Princeton Economic History of the Western World

George R. Boyer is professor of economics and international and comparative labor at Cornell University. He is the author of An Economic History of the English Poor Law, 1750–1850. How did Britain transform itself from a nation of workhouses to one that became a model for the modern welfare state? The Winding Road to the Welfare State investigates the evolution of living standards and welfare policies in Britain from the 1830s to 1950 and provides insights into how British working-class households coped with economic insecurity. George Boyer examines the retrenchment in Victorian poor relief, the Liberal Welfare Reforms, and the beginnings of the postwar welfare state, and he describes how workers altered spending and saving methods based on changing government policies. From the cutting back of the Poor Law after 1834 to Parliament's abrupt about-face in 1906 with the adoption of the Liberal Welfare Reforms, Boyer offers new explanations for oscillations in Britain's social policies and how these shaped worker well-being. The Poor Law's increasing stinginess led skilled manual workers to adopt self-help strategies, but this was not a feasible option for low-skilled workers, many of whom continued to rely on the Poor Law into old age. In contrast, the Liberal Welfare Reforms were a major watershed, marking the end of seven decades of declining support for the needy. Concluding with the Beveridge Report and Labour's social policies in the late 1940s, Boyer shows how the Liberal Welfare Reforms laid the foundations for a national social safety net. A sweeping look at economic pressures after the Industrial Revolution, The Winding Road to the Welfare State illustrates how British welfare policy waxed and waned over the course of a century. "One of the book's great strengths is the way in which is seeks to integrate the history of social policy with the history of living standards more generally, and the book is enhanced by the author's efforts to place both living standards and social protection in an international context. - Bernard Harris" "An important, and useful, addition to the literature on the history of social welfare in modern Britain."---John Stewart, Journal of Social Policy "The Winding Road to the Welfare State represents a major contribution to the study of more than a century of British social and economic history, and has important implications for the debates on contemporary welfare and redistribution policy in the West."-Stanley Engerman, professor emeritus, University of Rochester "A well-written and persuasive account of complex crosscurrents in the economic, social, and political history of Great Britain, The Winding Road to the Welfare State reminds us that economic insecurity is still with us, as seen through the rise of the gig economy and hostility to skivers. Politicians who seek answers should read this book."-Roderick Floud, former provost of Gresham College, London "George Boyer offers a critical reappraisal of the rise of the welfare state in this deep study of economic insecurity, political voice, and poor relief policy in Britain. Boyer's innovation is to study living standards and social policy together, arguing persuasively that neither can be understood absent the other. What he calls the 'amazing persistence' of economic insecurity is rendered entirely understandable by the vast trove of economic, political, and social evidence he subjects to his perceptive analytic lens."-Anne E. C. McCants, Massachusetts Institute of Technology "In this book, George Boyer convincingly maps and explains the twists and turns of income shocks and British social policy from the Industrial Revolution to the postwar welfare state. After lagging behind other countries in the building of safety nets, Britain became a social-policy leader only when changes in political voice and public opinion permitted it."-Peter Lindert, University of California, Davis

Why Britain's attempt at small government proved unable to cope with the challenges of the modern world In the nineteenth century, as Britain attained a leading economic and political position in Europe, British policymakers embarked on a bold experiment with small and limited government. By the outbreak of the First World War, however, this laissez-faire philosophy of government had been abandoned and the country had taken its first steps toward becoming a modern welfare state. This book tells the story of Britain's laissez-faire experiment, examining why it was done, how it functioned, and why it was ultimately rejected in favor of a more interventionist form of governance. Blending insights from modern economic theory with a wealth of historical evidence, W. Walker Hanlon traces the slow expansion of government intervention across a broad spectrum of government functions in order to understand why and how Britain gave up on laissez-faire. It was not abandoned because Britain's leaders lost faith in small government as some have suggested, nor did it collapse under the growing influence of working-class political power. Instead, Britain's move away from small government was a pragmatic and piecemeal response-by policymakers who often deeply believed in laissez-faire-to the economic forces unleashed by the Industrial Revolution. W. Walker Hanlon is associate professor of economics and codirector of the Center for Economic History at Northwestern University. "Capitalism, globalization, and free markets are under attack everywhere. How on earth did we ever manage to adopt such a system and what really are its consequences? This book explains all of that by focusing on Britain, the country that led the way but then soon recanted. Essential reading for our times."-James Robinson, University of Chicago "This is an important work. Britain's experiment in laissez-faire and its eventual abandonment is a topic that should appeal to anyone interested in economic history, economics, or political science, and yet it has until now received relatively little attention. W. Walker Hanlon has written a comprehensive study of the period that is both informative and a pleasure to read."-Duncan Weldon, author of Two Hundred Years of Muddling Through "A tour de force. Hanlon shows how British policymakers embarked on an experiment with small and limited government in the first half of the nineteenth century only to abandon it as a response to emerging problems arising from the Industrial Revolution. Through a careful look at the historical evidence, he demonstrates that both the adoption and subsequent abandonment of laissez-faire can best be understood as part of a pragmatic and evolutionary search for a more efficient state rather than by ideological shifts or changes in the power of organized labor."-Stephen Broadberry, University of Oxford "Recommended."

Ron Harris is professor of legal history and former dean of law at Tel Aviv University. He is the author of Industrializing English Law. A historical look at the early evolution of global trade and how this led to the creation and dominance of the European business corporation Before the seventeenth century, trade across Eurasia was mostly conducted in short segments along the Silk Route and Indian Ocean. Business was organized in family firms, merchant networks, and state-owned enterprises, and dominated by Chinese, Indian, and Arabic traders. However, around 1600 the first two joint-stock corporations, the English and Dutch East India Companies, were established. Going the Distance tells the story of overland and maritime trade without Europeans, of European Cape Route trade without corporations, and of how new, large-scale, and impersonal organizations arose in Europe to control long-distance trade for more than three centuries. Ron Harris shows that by 1700, the scene and methods for global trade had dramatically changed: Dutch and English merchants shepherded goods directly from China and India to northwestern Europe. To understand this transformation, Harris compares the organizational forms used in four major regions: China, India, the Middle East, and Western Europe. The English and Dutch were the last to leap into Eurasian trade, and they innovated in order to compete. They raised capital from passive investors through impersonal stock markets and their joint-stock corporations deployed more capital, ships, and agents to deliver goods from their origins to consumers. Going the Distance explores the history behind a cornerstone of the modern economy, and how this organizational revolution contributed to the formation of global trade and the creation of the business corporation as a key factor in Europe's economic rise. "Various parts of his [Harris'] oeuvre can be fruitfully utilized to build a new approach, integrating the humanities with social and economic studies."---Carlo Taviani, Journal of Early Modern History "This is essential reading for business history, trade history, and organizational theory."---M. Chaiklin, Choice "Going the distance brings a novel view of institutions, as it opens the black box and studies the functioning of organizational forms of business using insights from legal studies and economy. . . . This book is an essential read for anyone interested in long-distance trade and its organization, as well as for economic and legal historians focusing on institutional analysis. . . . It brings new insights into methodological approaches for the study of the migration and transplantation of institutions."---Karolina Hutková, Economic History Review "A truly remarkable work of profound scholarship, destined to become a classic. Each micro-study is carefully crafted, mastering well both the specific elements pertaining to it and the way they relate to the bigger picture. . . . A genuine pleasure to read."---Guido Rossi, Edinburgh Law Review "A major academic achievement-certainly one of the most significant contributions to the history of business organizations published over the past decade. It manages to be both highly useful and profoundly challenging to other scholars at the same time. It will likely serve as one of the field's cornerstones for many years to come. The phrase "this is a must-read book" is abused all too often in academic book reviews, but in all seriousness and sincerity, this is a must-read book for anyone with even a passing intellectual interest in the business corporation."---Taisu Zhang, Journal of Economic History "Nourished by extensive research and reflection, matured through a long intellectual journey with the necessary broad focus, [Going the Distance] advances original theses and provides stimulating examples. The merits of Ron Harris' work are numerous, including unimpeachable rigour, and it is difficult to illustrate the cultural richness of

Richard S. Grossman is professor of economics at Wesleyan University and a visiting scholar at the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University. A sweeping look at the evolution of commercial banks over the past two centuries Commercial banks are among the oldest and most familiar financial institutions. When they work well, we hardly notice; when they do not, we rail against them. What are the historical forces that have shaped the modern banking system? In Unsettled Account, Richard Grossman takes the first truly comparative look at the development of commercial banking systems over the past two centuries in Western Europe, the United States, Canada, Japan, and Australia. Grossman focuses on four major elements that have contributed to banking evolution: crises, bailouts, mergers, and regulations. He explores where banking crises come from and why certain banking systems are more resistant to crises than others, how governments and financial systems respond to crises, why merger movements suddenly take off, and what motivates governments to regulate banks. Grossman reveals that many of the same components underlying the history of banking evolution are at work today. The recent subprime mortgage crisis had its origins, like many earlier banking crises, in a boom-bust economic cycle. Grossman finds that important historical elements are also at play in modern bailouts, merger movements, and regulatory reforms. Unsettled Account is a fascinating and informative must-read for anyone who wants to understand how the modern commercial banking system came to be, where it is headed, and how its development will affect global economic growth. "Grossman's is a good read. The book tells you as to how we got to be where we are. There are lessons to be learnt for those who want to go about reshaping reforms in global banking." "Grossman weaves an enormous amount of research into an impressive history of the banking industry in many developed countries over the last 200 years. His focuses primarily on changes in the size and structure of the banking industry over time and argues that banks and bank assets rise as a share of overall economic output and then fall as a country moves from developing to developed. . . . [T]his work represents a valuable contribution to the history of banking." "Professor Grossman has assembled an impressive collection of historical, statistical, and bibliographic data, one that would be extremely difficult to reproduce using other sources. This information will prove invaluable for those conducting intensive research on commercial or international banking, and Unsettled Account will make an excellent addition for libraries that commonly serve such patrons. Academic law libraries at institutions offering specific courses in commercial banking may also want to consider a copy."---Shannon L. Kemen, Law Library Journal "Unsettled Account provides us with a new and welcome history of the last three centuries of banking. Who should read this book? A lot of people. For the legions of political, social and cultural historians, if they have to read one book on the historical evolution of banking, this is it. It will provide them with the needed theoretical background without an equation in sight, useful country studies, and the insights needed to instruct their students. For the legions of economic theorists, if they have to read one book on the historical evolution of banking, this is it. The book is a guide to every key stylized fact they might use for a model, identifying the broad parameters of institutions and history. For the legions of policy makers, if they have to read one book on the historical evolution of banking, this is it. Distanced from the crisis of the moment, Grossman nicely hits the key issues and distills some relevant lessons."---Eugene White, EH.Net "[A] number of books stand out as works of real scholarship written by experts in their fields. Unsettled Account should

"A Foreign Affairs Best of Books" "Finalist for the Hayek Book Prize, Manhattan Institute" Richard N. Langlois is professor of economics at the University of Connecticut. He is the author of Firms, Markets, and Economic Change: A Dynamic Theory of Business Institutions (with Paul L. Robertson); The Dynamics of Industrial Capitalism: Schumpeter, Chandler, and the New Economy, which won the Schumpeter Prize of the International Joseph A. Schumpeter Society; and other books. A definitive reframing of the economic, institutional, and intellectual history of the managerial era The twentieth century was the managerial century in the United States. An organizational transformation, from entrepreneurial to managerial capitalism, brought forth what became a dominant narrative: that administrative coordination by trained professional managers is essential to the efficient running of organizations both public and private. And yet if managerialism was the apotheosis of administrative efficiency, why did both its practice and the accompanying narrative lie in ruins by the end of the century? In The Corporation and the Twentieth Century, Richard Langlois offers an alternative version: a comprehensive and nuanced reframing and reassessment of the economic, institutional, and intellectual history of the managerial era. Langlois argues that managerialism rose to prominence not because of its inherent superiority but because of its contingent value in a young and rapidly developing American economy. The structures of managerialism solidified their dominance only because the century's great catastrophes of war, depression, and war again superseded markets, scrambled relative prices, and weakened market-supporting institutions. By the end of the twentieth century, Langlois writes, these market-supporting institutions had reemerged to shift advantage toward entrepreneurial and market-driven modes of organization. This magisterial new account of the rise and fall of managerialism holds significant implications for contemporary debates about industrial and antitrust policies and the role of the corporation in the twenty-first century. "A monumental history of American business during the eventful decades when managers ruled."---Daniel Akst, Wall Street Journal "Sharp analysis. . . . Chock -full of sophisticated economic theory rendered in lucid prose, this adds up to a bracing evaluation of a consequential and once dominant commercial entity." "Illuminating. . . .Entertaining as well as scholarly, and it sheds interesting light on many of the personalities who have shaped or reshaped the American corporation. It is also a valuable corrective to some widely held misconceptions about American capitalism."---Sir Geoffrey Owen, Financial Times "{An} outstanding endeavour. . . . A milestone for students of business as well as economic history, without forgetting the insightful comments on the history of economic theory. Consequently, it is a fundamental work for students at any level and for those at any age interested in enlarging their knowledge of economic history."---Stefano Solari, History of Economic Thought and Policy "A richly detailed and engaging narrative of twentieth century American business."---Andrew Smith, Business History "A new and even better Alf Chandler has arisen, a Chandler who does not believe that the visible hand is always and everywhere the way to wealth. Langlois does the scientific job brilliantly, and does wisely, too, the political job of seeing the lessons for our collective lives."-Deirdre Nansen McCloskey, University of Illinois at Chicago "Richard Langlois's The Corporation and the Twentieth Century is a major achievement and stands as the best and most important work on the history of the modern American business corporation." -Tyler Cowen, George Mason University "Langlois provides an erudite and wide-ranging reinterpretation of the rise and subsequent decline of large managerial corporation

"Winner of the 2012 National Jewish Book Award in Scholarship" "One of Jewish Ideas Daily.com's 40 Best Jewish Books of 2012" Maristella Botticini is professor of economics, as well as director and fellow of the Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research (IGIER), at Bocconi University in Milan. Zvi Eckstein is dean of the Arison School of Business and of the School of Economics at IDC Herzliya in Herzliya, Israel; Judith C. and William G. Bollinger visiting professor in the Finance Department at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania; and emeritus professor in the Eitan Berglas School of Economics at Tel Aviv University. How the Jewish people went from farmers to merchants In 70 CE, the Jews were an agrarian and illiterate people living mostly in the Land of Israel and Mesopotamia. By 1492 the Jewish people had become a small group of literate urbanites specializing in crafts, trade, moneylending, and medicine in hundreds of places across the Old World, from Seville to Mangalore. What caused this radical change? The Chosen Few presents a new answer to this question by applying the lens of economic analysis to the key facts of fifteen formative centuries of Jewish history. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein offer a powerful new explanation of one of the most significant transformations in Jewish history while also providing fresh insights into the growing debate about the social and economic impact of religion. "[A]mbitious . . . systematically dismantle much of the conventional wisdom about medieval Jewish history."---Jonathan B. Krasner, Forward "[W]here so many have simply taken as a given universal literacy among Jews, [Botticini and Eckstein] find that a majority of Jews actually weren't willing to invest in Jewish education, with the shocking result that more than two-thirds of the Jewish community disappeared toward the end of the first millennium. . . . The astonishing theory presented here has great implications for both the Jewish community and the broader world today."---Steven Weiss, Slate "[E]ventually, The Chosen Few will have changed the course of history in the Middle East . . . as part of a broad reinterpretation of the history of the peopling of the world, underway for a century and a half, that has begun gathering force since the 1990s. . . . This may be the first you have heard about The Chosen Few, but I pretty much guarantee you that it will not be the last."---David Warsh, Economic Principals "[P]rovocative." "Botticini and Eckstein's simple yet sophisticated human capital analysis provides new insights into Jewish history for the fourteen centuries covered in this book. . . . [Their] methodology yields a very convincing Cliometric analysis that we can expect to inform all future economic histories of the Jews between 70 and 1492."---Carmel U. Chiswick, EH.net "I found The Chosen Few, a book on Jewish economic history by Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, enormously enlightening and relevant to the draft-the-Haredim debate."---Shlomo Maital, Jerusalem Report "If you've ever wondered how the Chosen People survived the vagaries of history, reading The Chosen Few will give you answers you cannot find anywhere else." "This is a trailblazing, original, illuminating and horizon-broadening book."---Manuel Trajtenberg, Haaretz "Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein have written a remarkably interesting book with a new hypothesis about the occupational structure of the Jews. The authors adduce serious evidence for their hypothesis, which lays stress on the requirement introduced nearly 2,000 years ago for universal male literacy among the Jews. This is a fascinating and persuasive combination of history and economics, worth reading by all, even the unhappy few who like neither history nor economics."-Stanley Fischer, governor of the Bank of Israel "The Chosen Few is a masterpiece: an ambitious, informed, and inspirational reinterpretation of Jewish social and economic history."

How medieval Dutch society laid the foundations for modern capitalism. The Netherlands was one of the pioneers of capitalism in the Middle Ages, giving rise to the spectacular Dutch Golden Age while ushering in an era of unprecedented, long-term economic growth. Pioneers of Capitalism examines the formal and informal institutions in the Netherlands that made this economic miracle possible, providing a groundbreaking new history of the emergence and early development of capitalism. Drawing on the latest quantitative theories in economic research, Maarten Prak and Jan Luiten van Zanden show how Dutch cities, corporations, guilds, commons, and other private and semipublic organizations provided safeguards for market transactions in the state's absence. Informal institutions developed in the Netherlands long before the state created public safeguards for economic activity. Prak and van Zanden argue that, in the Netherlands itself, capitalism emerged within a robust civil society that constrained and counterbalanced its centrifugal forces, but that an unrestrained capitalism ruled in the overseas territories. Rather than collapsing under unrestricted greed, the Dutch economy flourished, but prosperity at home came at the price of slavery and other dire consequences for people outside Europe. “Pioneers of Capitalism” offers a panoramic account of the early history of capitalism, revealing how a small region of medieval Europe transformed itself into a powerhouse of sustained economic growth, and changed the world in the process.

Eric L. Jones is Professorial Fellow at Melbourne Business School, University of Melbourne; Emeritus Professor at La Trobe University; and Visiting Professor at Exeter University. He is the author of The European Miracle and numerous other books and articles on economic history, economic development, international affairs, and environmental history. "Economists agree about many things--contrary to popular opinion--but the majority agree about culture only in the sense that they no longer give it much thought." So begins the first chapter of Cultures Merging, in which Eric Jones--one of the world's leading economic historians--takes an eloquent, pointed, and personal look at the question of whether culture determines economics or is instead determined by it. Bringing immense learning and originality to the issue of cultural change over the long-term course of global economic history, Jones questions cultural explanations of much social behavior in Europe, East Asia, the United States, Australia, and the Middle East. He also examines contemporary globalization, arguing that while centuries of economic competition have resulted in the merging of cultures into fewer and larger units, these changes have led to exciting new syntheses. Culture matters to economic outcomes, Jones argues, but cultures in turn never stop responding to market forces, even if some elements of culture stubbornly persist beyond the time when they can be explained by current economic pressures. In the longer run, however, cultures show a fluidity that will astonish some cultural determinists. Jones concludes that culture's "ghostly transit through history" is much less powerful than noneconomists often claim, yet it has a greater influence than economists usually admit. The product of a lifetime of reading and thinking on culture and economics, a work of history and an analysis of the contemporary world, Cultures Merging will be essential reading for anyone concerned about the interaction of cultures and markets around the world. "Jones's scholarship is enormous, and the book is full of fascinating facts. . . . He writes clearly with an absence of jargon, which makes the book accessible to a wide audience. Economists could certainly benefit from the way it opens up a wider set of perspectives. And . . . there is more than enough interesting material to make the book worthwhile for the more general reader."---Paul Ormerod, Times Higher Education Supplement "Jones' book is important because it links our economic past and future with our ideas about culture."---Mark Trahant, Seattle Post-Intelligencer "An accessible, illuminating, and inspiring book."---Avner Greif, EH.net "Eric Jones is intelligent, literate, and eclectic. His comments range over many fields besides economic history, and he writes in a sprightly manner. The book is fun to read, and it engages one of the big issues of economic history: the role of culture in economic affairs."---Peter Temin, Economic History Review "Eric L. Jones has written an interesting and well-argued critique of two positions that he believes are well entrenched in the economic history literature. The first, which he terms 'cultural nullity', is widely held by economists and assigns no or at best a trivial role to culture in explaining economic outcomes. Second, Jones criticizes those (often historians) who think of a 'cultural fixity', in which an unchanging culture dominates every other aspect of life. . . . Jones marshals an impressive and at times amusing range of illustrations of the fluidity of cultures."---Harold James, International History Review "Cultures Merging is a remarkable historical tour de force presenting a wealth of argument to indicate the role of economic forces in the modification of culture and vice versa."---Arthur Webb, Journal of Cultural Economics "Jones . . . makes a compelling argument for the special place of literature in understanding these dialectics of poverty."---

Oscar Gelderblom is associate professor of economic history at Utrecht University. He is the editor of The Political Economy of the Dutch Republic. Cities of Commerce develops a model of institutional change in European commerce based on urban rivalry. Cities continuously competed with each other by adapting commercial, legal, and financial institutions to the evolving needs of merchants. Oscar Gelderblom traces the successive rise of Bruges, Antwerp, and Amsterdam to commercial primacy between 1250 and 1650, showing how dominant cities feared being displaced by challengers while lesser cities sought to keep up by cultivating policies favorable to trade. He argues that it was this competitive urban network that promoted open-access institutions in the Low Countries, and emphasizes the central role played by the urban power holders--the magistrates--in fostering these inclusive institutional arrangements. Gelderblom describes how the city fathers resisted the predatory or reckless actions of their territorial rulers, and how their nonrestrictive approach to commercial life succeeded in attracting merchants from all over Europe. Cities of Commerce intervenes in an important debate on the growth of trade in Europe before the Industrial Revolution. Challenging influential theories that attribute this commercial expansion to the political strength of merchants, this book demonstrates how urban rivalry fostered the creation of open-access institutions in international trade. "[A] rich, nuanced, and convincing account of how adaptively efficient commercial institutions emerged from interactions between merchants and city officials in early modern Europe." "In this fine book, we get a real sense of the riskiness associated with trade . . . And of the efforts urban authorities made to cope with risk."---Paul M Hohenberg, EH.Net "Gelderblom's Cities of Commerce, a work informed by both history and economic theory, should evoke both discussion and further work about the origins of the Western European economy."---James M. Murray, Journal of Interdisciplinary History "What the book does in an exemplary and quite fruitful fashion is to sketch the commercial history of three of Europe's most important entrepots, analyzing the changing patterns of trade and institutional drift, assuming some sort of functional relationship between the two. . . . The book will be a welcome addition to recent debates in growth and development studies." "Gelderblom's study is a thought-provoking read and a well-modulated, original voice in the debate on the economic, urban and institutional development of pre-modern Europe."---Justyna Wubs-Mrozewicz, English Historical Review "Gelderblom offers a convincing argument in this well-written book."---Donald ]. Harreld, The Historian "His book thus contributes significantly to this on-going debate on state formation, economic growth and the institutional competition between cities."---Jelle Haemers, European Legacy "This richly detailed book offers an important and critical reexamination of the commercial revolution in Northern Europe. Combining key insights from law and institutional economics with a sharp historical narrative, Gelderblom produces a striking new understanding of how formal and informal institutions propelled the European economy forward."-Jean-Laurent Rosenthal, California Institute of Technology "Cities of Commerce is a major contribution to the debate about the role of institutional change in facilitating growth and commercial expansion. Few writers before Gelderblom have attempted to discuss the problem of commercial dislocation over such a long period."-David Ormrod, University of Kent "Illuminating. This book advances the argument that intercity competition over long-distance trade in premodern Europe took the form of legal changes favorable to commerce. This important argument provides new insight into European history and the institutional foundations of the rise of the West. Gel

"Winner of the 2012 Award for the Best Book in European Politics, European Politics and Society Section of the American Political Science Association" David Stasavage is professor of politics at New York University. He is the author of Public Debt and the Birth of the Democratic State. States of Credit provides the first comprehensive look at the joint development of representative assemblies and public borrowing in Europe during the medieval and early modern eras. In this pioneering book, David Stasavage argues that unique advances in political representation allowed certain European states to gain early and advantageous access to credit, but the emergence of an active form of political representation itself depended on two underlying factors: compact geography and a strong mercantile presence. Stasavage shows that active representative assemblies were more likely to be sustained in geographically small polities. These assemblies, dominated by mercantile groups that lent to governments, were in turn more likely to preserve access to credit. Given these conditions, smaller European city-states, such as Genoa and Cologne, had an advantage over larger territorial states, including France and Castile, because mercantile elites structured political institutions in order to effectively monitor public credit. While creditor oversight of public funds became an asset for city-states in need of finance, Stasavage suggests that the long-run implications were more ambiguous. City-states with the best access to credit often had the most closed and oligarchic systems of representation, hindering their ability to accept new economic innovations. This eventually transformed certain city-states from economic dynamos into rentier republics. Exploring the links between representation and debt in medieval and early modern Europe, States of Credit contributes to broad debates about state formation and Europe's economic rise. "Overall, States of Credit is a novel, solidly argued contribution that lies at the intersection of several dynamic fields of study. There is much to learn from it for political scientists, economic historians, and public economists, as well as a rich new data trove to mine. Though historians may be eager for more detail, they will surely appreciate the novelty of the historical conjectures presented, as well as their careful blending with both economic and political theory. Finally, the text is concise and accessible enough to be easily adaptable to upper level undergraduate courses, as well as to graduate discussions in both economics and politics."---Mauricio Drelichman, EH.Net "Stasavage brings together the political and economic history of early modern Europe with several interesting twists that make a substantial addition to both the new institutionalist and political economy literatures." "In this well-informed and clearly argued book, David Stasavage seeks to revisit important issues about state development and economic growth. . . . Stasavage has paved the way for new research to compare and contrast the experience of city-states in the Old Regime and explore how and why small could be beautiful." "States of Credit . . . is elegant, distinctive, and dynamic." "The author has provided a cogent, well-supported analysis of a subject vital to an understanding of the early modern period."---Laurel Carrington, Historian "Exploring the links between representation and debt in medieval and early modern Europe, States of Credit contributes to broad debates about state formation and Europe's economic rise." "This is social science at its best. David Stasavage offers an original thesis, develops it carefully, and supports it with historical and quantitative evidence. A tour de force."-Daron Acemoglu, Massachusetts Institute of Technology "Respectfully debunking long-held claims and laying to rest long-standing arguments, David Stasavage's masterful book ensures that no economic historian, comparative political

How foreign lending weakens emerging nations In the nineteenth century, many developing countries turned to the credit houses of Europe for sovereign loans to balance their books and weather major fiscal shocks such as war. This reliance on external public finance offered emerging nations endless opportunities to overcome barriers to growth, but it also enabled rulers to bypass critical stages in institution building and political development. Pawned States reveals how easy access to foreign lending at early stages of state building has led to chronic fiscal instability and weakened state capacity in the developing world. Drawing on a wealth of original data to document the rise of cheap overseas credit between 1816 and 1913, Didac Queralt shows how countries in the global periphery obtained these loans by agreeing to "extreme conditionality," which empowered international investors to take control of local revenue sources in cases of default, and how foreclosure eroded a country's tax base and caused lasting fiscal disequilibrium. Queralt goes on to combine quantitative analysis of tax performance between 1816 and 2005 with qualitative historical analysis in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, illustrating how overreliance on external capital by local leaders distorts their incentives to expand tax capacity, articulate power-sharing institutions, and strengthen bureaucratic apparatus. Panoramic in scope, “Pawned States” sheds needed light on how early and easy access to external finance pushes developing nations into trajectories characterized by fragile fiscal institutions and autocratic politics.

Richard P. Saller is the Kleinheinz Family Professor of European Studies in the Department of Classics at Stanford University. He is the author of Personal Patronage under the Early Empire and Patriarchy, Property, and Death in the Roman Family; the coauthor of The Roman Empire: Economy, Society and Culture; and the coeditor of The Cambridge Economic History of the Greco-Roman World. The first comprehensive study of Pliny the Elder's economic thought-and its implications for understanding the Roman Empire's constrained innovation and economic growth The elder Pliny's Natural History (77 CE), an astonishing compilation of 20,000 "things worth knowing," was avowedly intended to be a repository of ancient Mediterranean knowledge for the use of craftsmen and farmers, but this 37-book, 400,000-word work was too expensive, unwieldy, and impractically organized to be of utilitarian value. Yet, as Richard Saller shows, the Natural History offers more insights into Roman ideas about economic growth than any other ancient source. Pliny's Roman Economy is the first comprehensive study of Pliny's economic thought and its implications for understanding the economy of the Roman Empire. As Saller reveals, Pliny sometimes anticipates modern economic theory, while at other times his ideas suggest why Rome produced very few major inventions that resulted in sustained economic growth. On one hand, Pliny believed that new knowledge came by accident or divine intervention, not by human initiative; research and development was a foreign concept. When he lists 136 great inventions, they are mostly prehistoric and don't include a single one from Rome-offering a commentary on Roman innovation and displaying a reverence for the past that contrasts with the attitudes of the eighteenth-century encyclopedists credited with contributing to the Industrial Revolution. On the other hand, Pliny shrewdly recognized that Rome's lack of competition from other states suppressed incentives for innovation. Pliny's understanding should be noted because, as Saller shows, recent efforts to use scientific evidence about the ancient climate to measure the Roman economy are flawed. By exploring Pliny's ideas about discovery, innovation, and growth, Pliny's Roman Economy makes an important new contribution to the ongoing debate about economic growth in ancient Rome. "Saller's book is truly interesting in many ways. Not only does it do justice to the existence of a reflection on economy in Western antiquity and to its few points of convergence with modern economic thought, but [it] also . . . raises a question that goes beyond antiquity: that of the conditions that make long-term economic growth and development possible, with a particular interest in cultural causes."---Etienne Helmer, Bryn Mawr Classical Review "Richard Saller is a very distinguished historian of Roman society, and everything he writes is important. This is a fascinating book with much to say about the ancient economy. It is also a reminder of how much there is in Pliny's huge Natural History that relates to modern debates."-Greg Woolf, author of The Life and Death of Ancient Cities "This short and insightful book gives Pliny his proper place in the debates on not only the Roman economy but also Early Modern Europe's 'Culture of Growth.' "-Taco Terpstra, author of Trade in the Ancient Mediterranean

Mauricio Drelichman is associate professor in the Vancouver School of Economics at the University of British Columbia and a fellow in the Institutions, Organizations, and Growth program of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. Hans-Joachim Voth is ICREA Research Professor in the Economics Department at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, where he is also a member of the Centre for Research in International Economics. He is the author of Time and Work in England during the Industrial Revolution and coauthor of Prometheus Shackled. What the loans and defaults of a sixteenth-century Spanish king can tell us about sovereign debt today Why do lenders time and again loan money to sovereign borrowers who promptly go bankrupt? When can this type of lending work? As the United States and many European nations struggle with mountains of debt, historical precedents can offer valuable insights. Lending to the Borrower from Hell looks at one famous case-the debts and defaults of Philip II of Spain. Ruling over one of the largest and most powerful empires in history, King Philip defaulted four times. Yet he never lost access to capital markets and could borrow again within a year or two of each default. Exploring the shrewd reasoning of the lenders who continued to offer money, Mauricio Drelichman and Hans-Joachim Voth analyze the lessons from this important historical example. Using detailed new evidence collected from sixteenth-century archives, Drelichman and Voth examine the incentives and returns of lenders. They provide powerful evidence that in the right situations, lenders not only survive despite defaults-they thrive. Drelichman and Voth also demonstrate that debt markets cope well, despite massive fluctuations in expenditure and revenue, when lending functions like insurance. The authors unearth unique sixteenth-century loan contracts that offered highly effective risk sharing between the king and his lenders, with payment obligations reduced in bad times. A fascinating story of finance and empire, Lending to the Borrower from Hell offers an intelligent model for keeping economies safe in times of sovereign debt crises and defaults. "A thoroughly enjoyable economic history book with great relevance for the present debate on sovereign borrowing."---Diane Coyle, Enlightened Economist "Lending to the Borrower from Hell is a wonderful example of what becomes possible when one takes economic theory on a trip to the archive and actually reads the small print of each contract. It provides for the first time an economically sound explanation for Spain's ability to borrow in the sixteenth century that actually fits the facts. That is an outstanding achievement."---Regina Grafe, EH.Net "[T]his innovative monograph substantially enriches our understanding of Castile's government borrowing, as well as the nature of sovereign default in early modern Europe. And it will most certainly conquer a central place in the literature and future debates on public debt and finance from a historical perspective."---Benoît Maréchaux, CritCom "Intensely researched."---Elvira Vilches, Renaissance Quarterly "A compelling and thoroughly researched study of public finance in early modern Spain. . . . [This book] should be required reading for anyone interested in the intricate problems of early modern public finance."---Carlos Eduardo Suprinyak, Journal of the History of Economic Thought "Sovereign debt is a paradox: why lend to a ruler who can summarily change the terms and conditions under which he repays? This is a deep question on which only history, ultimately, can shed light. Drelichman and Voth do the history right in this detailed, rigorous study of the notorious serial defaulter Philip II."-Barry Eichengreen, University of California, Berkeley "Drelichman and Voth delve into old Spanish archives to bring out a compelling story of power and profit in imperial finance. Using modern economic analysis, they offer a deeper understa

"A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year" "Winner of the Gyorgy Ranki Prize, Economic History Association" Sheilagh Ogilvie is professor of economic history at the University of Cambridge and a fellow of the British Academy. Her books include Institutions and European Trade and A Bitter Living. A comprehensive analysis of European craft guilds through eight centuries of economic history Guilds ruled many crafts and trades from the Middle Ages to the Industrial Revolution, and have always attracted debate and controversy. They were sometimes viewed as efficient institutions that guaranteed quality and skills. But they also excluded competitors, manipulated markets, and blocked innovations. Did the benefits of guilds outweigh their costs? Analyzing thousands of guilds that dominated European economies from 1000 to 1880, The European Guilds uses vivid examples and clear economic reasoning to answer that question. Sheilagh Ogilvie's book features the voices of honourable guild masters, underpaid journeymen, exploited apprentices, shady officials, and outraged customers, and follows the stories of the "vile encroachers"-women, migrants, Jews, gypsies, bastards, and many others-desperate to work but hunted down by the guilds as illicit competitors. She investigates the benefits of guilds but also shines a light on their dark side. Guilds sometimes provided important services, but they also manipulated markets to profit their members. They regulated quality but prevented poor consumers from buying goods cheaply. They fostered work skills but denied apprenticeships to outsiders. They transmitted useful techniques but blocked innovations that posed a threat. Guilds existed widely not because they corrected market failures or served the common good but because they benefited two powerful groups-guild members and political elites. Exploring guilds' inner workings across eight centuries, The European Guilds shows how privileged institutions and exclusive networks shape the wider economy-for good or ill. "Essential reading for economic historians."---Anne McCants, Journal of Economic History "[A] compendious history. . . . The geographic breadth and temporal length of [Ogilvie's] coverage make The European Guilds unique."---Marc Levinson, Wall Street Journal "The new and highly comprehensive book by Sheilagh Ogilvie . . . . likely to stand as one of the more important works of economic history from the last decade."---Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution "A major contribution to economic history and institutional economics."---Mark Koyama, The Review of Austrian Economics "A comprehensive study of European guilds."---Steven A. Epstein, H-France Review "Ogilvie has re-galvanised the debate on guilds."---Richard Goddard, Medieval Archaeology "A learned and comprehensive study of an institution that stood at the heart of the European non-agricultural economy for over seven centuries."---Jan de Vries, EH.net "Ogilvie's wide-ranging and scrutinous analysis of craft guilds is an essential and stimulating read for all scholars interested in guilds and institutions."---Arie van Steensel, Low Countries Journal of Social and Economic History "Ogilvie's arguments are so well established in empirical terms, and so thoroughly designed, that all those who harbor more friendly attitudes toward guilds will have serious difficulties refuting her conclusions. . . . A unique contribution to the history of guilds.-Josef Ehmer, Renaissance Quarterly" "Sheilagh Ogilvie's astounding and readable book demolishes the idea-as old as nineteenth-century German historical scholarship but revived recently as a blackboard possibility-that monopoly privilege is good for us. She presents the hypothesis fairly and with political and historical subtlety. And then she crushes it-overwhelmingly, definitively, scientifically-as the guild idea was once crushed by liberalism. Illiberalism has revived monopoly. Historical science rai

Ian W. McLean is a visiting research fellow in economics at the University of Adelaide, where he taught for many years. This book is the first comprehensive account of how Australia attained the world's highest living standards within a few decades of European settlement, and how the nation has sustained an enviable level of income to the present. Why Australia Prospered is a fascinating historical examination of how Australia cultivated and sustained economic growth and success. Beginning with the Aboriginal economy at the end of the eighteenth century, Ian McLean argues that Australia's remarkable prosperity across nearly two centuries was reached and maintained by several shifting factors. These included imperial policies, favorable demographic characteristics, natural resource abundance, institutional adaptability and innovation, and growth-enhancing policy responses to major economic shocks, such as war, depression, and resource discoveries. Natural resource abundance in Australia played a prominent role in some periods and faded during others, but overall, and contrary to the conventional view of economists, it was a blessing rather than a curse. McLean shows that Australia's location was not a hindrance when the international economy was centered in the North Atlantic, and became a positive influence following Asia's modernization. Participation in the world trading system, when it flourished, brought significant benefits, and during the interwar period when it did not, Australia's protection of domestic manufacturing did not significantly stall growth. McLean also considers how the country's notorious origins as a convict settlement positively influenced early productivity levels, and how British imperial policies enhanced prosperity during the colonial period. He looks at Australia's recent resource-based prosperity in historical perspective, and reveals striking elements of continuity that have underpinned the evolution of the country's economy since the nineteenth century. "[T]he first major economic history of Australia for 40 years."---Ross Gittins, Sydney Morning Herald "[R]emarkable. . . . Why Australia Prospered distills decades of research and teaching to present an account of Australia and its development that is solid, surprising and pertinent to the contemporary debate about the country's future. . . . In his assembly of evidence and his judicious review of the debates of Australian development, McLean has made a profoundly important contribution to our understanding of where Australia has come from as a nation, where they country is now--and where it is going." "In Why Australia Prospered, Ian McLean explores the fascinating mix of factors explaining this persistence of prosperity. . . . [A] carefully researched book." "McLean provides a comprehensive account of the factors contributing to Australia's remarkable economic growth." "In this impressive book McLean demonstrates the contribution economic history can make to scholarship on the past and the politics of the present. . . . [T]he work of a manifestly fine scholar with many important points to make and ideas that need to be heard far beyond university economics departments, or what's left of them."---Stephen Matchett, Australian "[A]n outstanding piece of scholarship. . . . Ian McLean has written a timely and masterful account of the long sweep of Australia's economic history, which will be relished by anyone interested in the unique circumstances of this country's remarkable economic development. Written for the non-specialist, the narrative is accessible, brisk and appropriately, if sparsely, illustrated with charts and tables."---Ian Harper, EH.Net "[T]his is a superb book. Anyone with even a superficial interest in Australian economic history should read it, and be educated by it."---Tim Hatton, Australian Economic History Review "McLean has an admirable ability to sum up complex issues using simple, often elegant sentences. He is a high

Claire Priest is the Simeon E. Baldwin Professor of Law at Yale Law School. Twitter @priest_claire How American colonists laid the foundations of American capitalism with an economy built on credit Even before the United States became a country, laws prioritizing access to credit set colonial America apart from the rest of the world. Credit Nation examines how the drive to expand credit shaped property laws and legal institutions in the colonial and founding eras of the republic. In this major new history of early America, Claire Priest describes how the British Parliament departed from the customary ways that English law protected land and inheritance, enacting laws for the colonies that privileged creditors by defining land and slaves as commodities available to satisfy debts. Colonial governments, in turn, created local legal institutions that enabled people to further leverage their assets to obtain credit. Priest shows how loans backed with slaves as property fueled slavery from the colonial era through the Civil War, and that increased access to credit was key to the explosive growth of capitalism in nineteenth-century America. Credit Nation presents a new vision of American economic history, one where credit markets and liquidity were prioritized from the outset, where property rights and slaves became commodities for creditors' claims, and where legal institutions played a critical role in the Stamp Act crisis and other political episodes of the founding period. "An informative and deeply researched book that explores how property law influenced the development of the English colonies and, ultimately, the United States."---Aaron L. Chin, H-Early-America "Claire Priest's carefully researched book places the development of property rights in the United States in the context of the colonial economy and its dependence on debt finance and slaves as collateral. Written by one of the leading legal historians of America's colonial and founding periods, Credit Nation challenges us to fundamentally rethink our praise for well-protected property rights as a determinant of growth."-Katharina Pistor, author of The Code of Capital "An original and significant new interpretation of American property law in the colonial and early national periods. Priest offers a rich array of new insights and suggestive reinterpretations of historical developments."-Gavin Wright, author of Sharing the Prize: The Economics of the Civil Rights Revolution in the American South "Claire Priest's elegantly written and meticulously researched book is a pathbreaking account of the emergence of a distinctly American property law in the colonial period. One of the consequences of this distinctive property law was to pave the way for the spread of slavery in the early United States. This impressive book is essential reading for anyone interested in the legal, economic, and political history of colonial and early America, the origins of the American Revolution, and the making and unmaking of the British Empire."-Steven Pincus, University of Chicago "Credit Nation addresses a very important problem in American legal, economic, and political history-land. Priest brings new research, new insights, and new conclusions to the role of institutional land tenure in the colonies."-John Joseph Wallis, coauthor of Violence and Social Orders: A Conceptual Framework for Interpreting Recorded Human History

"Co-Winner of the 2005 Ranki Prize, Economic History Association" Robert C. Allen is Professor of Economic History at Oxford University and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He is the author of Enclosure and the Yeoman. To say that history's greatest economic experiment--Soviet communism--was also its greatest economic failure is to say what many consider obvious. Here, in a startling reinterpretation, Robert Allen argues that the USSR was one of the most successful developing economies of the twentieth century. He reaches this provocative conclusion by recalculating national consumption and using economic, demographic, and computer simulation models to address the "what if" questions central to Soviet history. Moreover, by comparing Soviet performance not only with advanced but with less developed countries, he provides a meaningful context for its evaluation. Although the Russian economy began to develop in the late nineteenth century based on wheat exports, modern economic growth proved elusive. But growth was rapid from 1928 to the 1970s--due to successful Five Year Plans. Notwithstanding the horrors of Stalinism, the building of heavy industry accelerated growth during the 1930s and raised living standards, especially for the many peasants who moved to cities. A sudden drop in fertility due to the education of women and their employment outside the home also facilitated growth. While highlighting the previously underemphasized achievements of Soviet planning, Farm to Factory also shows, through methodical analysis set in fluid prose, that Stalin's worst excesses--such as the bloody collectivization of agriculture--did little to spur growth. Economic development stagnated after 1970, as vital resources were diverted to the military and as a Soviet leadership lacking in original thought pursued wasteful investments. "Farm to Factory . . . provide[s] new insights on several key issues and presents a stimulating and wide-ranging perspective on twentieth-century Soviet social and economic history."---Gijs Kessler, International Review of Social History "Robert Allen considers . . . contentions about the costs and achievements of industrialization and the collectivization of agriculture in the USSR."---Paul Josephson, Technology and Culture "This well-written book will be quite controversial, finding as it does something good about the Soviet system when all others are saying the opposite. Allen's main conclusions-that the pre-revolutionary economy would not have done well had it been continued, that collectivization was not a disaster, and that there was considerable merit in Stalinist investment strategies-represent a lone voice in the wilderness that needs to be heard."-Paul Gregory, author of The Political Economy of Stalinism and Before Command: The Russian Economy from Emancipation to Stalin "A magnificent accomplishment. This is a major work of synthetic research, one that will be disputed, debated, and discussed for many years to come. It is a carefully crafted piece of painstaking quantitative research but also a searching and provocative study of one of the most perplexing episodes in European history. Allen's book will be read by anyone-historian, social scientist, political analyst-interested in the deep and complex issues posed by the greatest failed experiment in the history of the human race."-Joel Mokyr, author of The Gifts of Athena and series editor, Princeton Economic History of the Western World

Joseph Zeira is professor of economics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He lives in Jerusalem. Website josephzeira.weebly.com An authoritative economic history of Israel from its founding to the present In 1922, there were ninety thousand Jews in Palestine, a small country in a poor and volatile region. Today, Israel has a population of nine million and is one of the richest countries in the world. The Israeli Economy tells the story of this remarkable transformation, shedding critical new light on Israel's rapid economic growth. Joseph Zeira takes readers from those early days to today, describing how Israel's economic development occurred amid intense fighting with the Palestinians and neighboring Arab countries. He reveals how the new state's astonishing growth continued into the early 1970s, and traces this growth to public investment in education and to large foreign transfers. Zeira analyzes the costs of the Arab-Israeli conflict, demonstrating how economic output could be vastly greater with a comprehensive peace. He discusses how Israel went through intensive neoliberal economic policies in recent decades, and shows how these policies not only failed to enhance economic performance, but led to significant social inequality. Based on more than two decades of groundbreaking research, The Israeli Economy is an in-depth survey of a modern economy that has experienced rapid growth, wars, immigration waves, and other significant shocks. It thus offers important lessons for nations around the world. "An excellent overview of the Israeli economy. Long before Israel became known as the Start-Up Nation, there were wars and massive immigration waves and hyperinflation. Zeira's brilliant book analyzes the factors that led to Israel's remarkable economic development, and also offers a sober assessment of some of the most pressing economic challenges the nation faces today."-Effi Benmelech, Northwestern University "A fascinating analysis of how, despite a tough geopolitical environment, a small and poor country became one of the richest countries in the world. Joseph Zeira does a masterful job of showing the role of human capital, fast technological adoption, and a good quality public sector in the Israeli economic success. These are important conclusions, and important lessons for other countries to learn from."-Olivier J. Blanchard, Peterson Institute for International Economics "Written by one of the finest macroeconomic theorists in the world, this book tells the fascinating story of Israel's miracle growth, covering a range of topics from the phenomenal success of the high-tech sector to the nation's unacceptable levels of inequality. The Israeli Economy will be of value not just to those interested in Israel but to students of development economics as well as policymakers in emerging economies trying to crack the secrets of growth."-Kaushik Basu, former chief economist at the World Bank "An insightful history. Zeira uses data, institutional facts, and economics to trace the development of the modern Israeli economy and provides an insightful analysis of the lessons to be learned from Israel's experiences. The book should be of great interest to economists and noneconomists alike. Highly recommended."-Martin S. Eichenbaum, Northwestern University

Peter H. Lindert is Distinguished Professor of Economics at the University of California, Davis. His books include Growing Public: Social Spending and Economic Growth since the Eighteenth Century. He lives in Davis, California. Jeffrey G. Williamson is the Laird Bell Professor of Economics, emeritus, at Harvard University. His books include Trade and Poverty: When the Third World Fell Behind. He lives in Madison, Wisconsin. Both are research associates at the National Bureau of Economic Research. A book that rewrites the history of American prosperity and inequality Unequal Gains offers a radically new understanding of the economic evolution of the United States, providing a complete picture of the uneven progress of America from colonial times to today. While other economic historians base their accounts on American wealth, Peter Lindert and Jeffrey Williamson focus instead on income-and the result is a bold reassessment of the American economic experience. America has been exceptional in its rising inequality after an egalitarian start, but not in its long-run growth. America had already achieved world income leadership by 1700, not just in the twentieth century as is commonly thought. Long before independence, American colonists enjoyed higher living standards than Britain-and America's income advantage today is no greater than it was three hundred years ago. But that advantage was lost during the Revolution, lost again during the Civil War, and lost a third time during the Great Depression, though it was regained after each crisis. In addition, Lindert and Williamson show how income inequality among Americans rose steeply in two great waves-from 1774 to 1860 and from the 1970s to today-rising more than in any other wealthy nation in the world. Unequal Gains also demonstrates how the widening income gaps have always touched every social group, from the richest to the poorest. The book sheds critical light on the forces that shaped American income history, and situates that history in a broad global context. Economic writing at its most stimulating, Unequal Gains provides a vitally needed perspective on who has benefited most from American growth, and why. "[I]ts conclusions are both accessible and urgent." "Brilliant. . . . A masterpiece in quantitative and qualitative economic research destined to become a classic in its field." "An ambitious and rigorous attempt to address some long-overlooked questions about U.S. economic development."---Helen Fessenden, Econ Focus "[Unequal Gains] traces how inequality surged and receded in American history. . . . The book contains an unprecedented graph that goes all the way back to the eve of independence and charts how unequal people's incomes were. . . . This is as much a work of history as it is a work of economics." "Stunning."---Kenneth Stewart and Casey Jones, Standard-Times "Unequal Gains provides a brilliant historical perspective on the market forces and political currents behind the explosion of economic disparities in the United States over the past four decades. Lindert and Williamson offer essential insights that can help assure a more equal sharing of the gains made possible by American economic growth."-Samuel Bowles, author of The Moral Economy: Why Good Incentives Are No Substitute for Good Citizens "Unequal Gains is a very important contribution to the study of American economic development, and is particularly relevant for current concerns about the causes and consequences of income inequality. Lindert and Williamson provide new information about the qualitative and quantitative changes since the colonial period, mainly in the United States, but also in comparison with Great Britain and other nations. This is a major scholarly achievement."-Stanley L. Engerman, University of Rochester "Unequal Gains is a provocative book that forces us to change the ways we think, write, and teach about American and global economic history. Lindert and William

Ronald Findlay is the Ragnar Nurkse Professor of Economics at Columbia University. He is the author of Factor Proportions, Trade, and Growthand Trade, Development, and Political Economy. Kevin H. O'Rourke is professor of economics at Trinity College, Dublin. He is the coauthor of Globalization and History. International trade has shaped the modern world, yet until now no single book has been available for both economists and general readers that traces the history of the international economy from its earliest beginnings to the present day. Power and Plenty fills this gap, providing the first full account of world trade and development over the course of the last millennium. Ronald Findlay and Kevin O'Rourke examine the successive waves of globalization and "deglobalization" that have occurred during the past thousand years, looking closely at the technological and political causes behind these long-term trends. They show how the expansion and contraction of the world economy has been directly tied to the two-way interplay of trade and geopolitics, and how war and peace have been critical determinants of international trade over the very long run. The story they tell is sweeping in scope, one that links the emergence of the Western economies with economic and political developments throughout Eurasia centuries ago. Drawing extensively upon empirical evidence and informing their systematic analysis with insights from contemporary economic theory, Findlay and O'Rourke demonstrate the close interrelationships of trade and warfare, the mutual interdependence of the world's different regions, and the crucial role these factors have played in explaining modern economic growth. Power and Plenty is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand the origins of today's international economy, the forces that continue to shape it, and the economic and political challenges confronting policymakers in the twenty-first century. "The excellent new book Power and Plenty explains why some countries are rich, and why others are not. [Recent books] all try to explain the biggest question of the modern world: why some [countries] are rich and other poor. Now, we have...Power and Plenty, a tome that combines the interpretive focus of the new school of explainers with the breadth and depth of the old narratives. They also put neoliberal economic theory to the historical test by asking what it would predict, and then contrasting those forecasts with history's actual path. Findlay and O'Rourke tell their tale exceptionally well."---Eric Rauchway, The New Republic "[A] splendidly ambitious new book...an excellent reference book for anyone wanting a better understanding of economic developments in the last millennium." "Aiming at nothing less than documenting the history of world trade over the last 1,000 years, Power and Plenty...appears to be required reading...for the purposes of better understanding how the world works."---Andrew Leonard, Salon.com "This new history of the last thousand years of world trade is remarkable in both its grand sweep and its scholarly depth. It pieces together the story of global commerce from the medieval spice traders and nomads of Central Asia to the discovery and incorporation of the New World, to the Industrial Revolution and the rise of Europe, and to the globalizing forces of the postwar world economy. One theme is the importance of the 'vast webs of interrelationships' between western Europe and other regions that, beginning in the medieval period, set the stage for modern economic growth. The other theme is the critical role of war in propelling economic change through upheaval and adaptation."---G. John Ikenberry, Foreign Affairs "Power and Plenty is a wide-ranging survey, both of the facts and of the literature, not an essay organized around a single thesis. It takes on, and treats seriously, a ton of material. Bearing that in mind, it is...engaging...well written, spiced with nuggets of fascinati

The Great Divergence brings new insight to one of the classic questions of history: Why did sustained industrial growth begin in Northwest Europe, despite surprising similarities between advanced areas of Europe and East Asia? As Ken Pomeranz shows, as recently as 1750, parallels between these two parts of the world were very high in life expectancy, consumption, product and factor markets, and the strategies of households. Perhaps most surprisingly, Pomeranz demonstrates that the Chinese and Japanese cores were no worse off ecologically than Western Europe. Core areas throughout the eighteenth-century Old World faced comparable local shortages of land-intensive products, shortages that were only partly resolved by trade. Pomeranz argues that Europe's nineteenth-century divergence from the Old World owes much to the fortunate location of coal, which substituted for timber. This made Europe's failure to use its land intensively much less of a problem, while allowing growth in energy-intensive industries. Another crucial difference that he notes has to do with trade. Fortuitous global conjunctures made the Americas a greater source of needed primary products for Europe than any Asian periphery. This allowed Northwest Europe to grow dramatically in population, specialize further in manufactures, and remove labor from the land, using increased imports rather than maximizing yields. Together, coal and the New World allowed Europe to grow along resource-intensive, labor-saving paths. Meanwhile, Asia hit a cul-de-sac. Although the East Asian hinterlands boomed after 1750, both in population and in manufacturing, this growth prevented these peripheral regions from exporting vital resources to the cloth-producing Yangzi Delta. As a result, growth in the core of East Asia's economy essentially stopped, and what growth did exist was forced along labor-intensive, resource-saving paths--paths Europe could have been forced down, too, had it not been for favorable resource stocks from underground and overseas.

Lee J. Alston is the Ostrom Chair, professor of economics and law, and director of the Ostrom Workshop at Indiana University, as well as research associate at the NBER. Marcus André Melo is professor of political science at the Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil. Bernardo Mueller is professor of economics at the University of Brasília. Carlos Pereira is professor of political science at the Brazilian School of Administration at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation, Rio de Janeiro. Brazil is the world's sixth-largest economy, and for the first three-quarters of the twentieth century was one of the fastest-growing countries in the world. While the country underwent two decades of unrelenting decline from 1975 to 1994, the economy has rebounded dramatically. How did this nation become an emerging power? Brazil in Transition looks at the factors behind why this particular country has successfully progressed up the economic development ladder. The authors examine the roles of beliefs, leadership, and institutions in the elusive, critical transition to sustainable development. Analyzing the last fifty years of Brazil's history, the authors explain how the nation's beliefs, centered on social inclusion yet bound by orthodox economic policies, led to institutions that altered economic, political, and social outcomes. Brazil's growth and inflation became less variable, the rule of law strengthened, politics became more open and competitive, and poverty and inequality declined. While these changes have led to a remarkable economic transformation, there have also been economic distortions and inefficiencies that the authors argue are part of the development process. Brazil in Transition demonstrates how a dynamic nation seized windows of opportunity to become a more equal, prosperous, and rules-based society. "Brazil is the world's sixth-largest economy and fifth-largest nation, and its transformation has long piqued the interest of scholars and observers. In this engaging book, Alston and his Brazilian colleagues Melo, Mueller, and Pereira examine this transformation by asking how Brazil became an emerging power during the 20th century. . . . Brazil in Transition is a valuable contribution to the understanding of why nations develop and the struggles they face in the process." "Brazil in Transition is an intriguing book that holds the reader's attention throughout." "A comprehensive account. . . . Alston, Melo, Mueller and Pereira should be applauded for developing an alternative model to explain Brazilian development under democracy. Their book makes an important contribution by featuring an analytical narrative that indirectly raises important questions about the sources of economic and social policymaking." "Possibly the biggest thing we don't understand in social science is how and why a society moves from one institutional equilibrium to another. To tackle this you need history, economics, political science, sociology, and psychology. This pathbreaking book on the emergence of a new Brazil incorporates all of these and more."-James Robinson, coauthor of Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty "In contrast to the conventional wisdom that attributes development to geography, policies, culture, and luck, the authors of Brazil in Transition persuasively show that the transformation of institutions and beliefs, the role of leadership, and the seizing of opportunities account for Brazil's economic performance during the last few decades. This is a powerful framework and argument, elaborated intensively for the Brazilian case, but clearly appropriate to other developing economies around the world."-Kenneth Shepsle, Harvard University "This book makes the optimistic case for the future of democracy, showing how an autocratic, cronyistic regime can transform itself into a democracy that combines a long-term focus on social inclusion with rational economic policy. An accessible, learned, and compelling ac

"Winner of the 2013 Gyorgy Ranki Biennial Prize, Economic History Association" Regina Grafe is associate professor of history at Northwestern University. Spain's development from a premodern society into a modern unified nation-state with an integrated economy was painfully slow and varied widely by region. Economic historians have long argued that high internal transportation costs limited domestic market integration, while at the same time the Castilian capital city of Madrid drew resources from surrounding Spanish regions as it pursued its quest for centralization. According to this view, powerful Madrid thwarted trade over large geographic distances by destroying an integrated network of manufacturing towns in the Spanish interior. Challenging this long-held view, Regina Grafe argues that decentralization, not a strong and powerful Madrid, is to blame for Spain's slow march to modernity. Through a groundbreaking analysis of the market for bacalao--dried and salted codfish that was a transatlantic commodity and staple food during this period--Grafe shows how peripheral historic territories and powerful interior towns obstructed Spain's economic development through jurisdictional obstacles to trade, which exacerbated already high transport costs. She reveals how the early phases of globalization made these regions much more externally focused, and how coastal elites that were engaged in trade outside Spain sought to sustain their positions of power in relation to Madrid. Distant Tyranny offers a needed reassessment of the haphazard and regionally diverse process of state formation and market integration in early modern Spain, showing how local and regional agency paradoxically led to legitimate governance but economic backwardness. "An economic historian of early modern Spain and its empire, Grafe examines Spain from 1650 to 1800 through a multidisciplinary lens to explore the limited extent to which it was emerging as a nation-state with integrated domestic markets. . . . Distant Tyranny is a revisionist work that will become mandatory reading for historians of early modern Spain. . . . [A] stimulating, thoughtful book." "There is little to quibble with in Grafe's work. The early chapters build a solid foundation, based on detailed archival research and a meticulous tracing of market behavior. . . . [O]ne cannot help but admire the combination of a detailed, erudite analysis with a coherent macro-historical logic. . . . In a rare feat for an economic history book, Distant Tyranny may yet shed as much light on current events as it does on the past."---Mauricio Drelichman, EH.net "Grafe's book, with its comparative approach and thorough documentation on Spain's economic and political fluctuations between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries constitutes a major contribution to this reinterpretation of early modern Europe and Spain's role in its economic history."---Jesus Cruz, Human Figurations "[A] spirited and engaging study built around a strong, step-by-step argument. . . . Distant Tyranny offers a consistently intelligent and probing exercise in both economic and political history."---James S. Amelang, Sixteenth Century Journal "Grafe's excellent book joins the growing stack of studies that aim to strike down, once and for all, the tyranny of the shoddy teleology of Spanish historical development that miraculously has survived centuries of contrary evidence."---Ruth Mackay, American Historical Review "Grafe's Distant Tyranny constitutes a provocative and fruitful historical exercise that provides a convincing narrative regarding the sources and historical consequences of market integration in Spain. The author offers a study that will appeal to a myriad of scholars, ranging from ones interested in general debates about how economics and politics interact to ones more specifically focused on Spanish history. In either case, the book puts forward new and exciting ideas to be further explored and debated.

A staggering new account of the civilian death toll of the world wars-and what it reveals about the true nature and cost of modern war Soldiers have never been the only casualties of wars. But the armies that fought World Wars I and II killed far more civilians than soldiers as they countenanced or deliberately inflicted civilian deaths on a mass scale. By one reputable estimate, 9.7 million civilians and 9 million combatants died in World War I, while World War II killed 25.5 million civilians and 15 million combatants. But in The Hidden Victims, Cormac Ó Gráda argues that even these shocking numbers are almost certainly too low. Carefully evaluating all the evidence available, he estimates that the wars cost not 35 million but some 65 million civilian lives-nearly two-thirds of the 100 million total killed. Indeed, he shows that war-induced famines alone may have killed 30 million people, making them the single largest cause of death. The Hidden Victims is the first book to attempt to measure and describe the full scale of civilian deaths during the world wars, from all causes, including genocide, starvation, aerial bombardment, and disease. While nations went to great lengths to record military casualties, they often didn't count or deliberately obscured civilian deaths. Getting the numbers right is important. It reveals much about the true human costs of the wars, the nature of modern warfare, and the failure of efforts to stop civilian casualties. It also makes it possible to argue with those who try to deny, minimize, or exaggerate wartime savagery. Cormac Ó Gráda is an Irish economic historian and professor emeritus at University College Dublin. His many books include Famine: A Short History and Black '47 and Beyond: The Great Irish Famine in History, Economy, and Memory (both Princeton). "Libraries are full of books about wars from the vantage point of famous leaders, but it's the civilian population that bears the brunt of war. At last, this wonderful and ambitious book tells the story of the civilian victims of the two world wars from their perspective, starting with a careful account of their massive-and often underappreciated-death toll."-Daron Acemoglu, coauthor of Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity "The hidden history of civilian deaths in the two world wars has never been timelier, given the horrifying civilian casualties in Gaza and Ukraine. Ó Gráda does a masterful job of sorting out fact from fiction as he lays out the many ways in which civilians suffer and die during conflicts. A must-read for anyone who cares about the world we live in."-Sheila Fitzpatrick, author of Lost Souls: Soviet Displaced Persons and the Birth of the Cold War "This is an impressive, deeply researched book that will long stand as the definitive authority on the number and circumstances of civilian deaths caused by the two world wars."-Robert J. Gordon, Northwestern University "Far too many of the civilian victims of hunger, aerial bombing, genocide, and other atrocities in the world wars have been forgotten for too long. The Hidden Victims is an exhaustive account of those tens of millions of civilians who perished-and a terrifying reminder of what war means when fought without restraint."-Alex de Waal, executive director of the World Peace Foundation "Getting accurate numbers for civilian casualties during World Wars I and II is vitally important. In their absence, partisan agendas can run amok, denying or exaggerating wartime tolls for political gain. Ó Gráda handles this challenging topic with humanity and grace, providing careful explanations for his many calculations. Truly a defining achievement."-Mark Dincecco, University of Michigan "First-rate. . . . This important book will make my best non-fiction of the year list."---Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution "A work of great moral as well as of historical imp

"Winner of the 2000 James S. Donnelly Sr. Prize for Best Book on Irish History or Social Studies" "One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 1999" Cormac Ó Gráda is Professor of Economics at University College, Dublin. His most recent works include Ireland: A New Economic History and A Rocky Road: The Irish Economy since the 1920s. Here Ireland's premier economic historian and one of the leading authorities on the Great Irish Famine examines the most lethal natural disaster to strike Europe in the nineteenth century. Between the mid-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries, the food source that we still call the Irish potato had allowed the fastest population growth in the whole of Western Europe. As vividly described in Ó Gráda's new work, the advent of the blight phytophthora infestans transformed the potato from an emblem of utility to a symbol of death by starvation. The Irish famine peaked in Black '47, but it brought misery and increased mortality to Ireland for several years. Central to Irish and British history, European demography, the world history of famines, and the story of American immigration, the Great Irish Famine is presented here from a variety of new perspectives. Moving away from the traditional narrative historical approach to the catastrophe, Ó Gráda concentrates instead on fresh insights available through interdisciplinary and comparative methods. He highlights several economic and sociological features of the famine previously neglected in the literature, such as the part played by traders and markets, by medical science, and by migration. Other topics include how the Irish climate, usually hospitable to the potato, exacerbated the failure of the crops in 1845-1847, and the controversial issue of Britain's failure to provide adequate relief to the dying Irish. Ó Gráda also examines the impact on urban Dublin of what was mainly a rural disaster and offers a critical analysis of the famine as represented in folk memory and tradition. The broad scope of this book is matched by its remarkable range of sources, published and archival. The book will be the starting point for all future research into the Irish famine. "One of the book's great strengths is the attempt to place the Irish experience in the contexts of famines in other parts of the world and to compare it to other historical famines, an approach that enriches Irish and general famine studies alike. . . . Black '47 and Beyond is a substantial and often pioneering contribution to the ever-burgeoning field of Irish Famine studies." "One of the most challenging, original, and readable accounts of the subject to have appeared in the last decade. It contains a fund of ideas and information for both experts and those with only the most general knowledge of the famine. . . . Highly recommended." "At a stroke, Cormac Ó Gráda's Black '47 and Beyond . . . Establishes itself as the definitive work on the famine. Indeed, it is hard to imagine a better study. . . . [It] is staggering in its thoroughness."---Kevin Driscoll, The Washington Times "Rigor and meticulousness may be found in Black '47 and Beyond. Ó Gráda holds up to scrutiny each vexed aspect of the Famine and their previous interpretations. The book is both dense and revelatory. . . . The tragedy of the Irish Famine was ultimately the result of a population explosion, of economic backwardness aggravated by political repression, of ideological block-headedness and complacency. It changed Irish society, but its effects reached well beyond that, to Britain's colonies and to the United States."---Katherine A. Powers, The Boston Globe "A most impressive, even brilliant, work."---Paul Bew, The Spectator "Rigor and meticulousness may be found in Black '47 and Beyond. Ó Gráda . . . Holds up to scrutiny each vexed aspect of the Famine and their previous interpretations. The book is both dense and revelatory."---Katherine A. Powers, The Boston Sunday Globe "Cormac Ó

Taco Terpstra is assistant professor of classics and history at Northwestern University. He is the author of Trading Communities in the Roman World. How ancient Mediterranean trade thrived through state institutions From around 700 BCE until the first centuries CE, the Mediterranean enjoyed steady economic growth through trade, reaching a level not to be regained until the early modern era. This process of growth coincided with a process of state formation, culminating in the largest state the ancient Mediterranean would ever know, the Roman Empire. Subsequent economic decline coincided with state disintegration. How are the two processes related? In Trade in the Ancient Mediterranean, Taco Terpstra investigates how the organizational structure of trade benefited from state institutions. Although enforcement typically depended on private actors, traders could utilize a public infrastructure, which included not only courts and legal frameworks but also socially cohesive ideologies. Terpstra details how business practices emerged that were based on private order, yet took advantage of public institutions. Focusing on the activity of both private and public economic actors-from Greek city councilors and Ptolemaic officials to long-distance traders and Roman magistrates and financiers-Terpstra illuminates the complex relationship between economic development and state structures in the ancient Mediterranean. "[Terpstra's] case studies are valuable and thought-provoking contributions to ongoing debates about trade practice in the ancient world."---Miko Flohr, Sehepunkte "The book certainly comprises a stimulating and well written account, including rich historical details. It thus is definitely a welcome addition to the ongoing debate on the ancient economy."---Lieve Donnellan, Ancient West and East " The questions [Trade in the Ancient Mediterranean] explores are germane to those seeking to conceptualize how traders negotiated within host communities and states across the Mediterranean over time, which has significant implications for economic history. As Classics and Ancient History seek to reinvent the questions they ask of source material and justify a place in broader discussions in the academy, such a multidisciplinary and cross-cultural approach should serve as useful precedent.-Andrew Hogan, Bryn Mawr Classical Review" "This is the most sophisticated theoretically informed analysis of ancient Mediterranean trade from the Phoenicians to the fall of Rome. Historians, economists, and political scientists are in Terpstra's debt."-Walter Scheidel, Stanford University "Terpstra takes on some of the big ideas in economic history with the critical eye of an ancient historian."-J. G. Manning, Yale University

How the development of legal and financial institutions transformed Britain into the world's first capitalist country Modern capitalism emerged in England in the eighteenth century and ushered in the Industrial Revolution, though scholars have long debated why. Some attribute the causes to technological change while others point to the Protestant ethic, liberal ideas, and cultural change. The Wealth of a Nation reveals the crucial developments in legal and financial institutions in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that help to explain this dramatic transformation. Offering new perspectives on the early history of capitalism, Geoffrey Hodgson describes how, for the emerging British economy, pressures from without were as important as evolution from within. He shows how intensive military conflicts overseas forced the state to undertake major financial, administrative, legal, and political reforms. The resulting institutional changes not only bolstered the British war machine-they fostered the Industrial Revolution. Hodgson traces how Britain's war capitalism led to an expansion of its empire and a staggering increase in the slave trade, and how the institutional innovations that radically transformed the British economy were copied and adapted by countries around the world. A landmark work of scholarship, The Wealth of a Nation sheds light on how external factors such as war gave rise to institutional arrangements that facilitated finance, banking, and investment, and offers a conceptual framework for further research into the origins and consolidation of capitalism in England. Geoffrey M. Hodgson is professor emeritus in management at Loughborough University London and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Institutional Economics. His many books include Liberal Solidarity, Conceptualizing Capitalism, and Darwin's Conjecture. "In the course of the eighteenth century, a paradigm shift in the order of English economic life occurred. New financial institutions emerged from the exigencies of war making and imperial expansion-institutions that would help usher in modern industrial capitalism. Offering a powerful rethinking of one of the core questions of human history, Hodgson bridges the divide between economics and history in a dazzling display of historical detail and theoretical reflection. A must-read for anyone interested in economic history."-Sven Beckert, author of Empire of Cotton "Geoffrey Hodgson's history of capitalism is as rich and wide-ranging as the phenomenon it sets out to explain. Recentering critical developments in money and finance, The Wealth of a Nation illuminates the dramatic and distinctive quality of our modern political economy."-Christine Desan, Harvard Law School "Hodgson gives us a fresh and thoughtful take on a central question in economic history-why Britain developed first. He steers clear of monocausal explanations, gives due weight to both market and state, and makes important points about how institutions compete and adapt."-Sheilagh Ogilvie, author of The European Guilds: An Economic Analysis "Hodgson provides a much-needed critical synthesis of the many disparate theories about England's early economic rise and an entirely new take on the emergence of capitalism more broadly. His insights bring intellectual clarity to the notion of capital that economists and social scientists have been craving. This foundational and very readable work will influence generations of scholars and students."-Peter Grajzl, Washington and Lee University "A compelling overview of British economic history emphasizing how important it is to analyze institutional development using an evolutionary framework. Students and scholars alike have much to learn from Geoffrey Hodgson."-Peter Murrell, University of Maryland "Geoffrey M. Hodgson's book is a groundbreaking, in-depth analysis of the ever-discussed history of English capitalism. Well-wr

Peter Temin is the Gray Professor Emeritus of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His books include The World Economy between the World Wars. What modern economics can tell us about ancient Rome The quality of life for ordinary Roman citizens at the height of the Roman Empire probably was better than that of any other large group of people living before the Industrial Revolution. The Roman Market Economy uses the tools of modern economics to show how trade, markets, and the Pax Romana were critical to ancient Rome's prosperity. Peter Temin, one of the world's foremost economic historians, argues that markets dominated the Roman economy. He traces how the Pax Romana encouraged trade around the Mediterranean, and how Roman law promoted commerce and banking. Temin shows that a reasonably vibrant market for wheat extended throughout the empire, and suggests that the Antonine Plague may have been responsible for turning the stable prices of the early empire into the persistent inflation of the late. He vividly describes how various markets operated in Roman times, from commodities and slaves to the buying and selling of land. Applying modern methods for evaluating economic growth to data culled from historical sources, Temin argues that Roman Italy in the second century was as prosperous as the Dutch Republic in its golden age of the seventeenth century. The Roman Market Economy reveals how economics can help us understand how the Roman Empire could have ruled seventy million people and endured for centuries. "Temin is a professional economist, and his book glows with the fervour of the true believer."---Peter Thonemann, Times Literary Supplement "[T]his important book should be a challenge to ancient economic historians of all persuasions to engage seriously with both economic theory and comparative history, as well as with its specific claims about the development and performance of the Roman Empire."---Neville Morley, Sehepunkte "In The Roman Market Economy Peter Temin accomplishes the quintessential task of the economic historian: to take shards of pottery, folios of brittle parchment, and patinated tools and fashion from them a credible, comprehensive and vivid picture of a society long gone."---Plamen Ivanov, LSE Review of Books "The Roman Market Economy effectively demonstrates the elegance and simplicity of economic demonstration. But Temin's methodological point would have been more persuasive had it shown that an economic methodology can lead to new, or challenge old, understandings of the ancient economy."---Sitta von Reden, Journal of Interdisciplinary History "The study of ancient economies has for many generations been a fiercely debated field. Peter Temin has produced a book that will in many ways foster renewed energy in this great debate. What is of special value here is his economic analysis, including the use of regressions to show that price movements in the Roman provinces must be linked to those in Rome itself, and that the Roman economy, therefore, was a market economy. Whether one agrees or not with this basic conclusion, the framing of the evidence will alter the terms of the debate, and not just for the Roman economy but for Hellenistic economies as well. The book is a must-read for all economic historians and will surely become one of the most widely read books on the ancient economy."-J. G. Manning, Yale University "Peter Temin's fascinating book deploys the techniques of economic analysis to understand the nature of Roman trade, markets, and transactions, and definitively challenges the view of the Roman Empire as a 'primitive' economy. Stressing the importance of markets, trade, commerce, and banking, and emphasizing their prominence in the evidence from ancient texts and archaeology, Temin offers a sophisticated account of Rome's economic institutions and practices that fundamentally revises and enriches our understanding of the prosperity and the decline of this major i

Astrid Kander is professor of economic history at Lund University. Paolo Malanima is director of the Institute of Studies on Mediterranean Societies at the National Research Council in Italy. Paul Warde is reader in early modern history at the University of East Anglia and research associate at the Centre for History and Economics, Magdalene College, University of Cambridge. Power to the People examines the varied but interconnected relationships between energy consumption and economic development in Europe over the last five centuries. It describes how the traditional energy economy of medieval and early modern Europe was marked by stable or falling per capita energy consumption, and how the First Industrial Revolution in the eighteenth century--fueled by coal and steam engines--redrew the economic, social, and geopolitical map of Europe and the world. The Second Industrial Revolution continued this energy expansion and social transformation through the use of oil and electricity, but after 1970 Europe entered a new stage in which energy consumption has stabilized. This book challenges the view that the outsourcing of heavy industry overseas is the cause, arguing that a Third Industrial Revolution driven by new information and communication technologies has played a major stabilizing role. Power to the People offers new perspectives on the challenges posed today by climate change and peak oil, demonstrating that although the path of modern economic development has vastly increased our energy use, it has not been a story of ever-rising and continuous consumption. The book sheds light on the often lengthy and complex changes needed for new energy systems to emerge, the role of energy resources in economic growth, and the importance of energy efficiency in promoting growth and reducing future energy demand. "Employing economic theory and growth accounting to illuminate the linkages between energy use and economic activity and supporting their argument with extensive quantitative evidence, the authors make a compelling case that modern economic growth would have been impossible without the increased energy intensity made possible by exploitation of fossil fuels. This work provides valuable historical perspectives on pressing contemporary challenges." "With many insightful graphs, plus useful explanatory boxes for the less initiated, it is highly accessible, and recommended to undergraduate students curious about the history of energy, to postgraduates specializing in a specific field, and to academics."---Roger Fouquet, Journal of Economic Literature "[T]his multi-authored effort is well structured and furnished with splendid illustrations and explanatory tables . . . I would recommend the book, but with the warning that it is not an easy read due to the sheer quantity of information and analytical viewpoints it contains."---Aurelia Mané-Estrada, European History Quarterly "Power to the People is to be welcomed. It is a valuable contribution to our knowledge of Economic History and History of Technology and will appeal both to the professional and the general reader interested in the future of humanity."---Francesc X. Barca-Salom, Environment and History "An ambitious and important analysis of the relationships between energy and economic growth in Europe over the past five hundred years."---Christopher F. Jones, Environmental History ""In my view it is, and will remain for a time, the reference book on the role of energy transitions in the long-term economic development of Europe for those coming from the standpoint of economic history. . . . This book will become a touchstone from which all these contested views on energy economics can debate, check their different ways of accounting for long-term economic growth, and compete for a better explanation.'"---Enric Tello, History "Power to the People is a work of impressive scholarship, offering extensive and detailed quantitative information-much of which is new or not

"Winner of the 2012 OIV Award in History, International Organisation of Vine and Wine" James Simpson is professor of economic history and institutions at the Carlos III University of Madrid. He is the author of Spanish Agriculture: The Long Siesta, 1765-1965. Today's wine industry is characterized by regional differences not only in the wines themselves but also in the business models by which these wines are produced, marketed, and distributed. In Old World countries such as France, Spain, and Italy, small family vineyards and cooperative wineries abound. In New World regions like the United States and Australia, the industry is dominated by a handful of very large producers. This is the first book to trace the economic and historical forces that gave rise to very distinctive regional approaches to creating wine. James Simpson shows how the wine industry was transformed in the decades leading up to the First World War. Population growth, rising wages, and the railways all contributed to soaring European consumption even as many vineyards were decimated by the vine disease phylloxera. At the same time, new technologies led to a major shift in production away from Europe's traditional winemaking regions. Small family producers in Europe developed institutions such as regional appellations and cooperatives to protect their commercial interests as large integrated companies built new markets in America and elsewhere. Simpson examines how Old and New World producers employed diverging strategies to adapt to the changing global wine industry. Creating Wine includes chapters on Europe's cheap commodity wine industry; the markets for sherry, port, claret, and champagne; and the new wine industries in California, Australia, and Argentina. "[T]his book . . . has a decidedly, and fittingly, scholarly tone. . . . There are some fascinating historical facts, including the widespread nature of fraud in the wine business."---Lettie Teague, Wall Street Journal "Anyone interested in the economic history of wine and drink should read this book."---Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution "[T]here can be no doubt that wine buffs whose interest in what they drink stretches rather further than the supermarket price and the colour of the stuff in the bottle (why read the label?) will find this book fascinating." "In writing Creating Wine, James Simpson has done a great service to those who are interested in how a traditional industry inherited the modern, highly regulated, market structure we observe in places like France today. The book is important and carefully written. Anyone interested in wine or the interaction between markets and modern democratic states should buy it." "Given Simpson's excellent job in describing the evolution of the industry, this book should find a large audience." "This is a wonderful book for vine professionals, for wine professionals and for students of economic history alike, including for casual students."---Jacques Delacroix, Enterprise & Society "[This] is the first book to trace the economic and historical forces that gave rise to very distinctive regional approaches to creating wine." "Creating Wine was a delight to read. Simpson has chosen to study a pivotal time in wine production, dictated not only by changing market structure but also various supply shocks and societal factors. While many of us may have some idea of the broad issues that existed in the market for wine around this time, Simpson has provided a thoroughly researched, comprehensive piece of work that will satisfy anyone from novice to expert."---Tim Davis, Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource " Creating Wine represents, perhaps, the single greatest achievement in advancing our understanding of the globalizing wine trade during its most formative decades (1840-1914)."---Kevin Goldberg, European History Quarterly "Creating Wine draws on richly diverse primary sources from the New and Old World to explain how modern wine came

"Winner of the British-Kuwait Friendship Society Book Prize" Şevket Pamuk is professor of economics and economics history at Bogaziçi University in Istanbul. His books include A Monetary History of the Ottoman Empire and The Ottoman Empire and European Capitalism, 1820–1913. The first comprehensive history of the Turkish economy The population and economy of the area within the present-day borders of Turkey has consistently been among the largest in the developing world, yet there has been no authoritative economic history of Turkey until now. In Uneven Centuries, Şevket Pamuk examines the economic growth and human development of Turkey over the past two hundred years. Taking a comparative global perspective, Pamuk investigates Turkey's economic history through four periods: the open economy during the nineteenth-century Ottoman era, the transition from empire to nation-state that spanned the two world wars and the Great Depression, the continued protectionism and import-substituting industrialization after World War II, and the neoliberal policies and the opening of the economy after 1980. Making use of indices of GDP per capita, trade, wages, health, and education, Pamuk argues that Turkey's long-term economic trends cannot be explained only by immediate causes such as economic policies, rates of investment, productivity growth, and structural change. Uneven Centuries offers a deeper analysis of the essential forces underlying Turkey's development-its institutions and their evolution-to make better sense of the country's unique history and to provide important insights into the patterns of growth in developing countries during the past two centuries. "Described as 'the first comprehensive history of the Turkish economy', Uneven Centuries has been widely acclaimed for its 'rich and original' broad approach" "Sevket Pamuk's engaging book frames the evolution of the Turkish economy over two centuries, showing that historical developments under the Ottomans constitute an essential key to comprehending the path taken by modern Turkey."---Giampaolo Conte, Journal of European Economic History "[A] powerful analysis of how Turkey got into its present position."---Paul Rivlin, Bustan: The Middle East Book Review "The story of the economy and institutions of the Turkish Republic is often told as if there was a sharp rupture with the Ottoman era. The reality is much more complex, with many lines of continuity and the long shadow of the Ottoman past shaping many aspects of Turkish economic and political development. There is no better source that exposits these continuities and explains in what ways Turkey has changed and in what ways it has remained trapped by its past than this erudite, well-researched book. A must-read for anybody interested in Turkish economic history and the general institutional and economic problems of the developing world."-Daron Acemoglu, coauthor of Why Nations Fail "From the late Ottoman period to the contemporary Republican era, Turkey's economic fortunes have fluctuated widely. There is no one better to tell this rich story than Şevket Pamuk, the doyen of Turkish economic historians. Beyond providing a comprehensive statistical portrait of the last two centuries, Pamuk places Turkey's experience in comparative perspective and links it to deeper institutional transformations. A major accomplishment, this book will be a standard reference for years to come."-Dani Rodrik, author of Straight Talk on Trade "In his groundbreaking economic history of Turkey, Şevket Pamuk analyzes the causes behind two centuries of uneven economic development-conflicting institutions that as they changed could simultaneously encourage growth but also hold it back."-Philip T. Hoffman, author of Why Did Europe Conquer the World? "Şevket Pamuk's brilliant analysis helps move discussions of Turkey's economic performance away from narrowly conceived short-term concern

"Winner of the 2015 PROSE Award in Business, Finance & Management, Association of American Publishers" "One of The Times Higher Education Supplement's Books of the Year 2014, selected by Sir Howard Davies" "One of Bloomberg Businessweek's Best Books of 2014, chosen by Mervyn King and Jeffrey M. Lacker" "One of Financial Times (FT.com) Best Economics Books of 2014, chosen by Martin Wolf" "Longlisted for the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year 2014" Charles W. Calomiris is a professor at Columbia Business School and Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs. Stephen H. Haber is a professor of political science and senior fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Why stable banking systems are so rare Why are banking systems unstable in so many countries-but not in others? The United States has had twelve systemic banking crises since 1840, while Canada has had none. The banking systems of Mexico and Brazil have not only been crisis prone but have provided miniscule amounts of credit to business enterprises and households. Analyzing the political and banking history of the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Brazil through several centuries, Fragile by Design demonstrates that chronic banking crises and scarce credit are not accidents. Calomiris and Haber combine political history and economics to examine how coalitions of politicians, bankers, and other interest groups form, why they endure, and how they generate policies that determine who gets to be a banker, who has access to credit, and who pays for bank bailouts and rescues. Fragile by Design is a revealing exploration of the ways that politics inevitably intrudes into bank regulation. "Brilliant. . . . [I]f you are looking for a rich history of banking over the last couple of centuries and the role played by politics in that evolution, there is no better study. It deserves to become a classic."---Liaquat Ahamed, New York Times Book Review "Business economists Calomiris and Haber explain how imperfectly politics and commercial banks intersect, and the consequences for the rest of us. . . . This learned inquiry deserves ample attention from scholars, regulators, and bankers themselves." "Calomiris and Haber offer a thoughtful counter-argument to the current received wisdom."---Howard Davies, Times Higher Education "Readable, erudite, myth-busting. . . . The authors' clear and well-documented discussion of what happened should dissuade anyone of the myth that the economic crisis of 2007-09 was caused by the profit-and-loss system of unfettered capitalism."---Gene Epstein, Barron's "Charles Calomiris and Stephen Haber make the compelling argument that a country's propensity for frequent banking crises is linked to the ability of populist elements to hold the banking sector to ransom."---Louise Bennetts, American Banker "This is a great history of political interference in bank regulation."---James Ferguson, Money Week "One reason why economists did not see the financial crisis coming is that the models most macro and financial economists deal in are free of politics. Fragile by Design offers a much-needed supplement."---Martin Sandbu, Financial Times "Will a next crisis be averted? Perhaps, if our regulators read this book."---Vicky Pryce, The Independent "Fragile by Design . . . is a great book. . . . [E]normously illuminating, and contains the most powerful and concise account of the causes of the 2008 crisis that I have seen."---Eric Posner, EricPosner.com "If you have time to read only one book about the causes of the 2008 financial collapse, read this one. . . . Charles W. Calomiris and Stephen H. Haber . . . have written an exhaustively researched and readable volume. . . . With great literary sensibility uncommon to economists, Calomiris and Haber have performed a public service by painstakingly identifying these root causes."---Diana Furchtgott-Roth, National Review "Capital markets, regula

Ran Abramitzky is associate professor of economics at Stanford University and research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. How the kibbutz movement thrived despite its inherent economic contradictions and why it eventually declined The kibbutz is a social experiment in collective living that challenges traditional economic theory. By sharing all income and resources equally among its members, the kibbutz system created strong incentives to free ride or-as in the case of the most educated and skilled-to depart for the city. Yet for much of the twentieth century kibbutzim thrived, and kibbutz life was perceived as idyllic both by members and the outside world. In The Mystery of the Kibbutz, Ran Abramitzky blends economic perspectives with personal insights to examine how kibbutzim successfully maintained equal sharing for so long despite their inherent incentive problems. Weaving the story of his own family's experiences as kibbutz members with extensive economic and historical data, Abramitzky sheds light on the idealism and historic circumstances that helped kibbutzim overcome their economic contradictions. He illuminates how the design of kibbutzim met the challenges of thriving as enclaves in a capitalist world and evaluates kibbutzim's success at sustaining economic equality. By drawing on extensive historical data and the stories of his pioneering grandmother who founded a kibbutz, his uncle who remained in a kibbutz his entire adult life, and his mother who was raised in and left the kibbutz, Abramitzky brings to life the rise and fall of the kibbutz movement. The lessons that The Mystery of the Kibbutz draws from this unique social experiment extend far beyond the kibbutz gates, serving as a guide to societies that strive to foster economic and social equality. "[This book] draws on extensive statistical data to analyse this paradox, along with many stories of his relatives who forged, embraced and sometimes rejected the kibbutz way of life." "Can egalitarian and voluntary communities thrive within a capitalist society? Bringing together social sciences and modern economic tools, this book provides a fascinating and rich analysis of the Israeli kibbutz experience."-Emmanuel Saez, University of California, Berkeley "Ran Abramitzky has written a fascinating, important book infused with both deep personal insight and incisive economic analysis. I predict it will be a lasting contribution to the literature on the kibbutz movement."-Al Roth, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics "The Mystery of the Kibbutz is a brilliant economic analysis of how individuals' equality in income and consumption in a collective-production society could survive but eventually collapse. Ran Abramitzky provides a touching and enlightening description using unique data on almost the entire population of the kibbutzim from 1910 to 2000."-Zvi Eckstein, IDC Herzliya, Israel, coauthor of The Chosen Few: How Education Shaped Jewish History, 70-1492 "This beautifully written book brings economics alive through the lens of a unique social experiment in communal living, teaching us how economic incentives and social contracts shape our society today. Highly recommended both for those well versed in economics and those looking for a lively introduction to the field."-Raj Chetty, Stanford University

"One of Bloomberg Businessweek's Best Books of 2015, chosen by Barry Eichengreen" Philip T. Hoffman is professor of business economics and professor of history at the California Institute of Technology. The startling economic and political answers behind Europe's historical dominance Between 1492 and 1914, Europeans conquered 84 percent of the globe. But why did Europe establish global dominance, when for centuries the Chinese, Japanese, Ottomans, and South Asians were far more advanced? In Why Did Europe Conquer the World?, Philip Hoffman demonstrates that conventional explanations-such as geography, epidemic disease, and the Industrial Revolution-fail to provide answers. Arguing instead for the pivotal role of economic and political history, Hoffman shows that if certain variables had been different, Europe would have been eclipsed, and another power could have become master of the world. Hoffman sheds light on the two millennia of economic, political, and historical changes that set European states on a distinctive path of development, military rivalry, and war. This resulted in astonishingly rapid growth in Europe's military sector, and produced an insurmountable lead in gunpowder technology. The consequences determined which states established colonial empires or ran the slave trade, and even which economies were the first to industrialize. Debunking traditional arguments, Why Did Europe Conquer the World? reveals the startling reasons behind Europe's historic global supremacy. "Brilliant."---Edward Rothstein, Wall Street Journal "[Why Did Europe Conquer the World?] is a very interesting addition to the flourishing history of the world genre."---Diane Coyle, Enlightened Economist "History and counterfactuals blend into a fluent thesis, underpinned by diverting tables of data."---Martin Vander Weyer, Daily Telegraph "Fascinating."---G. John Ikenberry, Foreign Affairs "A confident and sure-footed book."---Robert Fulford, National Post "Big-picture economic history at its best. Hoffman's answer: chronic military conflict that gave European leaders incentives to harness widely known gunpowder technologies more effectively than leaders in other parts of the world. Also a good reminder of what economic history brings to today's economic and political table." "A hugely ambitious book and one that no scholar analyzing transitions in global history can overlook. It is a daunting task to attempt such an endeavor, let alone succeed as Hoffman has. [How Did Europe Conquer the World?] will change interpretations of European warfare, the financing of conflicts, transitions in other regions of the world, the causes of the Industrial Revolution, and the Great Divergence--topics that are at the forefront of history, economics, and political science today. . . . Impressive and persuasive. . . . [T]his book is a classic of economic history, which should be required reading."---Jari Eloranta, EH.net "Impressive."---Jan De Vries, American Historical Review "A powerful argument that resonates strongly with recent work in international political economy (Herman Schwartz) and political science (Ned Lebow)." "In a brilliant analysis, Hoffman demonstrates the dynamic interaction between the financing of the war, the innovation in warfare technology, and the political institutions, which sparked the race toward colonization and prepared the UK for the Industrial Revolution. [An] ambitious study."---Lisa Kaaki, Arab News "An intriguing and compelling contribution to the riveting debate on the causes of European hegemony in the world over the last five hundred years."---Seneer Aktürk, Insight Turkey "Hoffman makes an exceptionally stimulating intervention in the long-running debate on the 'great divergence' . . . . Thought-provoking, deeply informed and marvellously readable, [this] is a major contribution to the still pioneering field of comparative global history."---John Darwin, English Historical Review "Phillip Hoffman's book ans

"Winner of the 2008 Gold Book Medal in Finance/Investment/Economics, Independent Publisher Book Awards" Gregory Clark is chair of the economics department at the University of California, Davis. He has written widely about economic history. Why are some parts of the world so rich and others so poor? Why did the Industrial Revolution--and the unprecedented economic growth that came with it--occur in eighteenth-century England, and not at some other time, or in some other place? Why didn't industrialization make the whole world rich--and why did it make large parts of the world even poorer? In A Farewell to Alms, Gregory Clark tackles these profound questions and suggests a new and provocative way in which culture--not exploitation, geography, or resources--explains the wealth, and the poverty, of nations. Countering the prevailing theory that the Industrial Revolution was sparked by the sudden development of stable political, legal, and economic institutions in seventeenth-century Europe, Clark shows that such institutions existed long before industrialization. He argues instead that these institutions gradually led to deep cultural changes by encouraging people to abandon hunter-gatherer instincts-violence, impatience, and economy of effort-and adopt economic habits-hard work, rationality, and education. The problem, Clark says, is that only societies that have long histories of settlement and security seem to develop the cultural characteristics and effective workforces that enable economic growth. For the many societies that have not enjoyed long periods of stability, industrialization has not been a blessing. Clark also dissects the notion, championed by Jared Diamond in Guns, Germs, and Steel, that natural endowments such as geography account for differences in the wealth of nations. A brilliant and sobering challenge to the idea that poor societies can be economically developed through outside intervention, A Farewell to Alms may change the way global economic history is understood. "Right or wrong, or perhaps somewhere in between, Clark's is about as stimulating an account of world economic history as one is likely to find. Let's hope that the human traits to which he attributes economic progress are acquired, not genetic, and that the countries that grow in population over the next 50 years turn out to be good at imparting them. Alternatively, we can simply hope he's wrong."---Benjamin M. Friedman, New York Times Book Review "Clark's idea-rich book may just prove to be the next blockbuster in economics. He offers us a daring story of the economic foundations of good institutions and the climb out of recurring poverty. We may not have cracked the mystery of human progress, but A Farewell to Alms brings us closer than before."---Tyler Cowen, New York Times "[C]lark is very good at piecing together figures from here and there, including those from isolated groups of hunter-gatherers alive today. He makes a plausible case for the basic pattern: for thousands of years before the Industrial Revolution, there was essentially no sustained improvement in mankind's general material standard of living, nor was there much variation from place to place around the world. The Industrial Revolution made all the difference."---Robert Solow, New York Review of Books "A Farewell to Alms asks the right questions, and it is full of fascinating details, like the speed at which information traveled over two millennia (prior to the 19th century, about one mile per hour). Clark's combination of passion and erudition makes his account engaging. When a light bulb goes off in my head, the first thing I ask myself is 'Would this be interest if it were true?' Clark's thesis definitely meets that test."---Samuel Bowles, Science "Mr. Clark...has produced a well written and thought-provoking thesis, refreshingly light on jargon and equations. It could well be the subject of debate for years to come." "Gregory Clark's A Fare

"One of BBC History Magazine's Best Books of 2020" David Stasavage is dean for the social sciences and Julius Silver Professor of Politics at New York University. His books include Taxing the Rich and States of Credit (both Princeton). Twitter @stasavage "One of the most important books on political regimes written in a generation."-Steven Levitsky, New York Times–bestselling author of How Democracies Die A new understanding of how and why early democracy took hold, how modern democracy evolved, and what this history teaches us about the future Historical accounts of democracy's rise tend to focus on ancient Greece and pre-Renaissance Europe. The Decline and Rise of Democracy draws from global evidence to show that the story is much richer-democratic practices were present in many places, at many other times, from the Americas before European conquest, to ancient Mesopotamia, to precolonial Africa. Delving into the prevalence of early democracy throughout the world, David Stasavage makes the case that understanding how and where these democracies flourished-and when and why they declined-can provide crucial information not just about the history of governance, but also about the ways modern democracies work and where they could manifest in the future. Drawing from examples spanning several millennia, Stasavage first considers why states developed either democratic or autocratic styles of governance and argues that early democracy tended to develop in small places with a weak state and, counterintuitively, simple technologies. When central state institutions (such as a tax bureaucracy) were absent-as in medieval Europe-rulers needed consent from their populace to govern. When central institutions were strong-as in China or the Middle East-consent was less necessary and autocracy more likely. He then explores the transition from early to modern democracy, which first took shape in England and then the United States, illustrating that modern democracy arose as an effort to combine popular control with a strong state over a large territory. Democracy has been an experiment that has unfolded over time and across the world-and its transformation is ongoing. Amidst rising democratic anxieties, The Decline and Rise of Democracy widens the historical lens on the growth of political institutions and offers surprising lessons for all who care about governance. "A bracing stringency is one of the virtues of The Decline and Rise of Democracy. It sweeps across the globe in command of recent scholarship. . . . It shows how complex democracy's patterns are and, on the evidence, how simpler accounts of its past and prospects stumble." "An outstanding volume that analyses the development of democracy and autocracy in a refreshing and relevant way."---Simon Sebag Montefiore, BBC History Magazine "Democracy is a naturally occurring condition in humanity societies. This single idea sets Stasavage apart from so many theorists who look to the past."---Justin Kempf, Democracy Paradox "I opened The Decline and Rise of Democracy: A Global History from Antiquity to Today, by David Stasavage (Princeton, 2020), hoping to find insights on the prospects for democracy in Russia, and China. And so I did. I closed the book with a better understanding of American democracy as well."---David Warsh, Economic Principals "A rich and coherent account of democracy's evolution over millennia and across diverse geographical and environmental settings, "a deep history". . . . This volume helps us look into the future, and one might be unsettled by what can be seen."---Varghese K. George, The Hindu " This book's optimism and wide-eyed wonder sprouts like T.S. Eliot's lilac through the dead earth of current Western declinism."---David Muir, The American Interest "A fascinating voyage through time and place."---Pierre Lemieux, Regulation "David Stasavage offers a rich, international overview on the origins of democracy and the con

Jan Luiten van Zanden is Professor of Economic History at Utrecht University and a senior research scholar at the International Institute of Social History. Arthur van Riel is a Senior Economist in the Dutch Ministry of the Interior and a member of the Netherlands's Economic Institute in Rotterdam. A major feat of research and synthesis, this book presents the first comprehensive history of the Dutch economy in the nineteenth century--an important but poorly understood piece of European economic history. Based on a detailed reconstruction of extensive economic data, the authors account for demise of the Dutch economy's golden age. After showing how institutional factors combined to make the Dutch economy a victim of its own success, the book traces its subsequent emergence as a modern industrial economy. Between 1780 and 1914, the Netherlands went through a double transition. Its economy--which, in the words of Adam Smith, was approaching a "stationary state" in the eighteenth century--entered a process of modern economic growth during the middle decades of the nineteenth. At the same time, the country's sociopolitical structure was undergoing radical transformation as the decentralized polity of the republic gave way to a unitary state. As the authors show, the dramatic transformation of the Dutch political structure was intertwined with equally radical changes in the institutional structure of the economy. The outcome of this dual transition was a rapidly industrializing economy on one side and, on the other, the neocorporatist sociopolitical structure that would characterize the Netherlands in the twentieth century. Analyzing both processes with a focus on institutional change, this book argues that the economic and political development of the Netherlands can be understood only in tandem. "A scientific masterpiece. . . . The political dimension of the book renders its economic material more juicy and appealing to a wider audience."---P.A.G. Van Bergeijk, NRC Handelsblad "This is a major work."---A. van der Zwan, Trouw "The authors demonstrate how the economic history of the Netherlands between 1780 and 1914 can be effectively rewritten on the basis of insights derived from the 'new institutional economics'. . . . This is a wonderful book."---W. Fritschy, Nederlandse Staatscourant "This immensely impressive book is underpinned by a major collaborative research project . . . to reconstruct the Dutch national accounts from 1800-1913. . . . This fine book stands as a major landmark, not only in the economic history of The Netherlands, but of Europe as a whole."---David Ormrod, Economic, History Review "This is one of the most comprehensive, integrated, and data-rich economic histories that exists for any nineteenth-century European economy. This is all the more remarkable since-until the research that led to this book-the Dutch nineteenth century was a veritable black hole of economic history."-Jan de Vries, Unversity of California, Berkeley

Daniel Berkowitz is professor of economics at the University of Pittsburgh. Karen B. Clay is associate professor of economics at Carnegie Mellon University. Although political and legal institutions are essential to any nation's economic development, the forces that have shaped these institutions are poorly understood. Drawing on rich evidence about the development of the American states from the mid-nineteenth to the late twentieth century, this book documents the mechanisms through which geographical and historical conditions--such as climate, access to water transportation, and early legal systems--impacted political and judicial institutions and economic growth. The book shows how a state's geography and climate influenced whether elites based their wealth in agriculture or trade. States with more occupationally diverse elites in 1860 had greater levels of political competition in their legislature from 1866 to 2000. The book also examines the effects of early legal systems. Because of their colonial history, thirteen states had an operational civil-law legal system prior to statehood. All of these states except Louisiana would later adopt common law. By the late eighteenth century, the two legal systems differed in their balances of power. In civil-law systems, judiciaries were subordinate to legislatures, whereas in common-law systems, the two were more equal. Former civil-law states and common-law states exhibit persistent differences in the structure of their courts, the retention of judges, and judicial budgets. Moreover, changes in court structures, retention procedures, and budgets occur under very different conditions in civil-law and common-law states. The Evolution of a Nation illustrates how initial geographical and historical conditions can determine the evolution of political and legal institutions and long-run growth. "In this book, economists Berkowitz and Clay use variation across U.S. states as a sort of historical economic laboratory. Drawing on a wide array of quantitative and qualitative data sources, they lay out and document the connections among a number of geographic and climatic characteristics and the extent of political competition that emerged in each state. . . . This is an important contribution to the literature on institutional economics, economic history, and economic development." "Berkowitz and Clay deserve considerable credit for taking up the difficult challenge of applying the ES (Engerman-Sokoloff) and AJR (Acemoglu-Johnson-Robinson) approach to the experience of U.S. states. Certainly anyone else contemplating something similar will need to study this book very carefully because they will have to grapple with some of the same issues faced by the authors. The book is timely, well written, and the authors have amassed an interesting body of data."---Robert A. Margo, EH.Net "Berkowitz and Clay build a compelling empirical case for their broad argument. . . . The Evolution of a Nation is an important and useful work, one that will be of interest to economists, historians, and political scientists with an interest in American political and economic development."---Thomas Oatley, Journal of Regional Science "The strength of The Evolution of a Nation lies in the collected historical and recent data. All these are sufficiently displayed on charts, graphs, appendices, which cover over eighty pages in the body of the book. The meticulously written introduction and overview provide a methodological model to those for ongoing research. Complying with the expectations of the authors, the book stands at the intersection between economics, history, law and politics and can be beneficial within the classroom setting of these disciplines at undergraduate and graduate levels. Furthermore, as it presents stimulating discussions and raises new questions about law, legal intuitions, economic growth, it can be a reference book for the years to come in historical and sociological studies."-

How the expansion of primary education in the West emerged not from democratic ideals but from the state's desire to control its citizens Nearly every country today has universal primary education. But why did governments in the West decide to provide education to all children in the first place? In Raised to Obey, Agustina Paglayan offers an unsettling answer. The introduction of broadly accessible primary education was not mainly a response to industrialization, or fueled by democratic ideals, or even aimed at eradicating illiteracy or improving skills. It was motivated instead by elites' fear of the masses-and the desire to turn the "savage," "unruly," and "morally flawed" children of the lower classes into well-behaved future citizens who would obey the state and its laws. Drawing on unparalleled evidence from two centuries of education provision in Europe and the Americas, and deploying rich data that capture the expansion of primary education and its characteristics, this sweeping book offers a political history of primary schools that is both broad and deep. Paglayan shows that governments invested in primary schools when internal threats heightened political elites' anxiety around mass violence and the breakdown of social order. Two hundred years later, the original objective of disciplining children remains at the core of how most public schools around the world operate. The future of education systems-and their ability to reduce poverty and inequality-hinges on our ability to understand and come to terms with this troubling history. Agustina S. Paglayan is assistant professor of political science at the University of California, San Diego, and nonresident fellow at the Center for Global Development. Her work has been covered by The Economist, the Washington Post, Devex, NPR, and NBC. "This marvelous book addresses a central paradox in economic development: human capital is central to prosperity, but state efforts at primary schooling often have hugely disappointing payoffs. Agustina Paglayan's resolution of the paradox is that states did not primarily intend schooling to increase worker skills. Their motivation for schooling was to indoctrinate citizens to accept the political status quo. This empirically compelling research will forever change thinking about education."-William Easterly, author of The Tyranny of Experts "What promoted the expansion of public primary education systems? Which states became involved in regulating them? Paglayan provides a compelling and profound answer in this pathbreaking book: state-regulated primary education systems emerged fundamentally as a state-building tool to increase the state's capacity to forge social order through indoctrination. With the use of original data collection across the world, statistical analyses, archival evidence, and a series of carefully crafted case studies, Raised to Obey compellingly demonstrates that fear of internal conflict, crime, anarchy, and the breakdown of social order are the key factors that prompted governments to regulate and expand primary education rather than democratization, industrialization, or a desire to improve living standards. This masterful analysis is an essential book for scholars of comparative politics, education policy, and social welfare provision, and policymakers interested in understanding the long history of state-regulated primary education and what this can tell us about the nature of the education systems we have today."-Beatriz Magaloni, Stanford University "The creation of mass education is not about economic productivity, but about state formation and social control. You will never think about human capital the same way after reading this pathbreaking and iconoclastic book."-James A. Robinson, University of Chicago, winner of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Economics

Daniel R. Headrick is professor emeritus of social science and history at Roosevelt University. His books include The Tools of Empire and The Earth and Its Peoples. A major history of technology and Western conquest For six hundred years, the nations of Europe and North America have periodically attempted to coerce, invade, or conquer other societies. They have relied on their superior technology to do so, yet these technologies have not always guaranteed success. Power over Peoples examines Western imperialism's complex relationship with technology, from the first Portuguese ships that ventured down the coast of Africa in the 1430s to America's conflicts in the Middle East today. Why did the sailing vessels that gave the Portuguese a century-long advantage in the Indian Ocean fail to overcome Muslim galleys in the Red Sea? Why were the same weapons and methods that the Spanish used to conquer Mexico and Peru ineffective in Chile and Africa? Why didn't America's overwhelming air power assure success in Iraq and Afghanistan? In Power over Peoples, Daniel Headrick traces the evolution of Western technologies-from muskets and galleons to jet planes and smart bombs-and sheds light on the environmental and social factors that have brought victory in some cases and unforeseen defeat in others. He shows how superior technology translates into greater power over nature and sometimes even other peoples, yet how technological superiority is no guarantee of success in imperialist ventures-because the technology only delivers results in a specific environment, or because the society being attacked responds in unexpected ways. Breathtaking in scope, Power over Peoples is a revealing history of technological innovation, its promise and limitations, and its central role in the rise and fall of empire. Some images inside the book are unavailable due to digital copyright restrictions. "Headrick destroys the simplistic notion that technological advances alone can explain the historic limits of Western global hegemony." "For professional historians--and especially for those dealing with the events of the early modern and modern world and with the progress of technical advances most of the latest book by Daniel R. Headrick might seem like a comforting walk through a very familiar landscape. The road's main twists come as no surprise, but it is good to see them yet again, surveyed with a macroscopic perspective that captures all important features and, here and there, highlights interesting details."---Vaclav Smil, American Historical Review "Daniel R. Headrick is right to think that insufficient attention has been paid to how technological change and environment shape imperialism, and his work is an excellent attempt to remedy that deficiency."---Peter Cain, The Historian "This is an interesting, clearly-written, and well-researched book. In an era of academic specialization, it is also attractive for its willingness to tackle one of the largest and oldest questions of world history. While technology is the theme, the author carefully frames and qualifies his argument so as to avoid the pitfalls of reductionism. While this book should find a place in courses on economic history, the history of technology, and the economics of imperialism, its accessibility should also make it attractive to the reading public."---Robert E. Prasch, Journal of Economic Issues "Headrick provides a magisterial and highly readable survey. . . . The work is perhaps most eye-opening in describing conflict in regions often left out of more sweeping accounts--colonial expansion in sub-Saharan west Africa or Algeria, or conflict in southern Latin America. . . . [T]his book will enable [historians] to understand the place of technology in broader narratives of change all the more effectively."---Paul Warde, Cultural and Social History "[T]his is a major contribution from an important academic built on decades of experience. I am a better scholar for having r

"Thomas J. Sargent, Winner of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Economics" "Winner of the 2003 for Best Professional/Scholarly Book in Business Management & Accounting, Association of American Publishers" Thomas J. Sargent is Donald Lucas Professor of Economics at Stanford University and Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. A pioneer of the rational expectations school of macroeconomics, he is the author of The Conquest of American Inflation (Princeton), Bounded Rationality in Macroeconomics, and Dynamic Macroeconomic Theory. François R. Velde is Senior Economist at the Federal Reserve Bank in Chicago and Lecturer in Economics at the University of Chicago. The Big Problem of Small Change offers the first credible and analytically sound explanation of how a problem that dogged monetary authorities for hundreds of years was finally solved. Two leading economists, Thomas Sargent and François Velde, examine the evolution of Western European economies through the lens of one of the classic problems of monetary history--the recurring scarcity and depreciation of small change. Through penetrating and clearly worded analysis, they tell the story of how monetary technologies, doctrines, and practices evolved from 1300 to 1850; of how the "standard formula" was devised to address an age-old dilemma without causing inflation. One big problem had long plagued commodity money (that is, money literally worth its weight in gold): governments were hard-pressed to provide a steady supply of small change because of its high costs of production. The ensuing shortages hampered trade and, paradoxically, resulted in inflation and depreciation of small change. After centuries of technological progress that limited counterfeiting, in the nineteenth century governments replaced the small change in use until then with fiat money (money not literally equal to the value claimed for it)--ensuring a secure flow of small change. But this was not all. By solving this problem, suggest Sargent and Velde, modern European states laid the intellectual and practical basis for the diverse forms of money that make the world go round today. This keenly argued, richly imaginative, and attractively illustrated study presents a comprehensive history and theory of small change. The authors skillfully convey the intuition that underlies their rigorous analysis. All those intrigued by monetary history will recognize this book for the standard that it is. "The core of [the] story is a mathematical model, in this case one that captures possible solutions to the small-change puzzle, including the correct one. . . . For centuries, authorities sensed that economic health depended on the steady, predictable availability of currency. But they did not understand how to realize this goal. Messrs. Sargent and Velde deserve credit for revealing how the correct model came into being. . . . More than a penny for their thoughts."---Paul Podolsky, The Wall Street Journal "This fascinating new history of money shows that the key ingredients of a sound currency were identified in Europe hundreds of years ago. The mystery is why, even today, so many governments fail to put this knowledge to work." "This elegantly written, scholarly work will appeal to those interested in financial history or monetary theory." "[The authors'] design serves as a temple for the conduct of research in economics as an empirical science. They have done it just right. Their book is strongly recommended." "This is an important and wide-ranging book, which will reshape the way in which we think of the origins of modern money and modern monetary theory. It is . . . so well organized that the lay reader can get the message simply by reading the fascinating narrative and taking for granted the mathematical account of the standard formula, presented in two chapters at the conclusion. It is also splendidly illustrated and beautifully produced."---Harold James, Times Literary Supplement "A remarkable book. . .

"Winner of the 2017 Excellence in Financial Journalism Book Award, New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants" "Winner of the 2017 PROSE Award in U.S. History, Association of American Publishers" "A New York Times Bestseller" "One of Financial Times (FT.com) Best Economics Books of 2016" "One of Foreign Affairs' Editors' Picks 2016" "One of The Economist's Economics and Business Books of the Year 2016" "One of The Wall Street Journal's "The 20 Books That Defined Our Year" 2016" "One of the Washington Post's Best Economics Books 2016" "One of Bloomberg View's "Five Books to Change Conservatives' Minds," chosen by Cass Sunstein" "One of Bloomberg View's Great History Books of 2016" "#36 on Bloomberg's "50 Most Influential" List" "One of Bloomberg's Best Books of 2016" "One of The New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2016" "One of Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Books of 2016 in History" "One of the Strategy+Business Best Business Books 2016 in Economy" "Shortlisted for the 2016 Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award" "One of The NewYorker.com Page-Turner blog's "The Books We Loved in 2016"" "Longlisted for the 2016 Cundill Prize in Historical Literature, McGill University" Robert J. Gordon is professor in social sciences at Northwestern University. His books include Productivity Growth, Inflation, and Unemployment and Macroeconomics. Gordon was included in the 2016 Bloomberg list of the nation's most influential thinkers. How America's high standard of living came to be and why future growth is under threat In the century after the Civil War, an economic revolution improved the American standard of living in ways previously unimaginable. Electric lighting, indoor plumbing, motor vehicles, air travel, and television transformed households and workplaces. But has that era of unprecedented growth come to an end? Weaving together a vivid narrative, historical anecdotes, and economic analysis, The Rise and Fall of American Growth challenges the view that economic growth will continue unabated, and demonstrates that the life-altering scale of innovations between 1870 and 1970 cannot be repeated. Robert Gordon contends that the nation's productivity growth will be further held back by the headwinds of rising inequality, stagnating education, an aging population, and the rising debt of college students and the federal government, and that we must find new solutions. A critical voice in the most pressing debates of our time, The Rise and Fall of American Growth is at once a tribute to a century of radical change and a harbinger of tougher times to come. "The Rise and Fall of American Growth . . . is the Thomas Piketty-esque economic must read of the year."---Rana Foroohar, Time "This is a book well worth reading--a magisterial combination of deep technological history, vivid portraits of daily life over the past six generations and careful economic analysis. . . . [The Rise and Fall of American Growth] will challenge your views about the future; [and] it will definitely transform how you see the past."---Paul Krugman, New York Times Book Review "[An] authoritative examination of innovation through the ages."---Neil Irwin, New York Times "Robert Gordon has written a magnificent book on the economic history of the United States over the last one and a half centuries. . . . The book is without peer in providing a statistical analysis of the uneven pace of growth and technological change, in describing the technologies that led to the remarkable progress during the special century, and in concluding with a provocative hypothesis that the future is unlikely to bring anything approaching the economic gains of the earlier period. . . . If you want to understand our history and the economic dilemmas faced by the nation today, you can spend many a fruitful hour reading Gordon's landmark study."---William D. Nordhaus, New York Review of Books "[The Rise and Fall of American Gro

"Winner of 2015 Gyorgy Ranki Prize, Economic History Association" "Honorable Mention for the 2015 PROSE Award in Economics, Association of American Publishers" "One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2014" "One of Vox's "Best Books We Read in 2014"" Gregory Clark is professor of economics at the University of California, Davis. A surprising look at how ancestry still determines social outcomes How much of our fate is tied to the status of our parents and grandparents? How much does it influence our children? More than we wish to believe. While it has been argued that rigid class structures have eroded in favor of greater social equality, The Son Also Rises proves that movement on the social ladder has changed little over eight centuries. Using a novel technique-tracking family names over generations to measure social mobility across countries and periods-renowned economic historian Gregory Clark reveals that mobility rates are lower than conventionally estimated, do not vary across societies, and are resistant to social policies. Clark examines and compares surnames in such diverse cases as modern Sweden and Qing Dynasty China. He demonstrates how fate is determined by ancestry and that almost all societies have similarly low social mobility rates. Challenging popular assumptions about mobility and revealing the deeply entrenched force of inherited advantage, The Son Also Rises is sure to prompt intense debate for years to come. "The Son Also Rises . . . suggests that dramatic social mobility has always been the exception rather than the rule. Clark examines a host of societies over the past seven hundred years and finds that the makeup of a given country's economic élite has remained surprisingly stable."---James Surowiecki, New Yorker "An epic feat of data crunching and collaborative grind. . . . Mr. Clark has just disrupted our complacent idea of a socially mobile, democratically fluid society."---Trevor Butterworth, Wall Street Journal "Audacious."---Barbara Kiser, Nature "[A]n important book, and anybody at all interested in inequality and the kind of society we have should read it."---Diane Coyle, Enlightened Economist "The Son Also Rises. . . . That is the new Greg Clark book and yes it is an event and yes you should buy it."---Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution "Startling. . . . Clark proposes a new way to measure mobility across nations and over time. He tracks the persistence of rare surnames at different points on the socio-economic scale. The information he gathers is absorbing in its own right, quite aside from its implications."---Clive Crook, Bloomberg View "Clark casts his net wider. He looks at mobility not across one or two generations, but across many. And he shows by focusing on surnames--last names--how families overrepresented in elite institutions remain that way, though to diminishing degrees, not just for a few generations but over centuries."---Michael Barone, Washington Examiner "Deeply challenging."---Margaret Wente, Globe & Mail "Who should you marry if you want to win at the game of life? Gregory Clark . . . offers some answers in his fascinating new book, The Son Also Rises."---Eric Kaufmann, Literary Review "This intriguing book measures social mobility in a novel way, by tracing unusual surnames over several generations in nine different countries, focusing on intergenerational changes in education, wealth, and social status as indicated by occupation." "No doubt this book will be as controversial as its thesis is thought-provoking." "Gregory Clark's analysis of intergenerational mobility signals a marked shift in the way economists think about social mobility."---Andrew Leigh, Sydney Morning Herald "The thesis of The Son Also Rises is, fundamentally, that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Ingeniously, Clark and his team of researchers look at the persistence of socioeconomic status through the lens of surnames in more than 20 societies."---Tim Sullivan, Harvard Bus

"Shortlisted for the 2017 Cundill History Prize, McGill University" "Shortlisted for the 2017 Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award" "strategy+business Best Business Book of 2017 in Economics" "One of The New York Times Deal Book "Business Books Worth Reading" 2017 (chosen by Andrew Sorkin)" "One of The Wall Street Journal's What Business Leaders Read in 2017" "Selected for The HCSS Bookshelf (chosen by Stephan De Spiegeleire) 2017" "One of BBC History Magazine's Books of the Year 2017" "One of the Microsoft Best Business Books of 2017" "One of Project Syndicate's Best Reads in 2017 (chosen by Dambisa Moyo)" "One of the Economist.com "2017 Books of the Year" in Economics and Business" "One of Financial Times (FT.com) Best Books of 2017: Economics, chosen by Martin Wolf" "One of The Wall Street Journal's What Business Leaders Read in 2017, chosen by Mohamed A. El-Erian" "One of the CNBC 13 Best Business Books of 2017" "One of World's 2017 Books of the Year in "Understanding the World"" "Medium.com's Books of the Year 2017, chosen by Mark Koyama" Walter Scheidel is the Dickason Professor in the Humanities, Professor of Classics and History, and a Kennedy-Grossman Fellow in Human Biology at Stanford University. The author or editor of seventeen previous books, he has published widely on premodern social and economic history, demography, and comparative history. He lives in Palo Alto, California. Are mass violence and catastrophes the only forces that can seriously decrease economic inequality? To judge by thousands of years of history, the answer is yes. Tracing the global history of inequality from the Stone Age to today, Walter Scheidel shows that it never dies peacefully. The Great Leveler is the first book to chart the crucial role of violent shocks in reducing inequality over the full sweep of human history around the world. The "Four Horsemen" of leveling-mass-mobilization warfare, transformative revolutions, state collapse, and catastrophic plagues-have repeatedly destroyed the fortunes of the rich. Today, the violence that reduced inequality in the past seems to have diminished, and that is a good thing. But it casts serious doubt on the prospects for a more equal future. An essential contribution to the debate about inequality, The Great Leveler provides important new insights about why inequality is so persistent-and why it is unlikely to decline anytime soon. "A very perky story…if anyone wants to be lifted up then this is the book for you" "This shows how inequality has increased across all of human society under every form of political organisation since the Stone Age- except in the wake of mass mobilised warfare or natural catastrophes. Sobering."---Henry Dimbleby, The Week "A superb book."-Steven Pinker, Times Literary Supplement "Walter Scheidel's The Great Leveler is a smartly argued book…. For anybody who has ever debated issues related to inequality and their broader meaning, this book provides more than just a powerful thought experiment."-Andrew Ross Sorkin, New York Times "Mr Scheidel's evidence is so persuasive that readers will find themselves cheering on the Black Death as a boost to median wages."-Janan Ganesh, Financial Times "Sweeping and provocative."-New Yorker "A readable and quirky history of economic inequality from the great apes to the modern day…. It is well worth the read. It is, in a word, gripping."-Victoria Bateman, Times Higher Education "The Great Leveler should set off loud alarm bells…. The range of evidence is breathtaking."-Timur Kuran, Foreign Affairs

"A New Statesman Essential Non-Fiction Book of 2021" "Winner of the PROSE Award in the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology, Association of American Publishers" "A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year" Kyle Harper is professor of classics and letters at the University of Oklahoma. His books include The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire (Princeton) and From Shame to Sin: The Christian Transformation of Sexual Morality in Late Antiquity. He lives in Moore, Oklahoma. Website kyleharper.net Twitter @Oklahomaharper A sweeping germ's-eye view of history from human origins to global pandemics Plagues upon the Earth is a monumental history of humans and their germs. Weaving together a grand narrative of global history with insights from cutting-edge genetics, Kyle Harper explains why humanity's uniquely dangerous disease pool is rooted deep in our evolutionary past, and why its growth is accelerated by technological progress. He shows that the story of disease is entangled with the history of slavery, colonialism, and capitalism, and reveals the enduring effects of historical plagues in patterns of wealth, health, power, and inequality. He also tells the story of humanity's escape from infectious disease-a triumph that makes life as we know it possible, yet destabilizes the environment and fosters new diseases. Panoramic in scope, Plagues upon the Earth traces the role of disease in the transition to farming, the spread of cities, the advance of transportation, and the stupendous increase in human population. Harper offers a new interpretation of humanity's path to control over infectious disease-one where rising evolutionary threats constantly push back against human progress, and where the devastating effects of modernization contribute to the great divergence between societies. The book reminds us that human health is globally interdependent-and inseparable from the well-being of the planet itself. Putting the COVID-19 pandemic in perspective, Plagues upon the Earth tells the story of how we got here as a species, and it may help us decide where we want to go. "[A] superb new history of infectious disease. Be so grateful you live now!" "Magisterial. . . . [Harper's] mastery of the science is only matched by the ease of his prose. If I were to nominate a book of the year, it would be this one."---Andrew Sullivan, The Dishcast "[A] sweeping masterpiece. . . . It's difficult for me to think of anyone who will not find something eye-opening and enlightening in the pages of this comprehensive, beautifully written and eloquent book." "Plagues upon the Earth is a remarkable achievement."---Talha Burki, The Lancet "This magnificent book stood out as much for its nuance and academic rigour as it did for its readability." "An ambitious, engaging, and unified history of humanity's interaction with infectious disease."---Gregory J. Morgan, Science "By integrating history, demography, economics, evolutionary biology and genomics into a seamless narrative, [Harper] does something that I, for one, have never seen before done so eloquently or persuasively: he demonstrates that any thorough understanding of health requires the kind of sweeping perspective that the humanities offers."---Steve Mintz, Inside Higher Ed "Comprehensive."---Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution "A remarkable accomplishment that weaves together microbiology, history, and economics to understand the role of diseases in shaping human history. Harper, an established historian known for his first three books on Rome and late antiquity, has an impressive command of virology, bacteriology, and parasitology as well as history and economics. In 'Plagues Upon the Earth.' he explains all of these clearly and with many arresting turns of phrase and insights."---Alex Tabarrok, Marginal Revolution "Well-conceived. … [Kyle] Harper combs through the literature of history, economics, epidemiology, and other disciplines to d

"Finalist for the PROSE Award in Archaeology and Ancient History, Association of American Publishers" "One of the Evening Standard's Best Books of 2019" "One of the Financial Times' Best Books of 2019: Economics" Walter Scheidel is the Dickason Professor in the Humanities, Professor of Classics and History, and a Kennedy-Grossman Fellow in Human Biology at Stanford University. His many books include The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century (Princeton). He lives in Palo Alto, California. Twitter @WalterScheidel The gripping story of how the end of the Roman Empire was the beginning of the modern world The fall of the Roman Empire has long been considered one of the greatest disasters in history. But in this groundbreaking book, Walter Scheidel argues that Rome's dramatic collapse was actually the best thing that ever happened, clearing the path for Europe's economic rise and the creation of the modern age. Ranging across the entire premodern world, Escape from Rome offers new answers to some of the biggest questions in history: Why did the Roman Empire appear? Why did nothing like it ever return to Europe? And, above all, why did Europeans come to dominate the world? In an absorbing narrative that begins with ancient Rome but stretches far beyond it, from Byzantium to China and from Genghis Khan to Napoleon, Scheidel shows how the demise of Rome and the enduring failure of empire-building on European soil ensured competitive fragmentation between and within states. This rich diversity encouraged political, economic, scientific, and technological breakthroughs that allowed Europe to surge ahead while other parts of the world lagged behind, burdened as they were by traditional empires and predatory regimes that lived by conquest. It wasn't until Europe "escaped" from Rome that it launched an economic transformation that changed the continent and ultimately the world. What has the Roman Empire ever done for us? Fall and go away. "Scheidel marshals his facts with verve and force . . . . the abiding impression left by reading this book is not that human progress was inevitable – even at such a bloody cost – but that it was profoundly fragile."---Robert Colvile, The Times "Scheidel makes a bracing case, backed by every counterfactual tool of contemporary scholarship, against resurgent European empire at any time. . . . What did the Romans do for us? Scheidel does not give the usual answers."---Peter Stothard, Financial Times "Walter Scheidel's Escape from Rome: The Failure of Empire and the Road to Prosperity is an outstanding, epic history of the fall of the Roman Empire and rise of the European West."---Simon Sebag Montefiore, Evening Standard "Escape from Rome deserves to be taken very seriously . . . . this is a fiercely intelligent, closely argued book."---Peter Thonemann, Times Literary Supplement "Thought-provoking. . . . Impressive."---P.G. Wallace, Choice Reviews "A challenging, detailed and thought-provoking study of how the end of Rome benefited the West rather than the reverse."---Richard Owen, The Tablet "Fascinating and arresting."---Stephen Davies, Reason Magazine "A tour de force of world history."---Tony Jones, The Christian Century "Insightful. . . an outstanding modern summation of a strand of research which goes back at least as far as Montesquieu and David Hume."---Mark Koyama, Journal of Economic Literature "A sweeping academic survey comparing empires and eras. . . . Escape From Rome makes bold claims about the nature of empire and the roots of the modern world and backs them up with thoughtful analysis."---Dominic Lynch, America "Escape from Rome is a well-written survey of an enormous literature on the history of the world. . . . It is fun and interesting to read. . . . An admirable book."---Peter Temin, EH.Net "A stimulating, thought-provoking work that will be of interest to professional and lay readers alike."---Paolo Tedesco,