Raynal's work was a best-seller in the late eighteenth century, despite its running to over one million words and its world-wide scope. Raynal had access to a vast quantity of documentary evidence and was its editor as well as its author, calling upon Diderot and others as contributors. The resulting text, especially in its second edition, was opposed to colonialism and imperialism, and exposed facts about slavery and other forms of exploitation. The result was a blueprint for humanitarian movements, even though Raynal himself repudiated some of his own tenets in defending constitutional monarchy. Jimack offers a selection of powerful passages on the behavior of the Dutch, English, French, Russians Portuguese and others in the East Indies, Spain's operations in the West Indies (North and South America), the slave trade and its relationship to commerce, and the settling of North America and the creation of the US. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)