By Adam Hochschild

Category: History, Europe, Slavery
Publisher: Mariner Books
Format: Paperback, 496 pages, Black/White Photographs
Pub Date: February 10, 2006
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 0618619070

From the Publisher:

From the author of the widely acclaimed King Leopold’s Ghost comes the taut, gripping account of one of the most brilliantly organized social justice campaigns in history—the fight to free the slaves of the British Empire. In early 1787, twelve men—a printer, a lawyer, a clergyman, and others united by their hatred of slavery—came together in a London printing shop and began the world’s first grass-roots movement, battling for the rights of people on another continent. Masterfully stoking public opinion, the movement’s leaders pioneered a variety of techniques that have been adopted by citizens’ movements ever since, from consumer boycotts to wall posters and lapel buttons to celebrity endorsements. A deft chronicle of this groundbreaking antislavery crusade and its powerful enemies, Bury the Chains gives a little-celebrated human rights watershed its due at last.

Adam Hochschild was born in New York City in 1942. His first book, HALF THE WAY HOME: A MEMOIR OF FATHER AND SON, was published in 1986. It was followed by THE MIRROR AT MIDNIGHT: A SOUTH AFRICAN JOURNEY (1990) and THE UNQUIET GHOST: RUSSIANS REMEMBER STALIN (1994). FINDING THE TRAPDOOR: ESSAYS, PORTRAITS, TRAVELS won the 1998 PEN/Spielvogel-Diamonstein Award for the Art of the Essay. Hochschild’s books have been translated into five languages and have won prizes from the Overseas Press Club of America, the World Affairs Council, the Eugene V. Debs Foundation, and the Society of American Travel Writers. Three of his books - including KING LEOPOLD’S GHOST - have been named Notable Books of the Year by THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW and LIBRARY JOURNAL. KING LEOPOLD’S GHOST was also awarded the 1998 California Book Awards gold medal for nonfiction. Hochschild has also written for THE NEW YORKER, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS, THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE, MOTHER JONES (which he co-founded), THE NATION, and many other magazines and newspapers. A former commentator on National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered,” he teaches writing at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley. In 1997-98 he was a Fulbright Lecturer in India. He lives in San Francisco with his wife, Arlie, the sociologist and author. They have two sons.