Growth Recurring: Economic Change in World History (Clarendon Paperbacks) [Paperback]

E. L. Jones (Author)

Book Description

Series: Clarendon Paperbacks | Publication Date: April 29, 1993

This study concerns the conflict in world history between economic growth and political greed. E.L. Jones, author of the groundbreaking The European Miracle, proposes two fundamentally new frameworks. One replaces industrial revolution or great discontinuity as the source of change and challenges the reader to accept early periods and non-western societies as vital to understanding the growth process. It shows that growth occurred independently in Sung China and Japan as well as in Europe. The second framework offers a new explanation in which tendencies for growth were omnipresent but were usually suppressed. The "obstacles to growth" and their subsequent erosion is reviewed, providing an explanation of the modern world economy in which growth has recurred and East Asia has taken a prominent place.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"He has supplemented his expertise in European economic history by reading widely in Asian history, ancient and modern....Jones's style is both delightful and lapidary. He strikes innumerable sparks with challenging assertions on almost every page....His new book is as thought-provoking as The Economic Miracle--not least where it contradicts its predecessor."--American Historical Review

"Bold and stimulating."--Journal of Asian Studies

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

E. L. Jones is at La Trobe University, Victoria. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (April 29, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0198204043
• ISBN-13: 978-0198204046
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,572,362 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Econimics and world history, March 31, 2002

By 

FMM de Goey (Rotterdam Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Growth Recurring: Economic Change in World History (Economics, Cognition, and Society) (Paperback)

Eirc L. Jones (autor of the much discusses book on The European Miracle, 1988) discusses world history from an economical perspective. By training he is an economist. The basic concepts are intensive economic growth (innovation) and extensive economic growth (more of the same). According the Jones extensive growth must develop into intensive growth at some point in time. You can only have so many workers or machines in your factory before it comes economically useless (law of deminishing returns). China during the Sung (or Song) dynasty (960 - 1279 AD or CE)experienced extensive growth and reached unprecedented levels of economic welfare, commercialisation (market economy) and consumerism. Industrial output of iron during the Sung period was not reached again until the late 18th century in Britain. But China never experienced a so called Industrial Revolutian like Britain or other Western European countries. Why not? This 'frustration' (according to Jones) is explained by referring to values (culture), institutions (law), state action, and military conquest. This is a thought provoking book, but recent research on China (Pomeranz and Bin Wong) dismiss Jones answers.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Econimics and world history, March 31, 2002

By 

FMM de Goey (Rotterdam Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Growth Recurring: Economic Change in World History (Economics, Cognition, and Society) (Paperback)

Eirc L. Jones (autor of the much discusses book on The European Miracle, 1988) discusses world history from an economical perspective. By training he is an economist. The basic concepts are intensive economic growth (innovation) and extensive economic growth (more of the same). According the Jones extensive growth must develop into intensive growth at some point in time. You can only have so many workers or machines in your factory before it comes economically useless (law of deminishing returns). China during the Sung (or Song) dynasty (960 - 1279 AD or CE)experienced extensive growth and reached unprecedented levels of economic welfare, commercialisation (market economy) and consumerism. Industrial output of iron during the Sung period was not reached again until the late 18th century in Britain. But China never experienced a so called Industrial Revolutian like Britain or other Western European countries. Why not? This 'frustration' (according to Jones) is explained by referring to values (culture), institutions (law), state action, and military conquest. This is a thought provoking book, but recent research on China (Pomeranz and Bin Wong) dismiss Jones answers.