A World Transformed: How slavery in the Americas changed the world

Our interview with Professor James Walvin, author of the new book A World Transformed: Slavery in the Americas and the Origins of Global Power. Professor Walvin discusses working on the history of enslavement over the past four decades and his most recent work, in which he explores how the brutal enforced transportation and labour of millions of Africans continues to have significant consequences today. Slavery shaped many of the dominant features of Western taste: items and habits or rare and costly luxuries, some of which might seem, at first glance, utterly removed from the horrific reality of slavery. Dr. Walvin traces the global impacts of slavery over centuries, far beyond its legal or historical endpoints, arguing that the world created by slave labour lives on today.

Content warning: This episode contains discussions of child abduction, physical coercion, racism, human trafficking, and child abuse which some listeners may find distressing.