitations.
6 people found this helpful
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D. Halliday
2.0 out of 5 stars Severely flawed
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 13, 2015
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I used this book for an investigation of cliometrics since it's one of the most famous examples of a cliometric study.

It uses cliometric (economic) techniques to investigate the institution of slavery and come up with some revolutionary conclusions.

However, the reader should be aware this work is now regarded as almost completely discredited for many reasons, including sloppy methodology, incorrect source data, misrepresentations, flawed assumptions and outright non sequiturs. In my opinion, it's one of those history works like AJP Taylor's Origins which sets out to be deliberately provocative, cherry picks whatever supports a (politically motivated) preconceived conclusion and ignores contrary evidence to come up with an unconvincing "revisionist" conclusion. Like AJP Taylor's Origins, it received wide acclamation from the general public but severe criticism, even outrage, from experts some of which was published in a detailed rebuttal.

If you want to read it, best would be to read it in conjunction with Gutman's critique:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Slavery-Numbers-Game-Critique-Blacks/dp/0252071514/ref=sr_1_5
2 people found this helpful
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