Full Description
This edited volume presents a set of essays honouring the agricultural, environmental and world economic historian, Eric L. Jones. Drawing insights from contributors spanning the social sciences, it highlights how Jones' approach was ahead of its time, illuminating the benefits of studying economic history from a long-run, comparative perspective.
In the spirit of Jones' path-breaking book The European Miracle, this volume is divided into two parts. The first part takes the intellectual contributions of Eric Jones as its focus, closely considering Jones' contributions to the development of a non-Eurocentric perspective of world history, our understanding of long-term social processes and Eliasian sociology, and the study of the urban built environment. The second part of the book changes tack, offering a series of detailed studies on historical and contemporary themes. Each essays in this part explicitly draws its influence and inspiration from Jones' work. These 'applied' chapters, written by leading experts, make important and novel contributions to an array of important questions: the Great Divergence, economic performance in Song China, the rise of Nazi Germany, the evolution of modern China's economic links with Australia, and the likely effect on international politics of China and Russia's current growing alliance.
This book provides a wide-ranging introduction to the works of Eric Jones, one of the most influential economic historians of the twentieth century, and illustrates not only the ongoing relevance of Jones' work, but, crucially, how contemporary researchers can learn from his approach to studying long-run change.
Contents
Part I: Reflections on the contributions of Eric Jones.- Chapter 1: Beyond The European Miracle: the enduring impact of Eric Jones.- Chapter 2: Eric Jones and the urban built environment a retrospective assessment.- Chapter 3: Beyond Eurocentrism and The European Miracle Eric Jones' non Eurocentric theory of early growth producing economies in East Asia.- Chapter 4: A modest little book with an immodest title.- Part II: Research in the tradition of Eric Jones.- Chapter 5: The Kuznetsian paradigm for the study of China's economic history.- Chapter 6: An 'accidental revolution' with experimental currencies in Song China, 960 1279 AD.- Chapter 7: Turning out for the Führer? Local activism, voter turnout and the electoral performance of the Nazi Party.- Chapter 8: Breaking down the walls: institutional change and the history of Australia China trade.- Chapter 9: The Chussia Anxiety.
