An Economic History of Europe: Knowledge, Institutions and Growth, 600 to the Present (New Approaches to Economic and Social History) - Softcover

Persson, Karl Gunnar

Softcover

ISBN 10: 052154940X ISBN 13: 9780521549400

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2010

Synopsis

This concise and accessible introduction to European economic history focusses on the interplay between the development of institutions and the generation and diffusion of knowledge-based technologies. The author challenges the view that European economic history before the Industrial Revolution was constrained by population growth outstripping available resources. He argues instead that the limiting factor was the knowledge needed for technological progress but also that Europe was unique in developing a scientific culture and institutions which were the basis for the unprecedented technological progress and economic growth of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Simple explanatory concepts are used to explain growth and stagnation as well as the convergence of income over time whilst text boxes, figures, an extensive glossary and online exercises enable students to develop a comprehensive understanding of the subject. This is the only textbook students will need to understand Europe's unique economic development and its global context.

About this title

Book Description:

This concise introduction to European economic history challenges the prevailing perspective that pre-industrial Europe was stagnating by showing that technological progress has been a permanent attribute of European societies. Boxed features and online exercises enable students to develop a comprehensive understanding of Europe's unique economic development and its global context.

About the Author:

Karl Gunnar Persson is a Professor at the Department of Economics at the University of Copenhagen where he has been teaching comparative economic history and the history of globalization over the last thirty years. He is the author of Pre-Industrial Economic Growth: Social Organization and Technological Progress in Europe (1988) and Grain Markets in Europe 1500-1900: Integration and Deregulation (1999).

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 052154940X
• ISBN 13: 9780521549400
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 270