Empire of cotton: a global history

Author:  Sven Beckert

Sven Beckert boldly proclaims "It was on the back of cotton, and thus on the backs of slaves, that the U.S. economy ascended in the world”. And this is no idle speculation from an ignorant cotton farmer. Sven Beckert is a professor of history at Harvard University and is a world-renowned expert on global history. Reading this book, I couldn’t help being impressed that one human being could possess and process the knowledge that is expounded in the 600+ pages in this book. Consequently, this is not an easy read and there are many places in the book where I felt like yelling “Sven, I get it. There’s no need to quote from several different history books. Can we just get on with the story?"

The story starts well before the US entered the cotton industry and it is countries like India and China that were the most advanced in growing, spinning and weaving cotton. In the early 18th century, Europe primarily had wool and flax clothing and these did not take to colorful dyes, so their clothes were drab. British colonization and some timely innovations in spinning and weaving, gave birth to the first wave of industrialization in Great Britain. The spinning jenny and the steam and water weaving machines transformed Britain into a textile powerhouse in the early nineteenth century.  The plentiful land in the US south along with the free slave labor, skyrocketed the US into the top echelon of cotton growers. By 1860 almost 60% of US exports were cotton. Needless to say, cotton was a huge fraction of the US economy; and it was slaves that really enabled all of this. According to Sven, this is one of the key reasons why it was so difficult for the US to abolish slavery.

Through all of this, Britain played the role of manufacturing by building mega factories that were staffed by mostly women and children. In some cases as much as half the workers were children who were co-erced by their parents to work to bring home some additional income. Sven points out how the history books have forgotten these workers and you hardly hear any of their stories.

The US Civil war in the 1860s dried up the cotton supply and Britain and the rest of Europe desperately tried to grow cotton in some of their colonies. None of these were too successful. We seem to have come a full circle now with almost 50% of the world’s cotton production coming from India and China again. Read this book for all the gory details. 

Between the World and Me

Author: Ta-Nehisi Coates

This book reads like poetry. I stopped counting the number of lines that are quote-worthy. Ta-Nehisi Coates divides the world into the exploiters and their victims. He is quick to point out that all the wealth and success of the white folks has come at the expense of the black slaves. We couldn’t have one without the other.

The book is written in the form of a letter from Ta-Nehisi Coates to his fifteen year old son who will soon be leaving him to make his own discovery of the world. Ta-Nehisi explains his views, with the backdrop of his own upbringing in the rough and tumble Baltimore neighborhood. While the book is to a large extent “preachy”, it does have several anecdotes and stories that keep your interest. It is just 176 pages long and was the perfect length to keep me occupied on the flight from San Jose to Boulder, Colorado.

Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead

Author: Lazlo Bock

Lazlo Bock is the head of the People Operations at Google.  During his tenure, Google was named Best Company to Work for over 30 times, in places all around the globe. With such a stellar record, there must be a few things that they are doing right and Lazlo gives us all the low-down in this book. 

There are many anecdotes that are part of Google legend that you can read about here. Along the way you will find nuggets of wisdom that apply to any work place. Lazlo starts by highlighting the importance of founders. While Google is blessed with some truly amazing founders in Larry & Sergey, Lazlo reminds us that being a “founder” is a state of mind. You don’t have to start a company to be a founder, you can be the leader of a group and behave like a founder and lead by example. 

Lazlo describes several of the cool initiatives that Google has going and is quick to point out that many of them are free or cost very little to operate. All it takes is the willingness to say “Yes” and trust your employees. He delves into the question of equitable pay and makes the case for top performers to be paid “unfairly” large sums of money. 

At times, I felt that Lazlo falls victim to believing that everything that Google has done is right. It would have been interesting to read about some of the failed initiatives as we learn more from failures than from successes. Nevertheless, there is a ton of useful information in the book that I am eager to implement in my workplace. I recommend this book to anyone who cares to make their work a better place!

A Machine Called Indomitable

Author: Sonny Kleinfeld

Who knew that the invention of the NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) Spectroscopy had all the trappings of an epic drama. This book chronicles the life and work of Dr. Raymond Damadian and his quest to build a machine that could detect a tumor in any part of the body with a simple scan. As the title indicates, the machine was called Indomitable and the book chronicles Damadian’s struggle convincing the establishment that NMR Spectroscopy is for real. 

Damadian’s vision was to build a machine that could do a full body scan and he was not willing to take any shortcuts. While he had figured out the basics of magnetic resonance, building a machine that could scan the entire human body was not straightforward. His first challenge was getting a magnet that was large enough to produce the required magnetic field. Since this really didn’t exist, Damadian and his colleagues Larry Minkoff and Michael Goldsmith set out to build one. They incorporated a company, FONAR in 1978 and built the first commercial whole body MRI scanner. 

Dr. Damadian’s nemesis  Dr. Lauterbur proved to be his alter-ego and  Lauterbauer was awarded the Nobel prize for his work on NMR, while Damadian was not mentioned at all. This further exacerbated the already strained relations between the two scientists. 

It is very inspiring to read about Dr. Damadian’s unflinching focus and purpose in building the Indomitable Machine. Most scientists and doctors at the time didn’t believe in the concept. Undeterred, Damadian pushed forward, somehow securing the funds needed to stay afloat and get the materials he needed to build a prototype. He stuck with his plan and had to surmount some rather huge obstacles to build a large magnet that a patient could be placed in. This is an inspiring read for anyone who is struggling to convince the establishment about their brilliant idea!