[AnAmericanMother]

Read Eugene Genovese. He's a socialist (if not a commie) but a respected historian just the same. His thesis was that slavery would have fallen of its own weight as soon as the Industrial Revolution got a good foothold in the South. He wrote a whole book on it, with facts and figures.

That was not my area of concentration (I wrote my thesis on the military side, really) but I read the book. It was 30 years ago, so I don't remember the title, but I know it was by Genovese.

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

His thesis was that slavery would have fallen of its own weight as soon as the Industrial Revolution got a good foothold in the South. He wrote a whole book on it, with facts and figures.

Which is 20/20 hindsight. Find any southern (or northern, for that matter) political leader saying as much in 1860. Instead what you find are people like Alexander Stephens saying that slavery in the cornerstone of the south, or the Mississippi Declaration of Causes saying,

"Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery-- the greatest material interest of the world. Its labor supplies the product which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce of the earth. These products are peculiar to the climate verging on the tropical regions, and by an imperious law of nature, none but the black race can bear exposure to the tropical sun. These products have become necessities of the world, and a blow at slavery is a blow at commerce and civilization."

[Non-Sequitur]

His thesis was that slavery would have fallen of its own weight as soon as the Industrial Revolution got a good foothold in the South. He wrote a whole book on it, with facts and figures.

What Genovese doesn't identify is what would have replaced the slave labor if slavery fell?

The book was "The Political Economy of Slavery," BTW.

[algernonpj]

Read Eugene Genovese. He's a socialist (if not a commie) but a respected historian just the same. His thesis was that slavery would have fallen of its own weight as soon as the Industrial Revolution got a good foothold in the South. He wrote a whole book on it, with facts and figures.

Is this it: The Political Economy of Slavery

I went a'searching because I vaguely remember reading something similar once.