Customer Reviews

The European Miracle: Environments, economies and geopolitics in the history of Europe and Asia

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The European Miracle is a book I have been meaning to read for years. Having finally done so, I found it a pleasure to read, a work which explains much of the past in ways which illuminate the present.

If you are looking for abstract theorising, this is not the book. If you are looking for a book of excellent scholarship, judicious judgement and clear prose which considers the breadth of causal factors, this is definitely your book.

Jared Diamond in his splendid Guns, Germs, Steel asked the questions 'why civilisation?' and 'why Eurasia?'. This asks a later question, 'why Europe?'

I did find the way Jones notes the striking institutional similarities between Japan and Europe but then moves on a bit disappointing. But the great thing about this book is you can fill in the blanks for yourself.

Jones' key analytical point -- that marginal differences, if they persist over centuries, can have huge long term consequences -- is very powerful and conveyed powerfully.

I particularly appreciated the striking delineation of how different the state as it evolved in Europe, and the European experience of the state, was from that of Asia. Once you see that, much subsequent history makes a great deal of sense.

His discussion of the European state system is illuminating, and encompasses (but is not specifically concerned with) local differences. One can see much more powerfully some of the effects of globalisation Friedman pointed to in the Lexus and the Olive Tree.

There is a great deal more in this book. Read it, to understand the past that makes the present much more explicable.

After reading Mr. Munro's excellent review, I will only add that, as a complement to "The European Miracle", on the vexing question of why Western countries have dominated the world during the last few centuries [the very way the question is posed is controversial!], I would also suggest reading the following books: 1) "Power and Plenty: Trade, War, and the World Economy in the Second Millennium" by Ronald Findlay and Kevin H. O'Rourke; 2)"The Great Divergence", by Kennetz Pomeranz; 3 - 4): "The world economy. A millennial perspective" (2001) plus "The world economy: Historical Statistics" (2003) by Angus Maddison (a combined edition of these two volumes appeared on December 2007); 5) The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation by John M. Hobson, and 6) it also seems interesting the brief book to be published this June "Why Europe? The Rise of the West in World History 1500-1850" by Jack A. Goldstone.

And for those looking for a broad framework to understand the past, I would add the following works, whose scope is amazingly global: 1. Agrarian cultures: "Pre-industrial societies" by Patricia Crone; 2. Government: "The History of Government" by S.E. Finer; 3. Ideas: "Ideas, a History from Fire to Freud", by Peter Watson; 4. Religion: "The Phenomenon of Religion: A Thematic Approach" by Moojan Momen; and 5. War: "War in Human Civilization" by Azar Gat.

A sort of precursor to the brilliant book Guns Germs and Steel by Diamond. This book is by an Australian academic E.L.Jones. It seeks to explain why Europe a backward area of the world in the 1300's came to be the strongest by the 19th Century.

The weakness of the book is that it tends to generalize and talk about Europe as a whole. The author makes the interesting point that Asian and Islamic Civilizations although militarily powerful were not economically advanced. The wealth of individual peasants was low and the concentration of wealth in the autocratic rulers of such places was made possible because of a wide base of oppressed peasants. Europe although starting out from a poorer base had in general terms more affluent peasants and its countries were better able to take advantage of economic growth when the technologies came along.

In trying to explain why this was so the author looks at a wide range of factors. It would take a long time to list them but there is a lengthy examination of a wide range of factors including the absence of parasites because of the colder climate in Europe and the greater political freedom.

The problem is that Europe was not really a uniform entity. Different bits of Europe advanced and became wealthy for different reasons. England and the Netherlands developed extensive trade empires that made both countries very wealthy before the technological developments of the industrial revolution. Russia although backward was a country that expanded and from the time of Peter the Great increased its dominion by conquering a land based empire.

Contemporaries had no doubt for the success of these countries. They believed that the acquisition of territorial empires provided a basis of wealth for the home country. For this reason countries as diverse as Germany, Japan and the United States started to acquire empires by the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The reason for the success of the various European countries varied. Russia built up an autocratic state aimed at being able to field a large army. This was done by Peter the Great who changed the entire social system of land ownership to create obligations for military service. In England the acquisition of a maritime empire led to a strong fleet and a strong merchant class.

It is thus hard to put down the success of Europe to any common causes. Each European Country was dynamic and each developed different systems the more successful of which generated wealth and power. The less successful such as Poland were absorbed by the more successful.

Whilst the book is not perfect it is an interesting read. However Guns Germs and Steel is the best book on the topic.

This book was extremely informative for anyone that might enjoy the economic history of Europe. For those that are reading it because you HAVE to; expect for the reading to go slow and to have to re-read certain areas. Jones could have said the same things with words half as long with half as many pages! In all fairness to the author, I read this only because it was mandatory for a college economics class; not because it is a topic I typically enjoy.