This book provides a crosscutting interdisciplinary account of how the disintegrated, global subsistence economy circa 1800 has transformed into a global complex delivering unprecedented levels of material production and consumption. Applying major findings from economics, history/historiography, and sociology (as well as from anthropology, psychology, politics, and environmental studies), the analysis tracks the ways in which changes in ‘society’ (including social structures, values, and forces) have changed ‘individuals’ (including conceptions of race, gender, and identity) and vice versa. These changes have simultaneously homogenised and diversified societies and individuals in distinct but sometimes contradictory ways, opening up many possible worlds from an individual and group perspective. Yet, the scale and pace of change has also led to increasing existential challenges.
The narrative consists of 30 chapters organized into 10 subsets of 3: one chapter on a relevant core idea; one chapter focused on historical narrative and titled after a representative year; and one chapter on a relevant associated crosscutting theme. Major regional and topical discussions are provided, with special attention paid to business and organisational change and developing world scholarship. Small discussion ‘boxes’ focusing on illustrative cases and details are presented throughout the book. The last chapter contains over-arching conclusions.
Author(s): Cameron Gordon
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 1060
City: London
Acknowledgements
A Very Brief Reader’s Guide
Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
List of Boxes
1 Practising Interdisciplinary Economic History
1.1 Stitching Histories Together
1.1.1 Surmising and Validating “General Laws”
1.1.2 Story-Telling to Bring Out the Comprehensible Patterns from Messy Reality
1.1.3 Historical Imagination and the Singularity of the Past
1.2 Historiographical Pitfalls
1.2.1 Causal Determinism
1.2.2 Reductionism
1.2.3 Uniformitarianism
1.3 “Truth” and History
References
2 Understanding the “Anthropocene”
2.1 Travelling on “Spaceship” Earth
2.2 Three Paradigms of the World Economy
2.3 Paradigm 1: The Anthropocene (It’s All About Earth System Limits)
2.4 Paradigm 2: Modernity and Modernisation (It's All About the Society)
2.5 Paradigm 3: The Growth Model (It's All About the Economy)
2.6 Consistent or Inconsistent Paradigms?
References
3 “1800”
3.1 The Beginning of a “Modern” Economy
3.2 The Vantage Point from 1800
3.3 The Industrial Revolution and the Great Divergence: The Unified Growth Model (UGM)
3.4 The Industrial Revolution on the Ground
3.5 The Industrial Revolution: Why and How Did It Happen?
3.6 From Competition Between Nations to a “World System”?
3.7 Core-Periphery Examples: Monetary Standards and Slavery
3.8 What About “Society”?
3.9 “Institutions”
References
4 “Political Economy”: The Making of a North-South Planet
4.1 Classical Economics and “Political Economy”
4.2 Adam Smith and the Wealth of Nations
4.3 Rationalism and Its Emotional Tones
4.4 Science, Mechanism, Deism and the Self-Regulating System
4.5 A Revised Role for the State
4.6 Power, Politics and Economics
4.7 Thomas Robert Malthus and Malthusian Economics
4.8 David Ricardo and the Ricardian Synthesis
4.9 “Man” and “Nature” and Classical “Liberalism”
4.10 Emerging Cracks in the Political Economy Edifice
4.11 The Making of a North-South World
4.12 The Dual Nature of Technical System Making
4.13 The Self-Regulating System Point of View
4.14 A Bottom Line?
References
5 Self, Socialisation, Organisation, Culture
5.1 Prelude: The Origins of the Term Industrial Revolution
5.2 Sociality
5.3 Socialisation, Culture and Society
5.4 Economic Change and Society
5.5 Case Studies of Economy/Society Modernisation
5.5.1 “The Great Transformation”
5.5.2 “The Industrious Revolution”
5.5.3 “Factory Discipline”
5.5.4 Entrepreneurship
References
6 “1848”
6.1 The Napoleonic Transition in Europe
6.2 New Ideas About Old Institutions
6.3 Colonial Ferment, Change and Upheaval
6.4 A Cementing of a World Economic System
6.5 “Structural Change” in Europe
6.6 The European Restoration and Its Rapid Breakdown
6.7 1848 from a Global Perspective
6.8 Economic Causes of “1848”: Long- and Short Term
6.9 Aftermath: The Developmental State
6.10 Aftermath: Reform of the City
6.11 Aftermath: Managing Popular Consent
6.12 A Summing Up: The World Economy at Mid-Century
References
7 “Revolution”
7.1 A Revolution Is Not a Dinner Party
7.2 Theorising About Revolutions
7.3 Social Fabric, Social Capital and Social Movements
7.4 Economic Impetuses of Revolution
7.5 The Role of Ideas
7.6 Political Economy Revisited
7.7 “East” v “West”
7.8 Great Power Politics
7.9 1848 as a Case Study
References
8 Technology, Innovation and Invention
8.1 A Technological Revolution?
8.2 “Technology” and Productivity
8.3 Entrepreneurs Versus Technology “Systems”
8.4 The Finance Connection and Beyond
8.5 Technology and Society
8.6 A Case Study: Railroads and Economic Growth
8.6.1 Embodied and Disembodied Effects
8.6.2 Role of Topography and Physical Space
8.6.3 Market Access and Size Effects
8.6.4 Static v Dynamic Effects
8.7 An Intermediate Reckoning
References
9 “1870”
9.1 The Psychic Costs of Modernisation
9.2 Material Modernisation in Europe
9.3 The “Second” Industrial Revolution and the Role of the State
9.4 A Changing World of Work and Lifestyle
9.4.1 Work Organisation
9.4.2 Hours and Wages and “Standard of Living”
9.5 A Changing World of Home and Family
9.6 A Globalising Economy
9.7 The “Concert of Europe” in 1870
9.8 The “Production Possibility Frontier”
References
10 La Belle Époque
10.1 “The Beautiful Epoch”—For Some
10.2 Social and Economic Life Inside the Core: The Case of France
10.3 Mass Media, “News” and Nationalism
10.4 Girdling the Globe
10.5 Internationalisation and Its Nationalist Backlashes
10.6 An Exceptional Case: Japan
10.7 A Growing Bittersweet Decadence in Europe
References
11 “Civilisation”, Gender, Race and Class
11.1 Civilisation: The Birth of a Concept
11.2 Civilisational Analysis
11.3 “Western” “European” Civilisation
11.3.1 Ancient Greece
11.3.2 Ancient Rome
11.3.3 Christianity
11.4 Civilisational Sources and Aspects of Economic Growth
11.5 Modernisation and the Individual
11.6 Economic Change and Changing Categories of Gender, Race and Class
11.6.1 Gender
11.6.2 Race
11.6.3 Class
11.7 “Axial” Movements, Modernisation and “Multiple Modernities”
References
12 “1900”
12.1 Prelude: When Does a New Century Begin?
12.2 Material Expansion as of “1900”
12.3 A Global Trade System
12.4 International Finance and System Driven Turbulences
12.5 Science—Industry—Productivity: The Second Industrial Revolution
12.6 Big Capital and Labour Movements
12.7 The First Age of Modern Inequality and the Rise of Radicalism
12.8 Pollution and Waste
12.9 Northern Industrialisation and Southern Deindustrialisation
12.10 The Conundrum of “Rational Planning”
References
13 Imperialism
13.1 The “Age of Imperialism”
13.2 Forms and Styles of Imperialism
13.3 Motivations for Imperialism
13.3.1 Geopolitical
13.3.2 Cultural/Ideological
13.3.3 Economic
13.4 The Burdens Imposed by Colonial Rule
13.5 Imperialism and Postcolonial Economic Growth
13.5.1 Latin America
13.5.2 Africa
13.6 Assessing the Modern Legacy of Imperialism
References
14 Modernity
14.1 Modernity’s Etymology
14.2 Commodification, Marketisation, Industrialism, Bureaucracy
14.3 Modernity, Intensification, Depersonalisation and the Consolidation of the “Masses”
14.4 Mass Media and the Changing Self-Image of “Modern Man”
14.5 Modernity and the Problem of Violence
14.6 The First Age of Anxiety and the Weight of Western Civilisation
14.7 Modernity Outside Europe
References
15 “1914”
15.1 A Long Nineteenth Century
15.2 A High Tide of Systems Thinking and Mechanism Ideals
15.3 Nineteenth Century Europe in Political Transition and the Rise of “Geopolitics”
15.4 A Complexifying Order
15.5 A New Industry of Arms
15.6 Reasons War Came
15.7 During the War
15.8 After the War Was Over
References
16 Global Demographic Change
16.1 Industrialisation and the Modern Demographic Transition
16.2 Demographic Forces and Economic Modernisation
16.3 Possible Causes of Falling Fertility
16.4 The Mortality Transition
16.5 Migration
16.6 Economic Impacts of Migration
16.7 Migration as a Safety Valve for Capitalism
16.8 The Shifting Well-Being of the World
References
17 Ideas and Ideologies
17.1 A Political Economist Grapples with the Individual in a Mass Age
17.2 Industrialisation and Changing Ideas About Economy and Society
17.3 Ideas and Economic Change
17.4 Changing Conceptions of the Self in Society
17.5 Ideas Versus Ideologies
17.6 Violence and Ideology
17.7 An Evolutionary Strategy?
17.8 The Void of Meaning
References
18 “1929”
18.1 “The Economic Consequences of the Peace”
18.2 Remaking a Problematic Europe
18.3 An “Interwar” Order
18.4 Interwar Global Finance
18.5 American Prosperity and the Roots of the Great Depression
18.6 The Great Crash
18.7 Full-Blown Financial and Economic Crisis in America
18.8 A Worldwide Conflagration
18.9 Outmoded Policy Responses and Policy Experimentation
18.9.1 Alternative Visions
18.9.2 “Macroeconomics” and “Social Democracy”
18.10 The Ongoing Mystery of the Great Depression
References
19 Global Finance
19.1 Open Markets in Money and Things
19.2 Financial Integration: Good or Bad?
19.3 North/South Finance and Financial Hegemony
19.4 The Rise of Central Banking and the Lender of Last Resort (LOLR)
19.5 The Classical Gold Standard and the Global Politics of Money
19.6 Infrastructure and Money
19.7 Falling Standards
19.8 Reparations and “Hot Money”
19.9 Goodbye to All that
References
20 Exceptionalism
20.1 American “Exceptionalism”
20.2 Varieties and Limits of Exceptionalism
20.3 Is America Economically Exceptional?
20.4 The Limits of Exceptionalism as a Method of Analysis
References
21 “1945”
21.1 Economic Prelude to Another World War
21.2 First Stages of the War
21.3 Course of the War
21.4 A Series of Difficult Questions
21.4.1 Causes of the War
21.4.2 Who Won the War?
21.4.3 Atrocities
21.4.4 Preventing Another World War and Another Depression
21.5 Same War, Different Meanings
References
22 War
22.1 War…What Is It Good for?
22.2 A Changing Face of War
22.3 “Total War”
22.4 War and the Economy According to the Growth Model
22.4.1 The Phoenix Effect
22.4.2 Institutional Clearance
22.4.3 Military Keynesianism
22.5 Military Technology and Dual Uses
22.6 War-Making and State-Making
22.7 Military-Industrial Complexes
22.8 “Iron Triangles”
References
23 Comparative Economic, Social and Political Systems
23.1 Industrialism Versus Capitalism
23.2 Social, Political, Economic and Cultural Comparisons
23.3 Political System Choice and the Role of the State
23.4 The Fascist Challenge of the Interwar Period
23.5 “Cold War” and “Comparative Economic Systems”
23.6 Post-Cold War “New Comparative Economics”
23.7 Going Forward
References
24 “1968”
24.1 The Great Post-War Prosperity
24.2 A Demographic Boom
24.3 Suburbanisation
24.4 A “Youth” Generation
24.5 Materialism and Consumerism
24.6 The Organisation Man
24.7 Ennui and a Crisis of Meaning
24.8 A Year of Global Unrest
24.9 The Aftermath
References
25 Cold War
25.1 The Beginnings of a Manichean World
25.2 Prelude to a Dichotomy
25.3 Making of a Cold War
25.4 Economic Performance of Competing Models
25.5 A Development Model for the Developing World
25.6 American Hegemony in the Capitalist Bloc
25.7 Varieties of Capitalism
25.8 Major Geopolitical Elements of the Cold War
25.8.1 The “Balance of Terror” and “Mutually Assured Destruction” (MAD)
25.8.2 Proxy Wars, decolonisation and Non-alignment
25.8.3 Propaganda and “Hearts and Minds”
25.9 The “National Security State” and “Big Science”
25.10 A Paradigm of “Control” and the Cold War Paranoiac
References
26 Time and “Progress”
26.1 The “End” of History?
26.2 Is There Progress in Time?
26.3 Is There Time in Progress?
26.4 The Industrialisation of Time
26.5 The Technisation of Time Past, Present and Future
26.6 Politics as a Technical Problem in Search of a Technical Solution
26.7 Round and Round It Goes
References
27 “1989” “1991”
27.1 Separate Worlds
27.2 A Golden Age of the Socialist Bloc
27.3 Pressures Beneath the Surface
27.4 A Disruptive Economic Opening to the West
27.5 “1989”
27.6 “1991”
27.7 The Chinese Exception
27.8 The “New World Order”
27.9 The Meaning of the Cold War’s End
References
28 Neoliberalism
28.1 What’s so “Neo” About “Neoliberalism”?
28.2 The Bretton Woods International Order
28.3 The Keynesian Consensus and Domestic “Fine-Tuning”
28.4 Business, Labour, Accords and the Social Wage
28.5 A Turn for the Better; then a Turn for the Worse
28.6 What Happened?
28.7 A Changing Political Economy
28.8 Globalisation and Financialisation
28.9 Ongoing Implications of Neoliberalism
References
29 Structural Change
29.1 Economic Modernisation and Economic Structure
29.2 A Postwar Shift to Services
29.3 The “Post-Industrial” Economy and Society
29.4 Managerialism
29.5 Technocracy, Digitalisation and Changing Production Processes
29.6 Northern Deindustrialisation
29.7 “Financialisation”
29.7.1 The “Hot Money” Problem
29.7.2 The “Rentier” Problem
29.7.3 The “Political Economy” Problem
29.8 The Production Possibility Frontier (PPF) Revisited
References
30 “2016”
30.1 2016: An Unusual year
30.2 Superficial Placidity and Technocratic Paradigms
30.3 Anger Movements
30.4 A Passing of “Big Ideas”
30.5 Actions Without Equal and Opposite Reactions
30.6 Broken Mirrors
30.7 The Roots of 2016
30.8 A Turning Point, But Nowhere to Turn?
References
31 Populism, Elitism and Identity
31.1 A Misunderstood Neologism
31.2 The Rise of Democracy
31.3 Order Versus Chaos
31.4 Technocracy and the Ideology of Elitism
31.5 The California Ideology
31.6 Networks Versus Hierarchies
31.7 The Elitism of the Professional Class
31.8 The Degradation of Political Institutions
31.9 The Imperfect Refuges of Identity and Populism
31.9.1 Identity
31.9.2 Populism
31.10 Identity Politics, Citizenship and the Modern Liberal Democratic Challenge
References
32 Old Models, New Realities
32.1 Two Mid-Century Visions of the Future
32.2 A Scientific Paradise
32.3 The New Optimists
32.4 The World as It Is?
32.4.1 Limits to Resources
32.4.2 Limits to Control
32.4.3 Limits to Knowing
32.4.4 Corporatisation, Formalisation, Bureaucratisation
32.4.5 Instrumentalism Versus Values
32.4.6 Unintegrated Meaning and Immateriality
32.4.7 Mediated Reality
32.4.8 “Mass Everything”
32.4.9 Freedom and Identity
32.5 Old Models, New Realities
References
Bibliography
Index
