A Farewell to Alms

Why are some parts of the world so rich and others so poor? Why did the Industrial Revolution - and the unprecedented economic growth that came with it - occur in eighteenth-century England, and not at some other time, or in some other place? Why didn't industrialization make the whole world rich - and why did it make large parts of the world even poorer? In "A Farewell to Alms", Gregory Clark tackles these profound questions and suggests a new and provocative way in which culture - not exploitation, geography, or resources - explains the wealth, and the poverty, of nations. Countering the prevailing theory that the Industrial Revolution was sparked by the sudden development of stable political, legal, and economic institutions in seventeenth-century Europe, Clark shows that such institutions existed long before industrialization. He argues instead that these institutions gradually led to deep cultural changes by encouraging people to abandon hunter-gatherer instincts-violence, impatience, and economy of effort-and adopt economic habits-hard work, rationality, and education. The problem, Clark says, is that only societies that have long histories of settlement and security seem to develop the cultural characteristics and effective workforces that enable economic growth. For the many societies that have not enjoyed long periods of stability, industrialization has not been a blessing. Clark also dissects the notion, championed by Jared Diamond in "Guns, Germs, and Steel", that natural endowments such as geography account for differences in the wealth of nations. A brilliant and sobering challenge to the idea that poor societies can be economically developed through outside intervention, "A Farewell to Alms" may change the way global economic history is understood.

Zusatztext "[P]erhaps there is no higher praise for an author than to say that I disagreed with the arguments but liked the book. It made me think in new ways about the course of economic history. I recommend the book to anyone with an interest in the economic history of the world." ---Rick Szostak! New Global Studies Zusammenfassung Why are some parts of the world so rich and others so poor? Why did the Industrial Revolution--and the unprecedented economic growth that came with it--occur in eighteenth-century England! and not at some other time! or in some other place? Why didn't industrialization make the whole world rich--and why did it make large parts of the world even poorer? In A Farewell to Alms ! Gregory Clark tackles these profound questions and suggests a new and provocative way in which culture--not exploitation! geography! or resources--explains the wealth! and the poverty! of nations. Countering the prevailing theory that the Industrial Revolution was sparked by the sudden development of stable political! legal! and economic institutions in seventeenth-century Europe! Clark shows that such institutions existed long before industrialization. He argues instead that these institutions gradually led to deep cultural changes by encouraging people to abandon hunter-gatherer instincts-violence! impatience! and economy of effort-and adopt economic habits-hard work! rationality! and education. The problem! Clark says! is that only societies that have long histories of settlement and security seem to develop the cultural characteristics and effective workforces that enable economic growth. For the many societies that have not enjoyed long periods of stability! industrialization has not been a blessing. Clark also dissects the notion! championed by Jared Diamond in Guns! Germs! and Steel ! that natural endowments such as geography account for differences in the wealth of nations. A brilliant and sobering challenge to the idea that poor societies can be economically developed through outside intervention! A Farewell to Alms may change the way global economic history is understood. Informationen zum Autor Gregory Clark is chair of the economics department at the University of California! Davis. He has written widely about economic history. Klappentext Clark tackles profound economic questions and provocatively argues that culture--not exploitation! geography! or resources--determines the wealth! and the poverty! of nations. Illustrated. Inhaltsverzeichnis Preface ix Acknowledgments xi Chapter 1: Introduction: The Sixteen-Page Economic History of the World 1 PART I: The Malthusian Trap: Economic Life to 1800 Chapter 2: The Logic of the Malthusian Economy 19 Chapter 3: Living Standards 40 Chapter 4: Fertility 71 Chapter 5: Life Expectancy 91 Chapter 6: Malthus and Darwin: Survival of the Richest 112 Chapter 7: Technological Advance 133 Chapter 8: Institutions and Growth 145 Chapter 9: The Emergence of Modern Man 166 PART II: The Industrial Revolution Chapter 10: Modern Growth: The Wealth of Nations 193 Chapter 11: The Puzzle of the Industrial Revolution 208 Chapter 12: The Industrial Revolution in England 230 Chapter 13: Why England? Why Not China! India! or Japan? 259 Chapter 14: Social Consequences 272 PART III: The Great Divergence Chapter 15: World Growth since 1800 303 Chapter 16: The Proximate Sources of Divergence 328 Chapter 17: Why Isn't the Whole World Developed? 352 Chapter 18: Conclusion: Strange New World 371 Technical Appendix 379 References 383 Index 409 Figure Credits 419 ...

"Gregory Clark has given us a very provocative work. It is economic history, but with strong implications for contemporary problems. His quantitative techniques for demonstrating such phenomena as the innumeracy of pre-industrial humanity and the evolution of the speed of information flows are clever."---Arnold Kling, Journal of Bioeconomics

Auteur
Gregory Clark is chair of the economics department at the University of California, Davis. He has written widely about economic history.

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"What caused the Industrial Revolution? Gregory Clark has a brilliant and fascinating explanation for this event which permanently changed the life of humankind after 100,000 years of stagnation."--George Akerlof, Nobel Laureate in Economics and Koshland Professor of Economics, University of California, Berkeley

"This is a very important book. Gregory Clark argues that the Industrial Revolution was the gradual but inevitable result of a kind of natural selection during the harsh struggle for existence in the pre-industrial era, in which economically successful families were also more reproductively successful. They transmitted to their descendants, culturally and perhaps genetically, such productive attitudes as foresight, thrift, and devotion to hard work. This audacious thesis, which dismisses rival explanations in terms of prior ideological, technological, or institutional revolutions, will be debated by historians for many years to come."--Paul Seabright, author of The Company of Strangers: A Natural History of Economic Life

"Challenging the prevailing wisdom that institutions explain why some societies become rich, Gregory Clark's "A Farewell to Alms" will appeal to a broad audience. I can think of nothing else like it."--Philip T. Hoffman, author of Growth in a Traditional Society

"You may not always agree with Gregory Clark, but he will capture your attention, make you think, and make you reconsider. He is a provocative and imaginative scholar and a true original. As an economic historian, he engages with economists in general; as an economist, he is parsimonious with high-tech algebra and unnecessarily complex models. Occam would approve."--Cormac Ó Gráda, author of Jewish Ireland in the Age of Joyce

"This should rapidly become a standard work on the history of economic development. It should start whole industries trying to test, refine, and refute its explanations. And Gregory Clark's views on the economic merits of imperialism and the fact that labor gained the most from industrializati…