he Chains is the taut, gripping account of one of the most brilliantly organized social justice campaigns in history--the fight to free the slaves of the British Empire.

Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for History
A National Book Award Finalist
A San Francisco Chronicle Bestseller

In early 1787, twelve men--a printer, a lawyer, a clergyman, and others united by their hatred of slavery--came together in a London printing shop and began the world's first grassroots movement, battling for the rights of people on another continent. Masterfully stoking public opinion, the movement's leaders pioneered a variety of techniques that have been adopted by citizens' movements ever since, from consumer boycotts to wall posters and lapel buttons to celebrity endorsements. A deft chronicle of this groundbreaking antislavery crusade and its powerful enemies, Bury the Chains gives a little-celebrated human rights watershed its due at last.

"Bury the Chains is by far the most readable and rounded account we have of British antislavery, a campaign that...helped to change the world and can be seen as a prototype of the modern social justice movement"--Los Angeles Times Book Review