Williams wrote a highly influential, challenging, detailed history of the relationship between the economic gains to be made in the sugar trade that motivated the British and West Indians to develop and support slavery. The voluminous detail Williams includes reminded me of texts such as Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago, Tooze's Wages of Sin, and the documentary Shoah. In this respect, the book is not for the faint of heart, nor does it constitute 'light and informative' reading.
Williams' analysis is challenging in that it does not place racism at the forefront of its investigation, but rather sees racism as a contributing factor to economic needs. Williams text is not fiery Marxism, however, but rather close economic analysis, complete with profit and loss reporting, investment track records, and consideration of the sundry interests of landowners, sugar refinery operators, shippers, slave traders, and government.
The text also explores the 'triangular trade' of slaves, sugar, and manufactured goods that provided the foundation for British imperial trade monopolies of the 18th-century.
A bootleg version of the text can be located at: archives.org.
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