MERCHANT KINGS When Companies Ruled the World, 1600-1900

For listeners who relish history on a grand scale, this audiobook indictment of the great European trading kings will be riveting, and eye-opening. Dictatorial and insatiable, these weren't capitalists but monopolists--Clive in India, Simpson in Canada, Rhodes in South Africa, figures forgotten today who nevertheless shaped national boundaries and plundered whole subcontinents. Narrator Malcolm Hillgartner, a favorite of those who listen to serious nonfiction, is especially effective in cutting these once-towering figures down to size. His steady, even, judicious tone makes history's judgment of the Russian colonization of Alaska, and the Dutch East India Company's ruthless behavior in the Spice Islands, all the more implicit. D.A.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine [Published: MARCH 2022]