Rating: 
Summary: Avant-Garde Economic Interpetation of American Slavery
Review: Fogel and Engerman challenge the traditional conception of slavery has being a non-productive system but a highly competitive system of human labor. The authors challenged the traditional notion that the Southern aristocracy engaged in sexual conduct with Slaves but according to their research based on Southern Brothels that most whites engaged in illicit sexual activity with other white women. The notion of sexual liberalism in 18th and 19th Century South is contradicted by their body of research. The idea of white aristocracy having sexual relations with the slaves is contradicted by the fact that very few statistics show this relationship through Southern demography. The second fallacy of slavery is that the immigrant community in the north had a higher standard of living than the slaves of the South. This is contradicted by several indicators researched by the authors. A very stimulating book that can be classifed in the Davies slavery genre.
Rating: 
Summary: A Great Example of Bad History
Review: Fogel and Engerman's "Time on the Cross" was used in one of my junior history classes. The professor had us read it, write a paper on it and then, after we handed in our papers, demolished the book in class. He assigned it entirely as an example of sloppy historical research and how something well written can be convincing even if its based on deeply flawed information. Quite often Fogel and Engerman rely on a singal, somewhat questionable, example to support a sweeping generalization of the entire institution of slavery. Much of their work rests on a single source which they use time and time again to prop up a badly construted hypothesis. When this is coupled with a devotion to the idea of man as a rational economic actor you have something that is almost an apologia for the entire practice of slavery. My suggestion is to read this book and read it well. Use a critical eye when they present information and pay attention to their sources. Use this book as a tool to help you discover the many avenues of failure in writing history. Do not, I beg of you, use it as a guide to the truth because there is precious little in here.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Example of Bad History
Review: Fogel and Engerman's "Time on the Cross" was used in one of my junior history classes. The professor had us read it, write a paper on it and then, after we handed in our papers, demolished the book in class. He assigned it entirely as an example of sloppy historical research and how something well written can be convincing even if its based on deeply flawed information. Quite often Fogel and Engerman rely on a singal, somewhat questionable, example to support a sweeping generalization of the entire institution of slavery. Much of their work rests on a single source which they use time and time again to prop up a badly construted hypothesis. When this is coupled with a devotion to the idea of man as a rational economic actor you have something that is almost an apologia for the entire practice of slavery. My suggestion is to read this book and read it well. Use a critical eye when they present information and pay attention to their sources. Use this book as a tool to help you discover the many avenues of failure in writing history. Do not, I beg of you, use it as a guide to the truth because there is precious little in here.
Rating:
Summary: Any Study of the Subject of Slavery Should Start Here
Review: It explodes every myth, and there are scores, about slavery. Using the raw data lying dormant and too cumbersome prior to the appearance of high speed computers the Nobel Laureate Economist from the University of Chicago applied the then new technology to census,plantation, and other records with results no one could have anticipated. Among the myths dismantled by this scholarly but readable book; sexual exploitation was rare, familys were rarely broken up by sale and "breeding" plantations simply did not exist. This book,if made mandatory reading at all universities could even restore some sanity to discussions on race, something that has been missing in ths country for 30 years.
Rating: 
Summary: Flawed methodology & boneheaded interpretation
Review: The reviews below present the findings of this book as unproblematic and uncontested. In fact, publication of this book in 74 caused a firestorm of debate and criticism. My title sums up the main thrust of the criticisms, for anyone especially interested see Herbert Gutman's, "The World Two Cliometricians Made", Journal of Negro History, Jan. 75, for one of the most persuasive of the book's critics.
Rating: 
Summary: An Econometric Approach to Slavery
Review: This book is a must read for any students of Economic History. Rather than using a traditional approach to history, the book uses a particularly mathematical approach to the economics of slavery. Its conclusions are based collected data. Some of the books conclusions may bother people. Such as the implications that explotation of slaves can be mitigated by the money they receive during the course of their life. It also offers evidence that certain henious practices such as breeding, and sexual relationships between master and slave, were not as wide-spread as is commonly believed. It also attacks the notion that any modern family problems, specifically the commonality single parent homes, can be attributed to the purposeful degredation of the family unit by slave holders. This book does not try to convince people that slavery was an acceptable economic system. I believe its intent was to make the readers better informed about slavery. I would hope that the reader realizes the true evil of slavery was not the conditions associated with it, but rather depriving others of their freedom for economic gain.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent in destroying the myth of the oppressed slaves
Review: This is an excellent econometric study of the institution of Southern slavery, showing it to be relatively benign in the South (whereas in other countries it could be hideously oppressive). One book that would be interesting to read in conjunction with this is "The South Was Right!" by James Ronald Kennedy and Walter Donald Kennedy which also lays to rest the myth that the American Civil War was fought over the slavery issue,actually the pretext for war. The Kennedys suggest partly an economic motive in that the North wanted to retain the South as "milch cow" to be milked for tariffs. They imply an underlying battle between Northern Federalism and Southern States' Rights, and insist that the War should be called the War for Southern Independence.
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Summary: Time on the Cross : The Economics of American Negro Slavery.
Review: This is an excellent study of the economics of chattel slavery, and shatters a number of cherished liberal myths. While I'm on the subject, I'd like to ask Brad Fuller a question: If the author's methodolgy is so flawed, why is he a Nobel laureate in economics, principally for his work on this book?
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Summary: Time on the Cross shatters myths about slavery in America
Review: This is one of the best books I've ever read on American negro slavery. What makes it a valuable edition to the academic literature is that the authors did not go into this with any ideological axes to grind. Indeed, both are political liberals who thoroughly deprecate the institution of slavery as a social and moral evil. They simply wanted to attain a better understanding of the actual economics of slavery in the Old South by analyzing the Plantation Books (i.e. the financial logs of Southern planters) and other relevant statistical resources so as to be able to accurately assess what slavery was like and how it affected the slave, the master and Southern society as a whole. Much to their surprise, the authors concluded that slavery, as it was, bore little resemblance to the fictional, fever-swamp, nonsense that is peddled by the NAACP, the liberal media, Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey and left-wing academics. They found that slaves had a better diet and better housing conditions than their wage-slave, immigrant counterparts in the North. They also found that slave families were rarely broken up and that miscagenation between masters and slaves was exceeedingly rare -- indeed, almost nonexistant. They also found that many slaves earned substantial incomes - a fact that surprises many people who believe that slaves did not earn money for their labour. I could go on and on but that would give away the book and ruin the joy of reading a text that absolutely blows away virtually all the "conventional wisdom" you've ever heard repeated about slavery in the Old South. Anyone who really wants to learn the truth about slavery owes it to themselves to buy and read this book.
Rating:
Summary: You can't make up your own research!
Review: Though Time on the Cross takes on a new approach to the subject of slavery, the authors' research is horrid. It is as though they made up their minds what they were going to find and then made sure their research (or lack there of) fit their thesis. Much of there data is inaccurate or irrelevant, such as tables that compare the occupation distribution of antebellum slaves to that of all males in 1870 to show that slaves held fewer laboring jobs (as opposed to artisan or managerial positions). 1870 is after the industrial revolution begins to take place so there are obviously more laborers than skilled workers. The book is filled with these inaccurate interpretations of data and some claims that are completely unfounded. "Reckoning with Slavery" by David, Gutman, Sutch, Temin, Wright and Stampp is a good book to read along with Time on The Cross, to see the many errors which the authors find in Fogel and Engerman's "masterpiece". This book is good in that it teaches readers to be objective and understand that statistics can be bent to support what an author wants to prove.
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