The Sugar Barons

Born in Central America Matthew Parker spent part of his childhood in the West Indies acquiring a life-long fascination with the history of the region. Since graduating from Oxford he has worked as an editorial consultant on a number of works of history and written three bestselling books. He now lives with his family in east London. <p>For 200 years after 1650 the West Indies were the most fought-over colonies in the world as Europeans made and lost immense fortunes growing and trading in sugar - a commodity so lucrative that it was known as white gold. <br><br>Young men beset by death and disease an ocean away from the moral anchors of life in Britain created immense dynastic wealth but produced a society poisoned by war sickness cruelty and corruption. <br><br><i>The Sugar Barons</i> explores the lives and experiences of those whose fortunes rose and fell with the West Indian empire. From the ambitious and brilliant entrepreneurs to the grandees wielding power across the Atlantic to the inheritors often consumed by decadence disgrace and madness this is the compelling story of how a few small islands and a handful of families decisively shaped the British Empire.</p> Compelling wonderful . . . <i>The Sugar Barons</i> is an exemplary book; history as it should be written Gripping . . . a compendium of greed horrible ingenuity and wickedness but also a fascinating and thoughtful social history A shocking tale of corruption and brutality ... an admirable and gripping history Very impressive - a meticulously researched piece of work and so engagingly written ... what a story! A tumultuous rollercoaster of a book ... Mr Parker tells an extraordinary neglected and shameful history with gusto