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The Wealth Explosion: The Nature and Origins of Modernity Paperback – April 29, 2019

by Dr. Stephen Davies (Author)

4.5 14 ratings

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How did the modern dynamist economy of wealth and opportunity come about? This major new analytical work emphasizes the often surprising, fundamental and continuing processes of innovation and transformation which has produced the world we live in now. / Today we live in a social and economic world that is fundamentally different from the one inhabited by our ancestors. The difference between the experience of people living today and that of all of our ancestors back to the advent of agriculture is as great as that between them and their hunter-gatherer forebears. The processes of transformational changes could have started many times in history - but they first became sustained in North-West Europe about 240 years ago. The question of why this happened in that particular place and time is one that has exercised generations of scholars. Thanks to that work we now have a much clearer idea of how and why the traditional world of our ancestors was so different from the modern world that we inhabit. This book builds on that work and gives a new answer to the question of why and how things changed, showing that this unprecedented breakthrough was the result of the way a particular world-historical process worked out in Europe - largely because of contingent and accidental factors. / The book also considers the question of what kind of world it is that we now live in - and whether it can continue. / Contents: Introduction. / Chapter 1. The Way We Live Now – and the Way We Once Lived. / Ch. 2. Debates and Theories. /Ch. 3. Song China and the Ming Restoration – A Case Study./ Ch. 4. The Military Revolution and the World it Made. / Ch. 5. The European Divergence. / Ch. 6. The Scientific Revolution and the Shaping of the Modern Mind. / Ch. 7. The Enlightenment and the Advent of Modernity. / Ch. 8. The World We Live in – For Now. / Afterword: Are We Still Living in Western Civilization?

Print length

1 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Edward Everett Root
Publication date

April 29, 2019
Dimensions

6 x 0.64 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

1912224593
ISBN-13

978-1912224593
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About the Author

Dr. Steve Davies is the Head of Education at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) in London. Previously he was program officer at the Institute for Humane Studies (IHS) at George Mason University in Virginia. He joined IHS from the UK where he was Senior Lecturer in the Department of History and Economic History at Manchester Metropolitan University. He has also been a Visiting Scholar at the Social Philosophy and Policy Center at Bowling Green State University, Ohio. / An historian, he graduated from St Andrews University in Scotland in 1976 and gained his PhD from the same institution in 1984. He has authored several books, including Empiricism and History (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003) and was co-editor with Nigel Ashford of The Dictionary of Conservative and Libertarian Thought (Routledge, 1991).

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Edward Everett Root (April 29, 2019)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 1 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1912224593
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1912224593
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.64 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,931,538 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,476 in Democracy (Books)
- #4,027 in Economic History (Books)
- #16,428 in Historical Study (Books)

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4.5 14 ratings

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A good man in a terrible field

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 24, 2020

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While reading the book I never doubted the authors intellectual honesty or actual interest in the subject. However the field of world history has been so utterly destroyed by progressive revisionism, such as the California school, that Game of thrones can almost be used as a legitimate "historical" source.

The core problem of the book is that the author is trying to reconcile the factual statistics we know from the late 18th and 19th century that indicate a sharp and monumental change in society. To the hearsay used by "historians" to try and justify this social change as minor and preexisting in other societies. The results as you might have guessed are underwhelming. However, the issue is not with the author who does try his best to make this work. The problem is that the field of world history has been allowed to set its own standard of evidence so low that virtually any Politically Appropriate opinion becomes credible. In such a system attempting to make a causal argument is impossible.

In such a world it becomes pointless to try and explain the originality of how the average life expectancy rose from 25 in the late 18th century to 36 in 1820, the six fold change in real incomes between 1820 and 1920, or the U.S. literacy rate of 85% in 1850. When data like this can be "contradicted" through dubious 11th century scrolls or contemporaneous accounts(random hearsay). The only people who benefit are the historians who get to mask their politically motivated arm chair speculation as "research".

3 people found this helpful

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Joe Green

Need!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 19, 2019

Needs a Kindle edition.

6 people found this helpful

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Clay Garner

‘So drastic were the changes of 1914 - they have drawn a line under thousands of years of history’

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 6, 2019

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“The years between 1850 and 1914 were truly Revolutionary and saw more change of a more profound nature than any other period of human history. . . . It was this period that actually created the world most people now alive have been born into and which finally swept away the remnants of the old world order that had been created in the aftermath of the fourteenth century.’’

How drastic was this?

“Indeed so profound were the changes of those two generations they can truly said to have drawn a line under several thousand years of history, marking the decisive break between the traditional societies.’’

Yep, that’s . . . very . . . drastic. How long did this crisis last?

“It also saw acute class conflict in many parts of the world and culminated in the catastrophe of 1914-18 and the long world crisis of 1914 to 1948.’’

Davies presents excellent evidence for this conclusion, as he does all his opinions. He has a real historical sense, now rarely seen. This is a great book to begin connecting our present to our past.

The concluding chapter asks — “Are we still living in Western civilization?’’

“How are we to define or name our own position or identity? Or, are we still living in western civilization? The account presented in this book leads to the conclusion that we are not. Traditional, western, Christian civilization ceased to exist as a living social and intellectual order sometime between the 1850’s and the 1940’s. We no longer have or inhabit a Christian civilization that would be recognizable to anyone from our past.’’

This creates much psychological, personal fear. So amidst an ‘explosion of wealth’ — more anguish than ever.

If this fearful, anxious, pessimistic outlook drives decisions, what could result?

“Could it be with effort that with effort the modern the modern world could be rolled back? . . . It may we’ll be that a deliberate and conscious policy could reverse many of the social and economic changes of the last two hundred years . . . just as the Ming emperors did.’’

Davies spends considerable time on the lessons from China’s history. What can happen if modernity reversed?

“The cost of this would be enormous in terms of the conditions of daily life. . . . Reversing modernity must mean accepting the death of several billion people.’’

Wow!

1 The way we once lived and the way we live now
2 Historiography and Theory
3 Song China and the Ming restoration
4 The military revolution and the world it made
5 The European divergence
6 The scientific revolution and the shaping of the modern mind
7 The enlightenment and the advent of modernity
8 The world we live in — For Now

Afterward: Are we still living in western civilization?

One outstanding theme regularly present is . . .

“How should we should evaluate the entire modern revolution. Is it beneficent, which has brought about a huge increase in human well being and flourishing? Or, should we view it in darker colors, as a disaster or as something deeply impious and hubristic or somehow contrary to the essential nature of human beings?’’

Davies presents both sides of this question (even though he thinks it’s beneficial).

“Indeed much of the social, cultural and political history of the last two hundred years consists of a set of reactions against that modern transformation.’’

Why so much resistance?

“Three persistent themes are that the modern world is impossible to sustain and will end in crisis or systemic collapse, that it is impious and corruptive of true value, and that in some sense anti ethical to what it is to be truly human.’’

This is not in any way new. This anti-enlightenment, counter-enlightenment thinking started centuries ago. Of course, we now have modern thinkers continuing this attack.’’

Can modernity be reversed? Wait and see . . .

Davies’ starts his historical analysis with both fourteenth century Europe and China. With some detail, works up through rise of Dutch trading empire and English scientific revolution. Constantly trying to find what caused this huge change here (not China) and then (not before). Gives fair answer, but leaves the full answer open.

In fact, even though this is a work of tremendous research, it comes across as modest, careful, analytical and open. Davies explains in introduction, that he presenting a work of synthesis, not original thought. He cites and refers to scholars who disagree with his opinion, along with those who support him. And he does this throughout. Nevertheless, the clarity, vivid panorama, colorful pictures of both past and present, makes it a pleasure to examine.

Excellent for beginners and experienced readers.

Each section ends with “Further reading and bibliographical essay’’. This isn’t just a list of references, but a brief explanation of each authors main idea. Presents hundreds and hundreds of sources.

Wonderful!

Two photographs (cover)

Detailed index

No maps

No charts

4 people found this helpful

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Christian Bjoernskov

Excellent overview of the Western divergence

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 11, 2019

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Steve Davies is one of the most interesting people you might meet. Fortunately, his new book is in many ways like him. It' not supposed to be new or groundbreaking research, but a structured and considered overview of the huge mass of research in what is perhaps the mos important question in economics: Why did a particular part of North-Western Europe begin outgrowing the rest of the world in the 18th century, and why did the growth continue.
Davies sets the scene by noting the fundamental difference between extensive and intensive growth - growth based on additional resource use versus growth founded in advances in knowledge and productivity - and introduces the different serious explanations for why it happened primarily in the Netherlands and the UK at that time. His account of the growth experience of Song China is particularly fascinating and provides many interesting insights into why previous growth outside of Europe spurts didn't last.
At the end of the day, Davies's purpose of the book is not only to discuss what makes economies growth in the very long run, but understand what created the modern world. Modernity is more than just wealth, and Davies does a stellar job in discussing exactly what modernity is and is not. If you are not ready to dive into thousands of pages of original research from the last 40 years, but are still interested in understanding the modern world and how we got here, The Wealth Explosion is now one of the best places to start.

5 people found this helpful

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