Overview
- Covers major themes in the economic histories of Imperial China and Western Europe and takes issue with other contentions that for centuries Western Europe and China can be located and defined as economies characterized by “surprising resemblances”
- Addresses ways of knowing, understanding and contrasting histories of “the rise of rise” of the West with the protracted retardation of Imperial China’s economy
- Provides an extended answer to the meta question posed by Ken Pomeranz in his now classical book: The Great Divergence – which inaugurated the debate, “Why wasn’t England like the Yangtze Delta?”
Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Economic History (PEHS)
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About this book
This book is a critical interpretation of a seminal and protracted debate in comparative global economic history. Since its emergence, in now classic publications in economic history between 1997-2000, debate on the divergent economic development that has marked the long-term economic growth of China and Western Europe has generated a vast collection of books and articles, conferences, networks, and new journals as well as intense interest from the media and educated public.
O’Brien provides an historiographical survey and critique of Western views on the long-run economic development of the Imperial Economy of China – a field of commentary that stretches back to the Enlightenment. The book’s structure and core argument is concentrated upon an elaboration of, and critical engagement with, the major themes of recent academic debate on the “Great Divergence” and it will be of enormous interest to academics and students of economic history, political economy, the economics of growth and development, state formation, statistical measurements, environmental history, and the histories of science and globalization.
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Keywords
Table of contents (8 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Patrick Karl O’Brien, FBA, was former Director of the Institute of Historical Research at the University of London and is currently a Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics, an Emeritus Fellow of St. Antony's College and an Associate Fellow of the Center for Economic and Social History, Oxford University, UK.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: The Economies of Imperial China and Western Europe
Book Subtitle: Debating the Great Divergence
Authors: Patrick Karl O'Brien
Series Title: Palgrave Studies in Economic History
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54614-4
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: History, History (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-54613-7Published: 15 October 2020
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-54616-8Published: 16 October 2021
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-54614-4Published: 14 October 2020
Series ISSN: 2662-6497
Series E-ISSN: 2662-6500
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIV, 121
Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations
Topics: Economic History