The Apocalypse of Settler Colonialism · the Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy, and Capitalism in 17th Century North America and the Caribbean

Virtually no part of the modern United States--the economy, education, constitutional law, religious institutions, sports, literature, economics, even protest movements--can be understood without first understanding the slavery and dispossession that laid its foundation. To that end, historian Gerald Horne digs deeply into Europe's colonization of Africa and the New World, when, from Columbus's arrival until the Civil War, some 13 million Africans and some 5 million Native Americans were forced to build and cultivate a society extolling "liberty and justice for all." The seventeenth century was, according to Horne, an era when the roots of slavery, white supremacy, and capitalism became inextricably tangled into a complex history involving war and revolts in Europe, England's conquest of the Scots and Irish, the development of formidable new weaponry able to ensure Europe's colonial dominance, the rebel merchants of North America who created "these United States," and the hordes of Europeans whose newfound opportunities in this "free" land amounted to "combat pay" for their efforts as "white" settlers.

Centering his book on the Eastern Seaboard of North America, the Caribbean, Africa, and what is now Great Britain, Horne provides a deeply researched, harrowing account of the apocalyptic loss and misery that likely has no parallel in human history. This is an essential book that will not allow history to be told by the victors. It is especially needed now, in the age of Trump. For it has never been more vital, Horne writes, "to shed light on the contemporary moment wherein it appears that these malevolent forces have received a new lease on life."

"Gerald Horne returns to the scene of the crimes that birthed the modern

world. With cinematic flair, he takes us through what at first may

appear to be familiar terrain—slavery, dispossession, settler

colonialism, the origins of capitalism—but by extending his analytical

lens to the entire globe, he delivers a fresh interpretation of the 17th

century. His careful attention to European militarism, technology,

national and imperial political dynamics disrupt the now common Anglo

North American story of the emergence of whiteness, racial slavery, and

class consolidation. Thanks to Horne, what Marx once called the ‘secret

of primitive accumulation’ is no longer such a secret." —Robin D. G. Kelley, author, Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination

"This

is history as it should be done. Acutely perceptive and solidly

documented, lucidly presented and uncompromising in its conclusions, The Apocalypse of Settler Colonialism

reveals the roots of our present socioeconomic nightmare with a force

and clarity unrivaled by anything previously available. Gerald Horne,

already a leading voice in forging a counterhegemonic understanding of

the ‘empire of liberty’ we now inhabit, has truly surpassed himself.

This book simply must be read." —Ward Churchill, author, A Little Matter of Genocide

"Gerald

Horne strengthens his stature as one of our leading global historians

with this ambitious and engaging book. Taking settler colonialism

seriously as central to the development of whiteness, he brilliantly

situates changes in that tiny part of the 17th century world in what

would become the U.S. within far wider worlds of increasingly racialized

commodities and cruelties. Among much else Horne demonstrates that

colonies were not marginal to capitalism nor to the politics of the

colonial powers." —David Roedgier, University of Kansas; author, Class, Race, And Marxism

"Drilling

down in the 17th Century Atlantic world made by European colonialism

through invasions, occupations, ethnic cleansing, and enslavement of

Indigenous Peoples of the Americas and Africa, historian Gerald Horne

reveals the roots of white nationalism and capitalism, the pillars of

the United States political-economy today. This brilliant, concise

monograph is a must-read for all who propose to change the social order." —Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz, author, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States

"One of the preeminent global historians of repression and resistance, Gerald Horne has done it again. The Apocalypse of Settler Colonialism

follows the “three horsemen” that gave rise to the West: slavery, white

supremacy, and capitalism. Horne’s erudite look at this

seventeenth-century apocalypse brings together the hemispheric struggles

of Black and Indigenous peoples for reparations. He shows that

transnational solidarity is the greatest foe of settler colonial

domination." —Dan Berger, University of Washington; author, Captive Nation: Black Prison Organizing in the Civil Rights Era

"The Apocalypse of Settler Colonialism

interrogates the roots of white supremacy, enslavement, and racism in

the United States. Horne focuses on reconstructing England’s emergence

as an empire and the impact of Cromwell’s ‘Glorious Revolution’ on its

colonies in the Western Hemisphere in the 17th and early 18th centuries.

He notes the ascendancy of the class interests of the ‘surging

merchants’ or bourgeoisie in England and their white settler

counterparts in the colonies, particularly in North America. The

relationship between England’s Caribbean sugar colonies, particularly

Jamaica and Barbados, with its settler colonies, is also explored.

Horne’s text has relevance for our contemporary political reality and

the persistence of settler colonialism ideology, structural racism, and

racial capitalism today. His assessment that calls for a ‘massive

program of reparations’ from African and Indigenous people to ‘repair

immense damage inflicted over centuries’ is provocative and intriguing. The Apocalypse of Setter Colonialism is a must-read for all wishing to understand the historical roots of race oppression in the U.S. today." —Akinyele Umoja, Professor and Department Chair, Department of African-American Studies, Georgia State University; author, We Will Shoot Back

"Gerald Horne’s The Apocalypse of Settler Colonialism

is a meticulous history of the colonial era, one that opens portals

into understanding the power of white nationalism to determine

contemporary elections. Horne’s well-researched text maps the evolution

of historical cross-class alliances among Europeans and settlers that

enabled white voters to consistently choose racial animus over decency.

Imperial capitalism, rapacious colonialism, human trade, genocidal

wars—all were incubated by the white racism that stabilizes the present

order. Apocalypse details how centuries of warfare, greed or need in

both the ‘old’ and ‘new’ worlds were resolved by slavery and the

spilling of African and Indigenous blood. Despite the efforts of

maroonage to stem its rise, a ‘master race’ addicted to a b`ete

noire-as-cash crop thrived. Essential reading for those who wish to

comprehend how the past led to the violence of the present order, and

how best to plot an alternate trajectory." —Joy James, Williams College; author, Seeking the Beloved Community: A Feminist Race Reader

Gerald Horne is Moores Professor of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston, and has published three dozen books including, The Counter-Revolution of 1776: Slave Resistance and the Origins of the USA and Race War! White Supremacy and the Japanese Attack on the British Empire.