Eighty-year-old study of British slave trade is back in the bestsellers list

Capitalism and Slavery, by the future first prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago Eric Williams, argues that the abolition of slavery was motivated by economic, not moral, concerns

A book of unpalatable truths about Britain's slave trade has become a UK bestseller, almost 80 years after author Eric Williams was told by a British publisher: I would never publish such a book, for it would be contrary to the British tradition."

Capitalism and Slavery was first published in the US in 1944, and although it was briefly printed in the UK 20 years later by Andre Deutsch, it has remained largely out of print here ever since.