Slavery and the Numbers Game
A Critique of Time on the Cross
Introduction by Bruce Levine
Exploding the pro-slavery revisionism of the 1975 book Time on the Cross
Paper – $22
978-0-252-07151-5
Publication Date
Paperback: 08/12/2003
About the Book
Robert Fogel and Stanley Engerman's Time on the Cross argued that slavery was an efficient and dynamic engine for the southern economy and that its success was due largely to the willing cooperation of the slaves themselves.In this detailed economic analysis of slavery, legendary labor historian Herbert G. Gutman offers a systematic dissection of Time on the Cross, drawing on a wealth of data to contest that book's most fundamental assertions. A benchmark work of historical inquiry, Gutman's critique sheds light on a range of crucial aspects of slavery and its economic effectiveness. Gutman emphasizes the slaves' responses to their treatment at the hands of slaveowners. He shows that slaves labored, not because they shared values and goals with their masters, but because of the omnipresent threat of negative incentives, primarily physical violence.
A foundational study of slavery in the United States, Slavery and the Numbers Game is a devastating analysis of a controversial book that remains influential due to Fogel's 1993 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences,
About the Author
Herbert Gutman (1928-85) was distinguished professor of history in the Graduate College of the City University of New York and the author of The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom, 1750-1925, Work, Culture, and Society and Power and Culture.Reviews
"Gutman has destroyed the mathematical mystique of Time on the Cross, punctured its claims of novelty, accuracy, and understanding, examined the past reviews of the work, and begun a new tradition in his critique."—American Historical Review
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