The Empire of Necessity
E169371
The Empire of Necessity is a historical nonfiction book by Greg Grandin that examines slavery, capitalism, and rebellion in the early 19th-century Atlantic world through the story behind Herman Melville’s “Benito Cereno.”
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Empire of Necessity canonical | 1 |
| The Empire of Necessity: Slavery, Freedom, and Deception in the New World | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1481801 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Empire of Necessity Context triple: [Greg Grandin, notableWork, The Empire of Necessity]
-
A.
A Mercy
"A Mercy" is a historical novel by Toni Morrison that explores themes of slavery, motherhood, and identity in 17th-century America through the intertwined lives of several women.
-
B.
Middle Passage
The Middle Passage was the brutal transatlantic sea journey during which enslaved Africans were forcibly transported under horrific conditions to the Americas.
-
C.
The Liberator
The Liberator was a prominent 19th-century American abolitionist newspaper that became a leading voice in the movement to end slavery in the United States.
-
D.
Newport Rising
Newport Rising was a major 1839 Chartist-led armed uprising in Newport, Wales, and one of the most significant episodes of working-class protest in 19th-century Britain.
-
E.
The Test of Freedom
The Test of Freedom is a work by American socialist leader and six-time presidential candidate Norman Thomas that reflects his political philosophy and advocacy for civil liberties and social justice.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Empire of Necessity Target entity description: The Empire of Necessity is a historical nonfiction book by Greg Grandin that examines slavery, capitalism, and rebellion in the early 19th-century Atlantic world through the story behind Herman Melville’s “Benito Cereno.”
-
A.
A Mercy
"A Mercy" is a historical novel by Toni Morrison that explores themes of slavery, motherhood, and identity in 17th-century America through the intertwined lives of several women.
-
B.
Middle Passage
The Middle Passage was the brutal transatlantic sea journey during which enslaved Africans were forcibly transported under horrific conditions to the Americas.
-
C.
The Liberator
The Liberator was a prominent 19th-century American abolitionist newspaper that became a leading voice in the movement to end slavery in the United States.
-
D.
Newport Rising
Newport Rising was a major 1839 Chartist-led armed uprising in Newport, Wales, and one of the most significant episodes of working-class protest in 19th-century Britain.
-
E.
The Test of Freedom
The Test of Freedom is a work by American socialist leader and six-time presidential candidate Norman Thomas that reflects his political philosophy and advocacy for civil liberties and social justice.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (40)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
history book
ⓘ
non-fiction book ⓘ |
| author | Greg Grandin ⓘ |
| awardReceived |
Bancroft Prize
ⓘ
Los Angeles Times Book Prize ⓘ
surface form:
Los Angeles Times Book Prize for History
National Book Critics Circle Award for General Nonfiction (finalist) ⓘ
surface form:
National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction nomination
|
| basedOn | historical events behind Herman Melville’s novella Benito Cereno ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| exploresTheme |
African diaspora
ⓘ
Spanish Empire ⓘ maritime history ⓘ relationship between slavery and capitalism ⓘ slave resistance ⓘ |
| genre |
historical non-fiction
ⓘ
history of slavery ⓘ |
| hasISBN | 978-0-8050-9467-6 ⓘ |
| hasSubject |
global trade in the 19th century
ⓘ
slave ship revolt ⓘ whaling industry ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
Atlantic world
ⓘ
Benito Cereno ⓘ Herman Melville ⓘ capitalism ⓘ rebellion ⓘ slavery ⓘ |
| mediaType |
hardcover
ⓘ
paperback ⓘ print ⓘ |
| notableFor |
linking Melville’s fiction to real slave revolts
ⓘ
reinterpreting the historical background of Benito Cereno ⓘ |
| originalTitle |
The Empire of Necessity
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
The Empire of Necessity: Slavery, Freedom, and Deception in the New World
|
| pageCount | approximately 360 ⓘ |
| placeOfNarrativeFocus |
Atlantic Ocean
ⓘ
Pacific coast ⓘ South America ⓘ |
| publicationDate | 2014 ⓘ |
| publisher | Metropolitan Books ⓘ |
| setInPeriod | early 19th century ⓘ |
| timeOfNarrative | circa 1800s ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The Empire of Necessity Description of subject: The Empire of Necessity is a historical nonfiction book by Greg Grandin that examines slavery, capitalism, and rebellion in the early 19th-century Atlantic world through the story behind Herman Melville’s “Benito Cereno.”
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
The Empire of Necessity: Slavery, Freedom, and Deception in the New World