"A thought-provoking contribution that challenges existing interpretations about key dimensions of Lancashire's cotton textile industry during the Cotton Famine years." Professor Geoff Timmins, University of Central Lancashire "A fresh and fearless perspective on a fusty and well-worn topic that many historians had considered settled years ago [.] historians reading this book in the future will rely on it for the Civil War period - it is as near a final words as can be imagined." Bruce E. Baker, Enterprise & Society "Losing the Thread is an impeccably researched contribution to literature on the influence of the American Civil War on Britain. [It] undoubtedly achieves its two objectives of providing a more detailed analysis of the British cotton industry during the Civil War era and the impact of the war on the trade in Liverpool." Kate Rivington, Australasian Journal of American Studies "What Powell has accomplished with this work is impressive. It is a carefully crafted piece of research that corrects lazy historical assumptions and lays bare an important moment in British history.

" Erik Mathisen, English Historical Review "Jim Powell has written a comprehensive and illuminating account of how the American civil war affected the Liverpool raw cotton market. In doing so, Powell has successfully disproved many of the myths that surround the U.K.-impact of this war." David M. Higgins, Journal of Economic History "Jim Powell's reconsideration of the Lancashire cotton famine is one of the most important works published in the field for many years. It is the first fresh examination of the single most devastating economic impact of the American Civil War overseas since the 1960s. [Powell's] slim monograph presents a forensic examination of merchants, brokers and cotton shipments coming in and out of Liverpool.

It cuts through received wisdom with a sharp knife. a refreshingly iconoclastic book." David Brown, American Nineteenth Century History.