This Time Is Different


Book Description

An empirical investigation of financial crises during the last 800 years.







Droysen and the Prussian School of History


Book Description

The Prussian School of History first predicted and advocated, then celebrated and defended, the unification of Germany by Prussia. Experts in German historiography and the history of German liberalism have often complained about the lack of a book, in any language, that traces the origins and explains the ideas of this school of history. Here is that book. Robert Southard finds that, for the Prussian School, history had an agenda. These historians generally expected history to complete its main tasks in their own time and country. The outcome of their politics was, really, an "end of history"—not a cessation to historical occurrences, but a cessation of onward historical movement because the historical process had already achieved its long-term, beneficent purposes. Leading us through the intricacies of important but untranslated works of J. G. Droysen, Max Duncker, Rudolph Hayn, and Heinrich von Sybel, Southard demonstrates their belief that the historical sequence was a continual unfolding of God's plan. Indispensable for those interested in the history of German historical writing, this book also has major implications for understanding the history of political liberalism.




The Great Transformation


Book Description

'One of the most powerful books in the social sciences ever written. ... A must-read' Thomas Piketty 'The twentieth century's most prophetic critic of capitalism' Prospect Karl Polanyi's landmark 1944 work is one of the earliest and most powerful critiques of unregulated markets. Tracing the history of capitalism from the great transformation of the industrial revolution onwards, he shows that there has been nothing 'natural' about the market state. Instead of reducing human relations and our environment to mere commodities, the economy must always be embedded in civil society. Describing the 'avalanche of social dislocation' of his time, Polanyi's hugely influential work is a passionate call to protect our common humanity. 'Polanyi's vision for an alternative economy re-embedded in politics and social relations offers a refreshing alternative' Guardian 'Polanyi exposes the myth of the free market' Joseph Stiglitz With a new introduction by Gareth Dale




German Masters of the Nineteenth Century


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1848 — A European Revolution?


Book Description

This book is among the rare contributions to the 150th anniversary of 1848 which takes a completely new, theoretically informed approach. Instead of a traditional social or political history, the authors analyse the dichotomy between the international dimension in the ideas of the revolution and the nationalisation of memories in its commemorations over the past 150 years. The book offers original research on the history of European ideas and takes part in the current debate about the relationship between history and memory.




Germany


Book Description

On October 3 1990 Germany's unification brought together a people separated for more than four decades by the division of Europe into hostile blocs, in the aftermath of World War II. This study attempts to review Germany's history and treat, in a concise and objective manner, its dominant social, poltical, economic and military aspects.




Political Censorship of the Arts and the Press in Nineteenth-Century


Book Description

Political Censorship of the Arts and the Press in Nineteenth-Century Europe presents a comprehensive account of the attempts by authorities throughout Europe to stifle the growth of political opposition during the nineteenth-century by censoring newspapers, books, caricatures, plays, operas and film. Appeals for democracy and social reform were especially suspect to the authorities, so in Russia cookbooks which refered to 'free air' in ovens were censored as subversive, while in England in 1829 the censor struck from a play the remark that 'honest men at court don't take up much room'. While nineteenth-century European political censorship blocked the open circulation of much opposition writing and art, it never succeeded entirely in its aim since writers, artists and 'consumers' often evaded the censors by clandestine circulation of forbidden material and by the widely practised skill of 'reading between the lines'.




The Path Not Taken


Book Description

In The Path Not Taken, Jeff Horn argues that—contrary to standard, Anglocentric accounts—French industrialization was not a failed imitation of the laissez-faire British model but the product of a distinctive industrial policy that led, over the long term, to prosperity comparable to Britain's. Despite the upheavals of the Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, France developed and maintained its own industrial strengths. France was then able to take full advantage of the new technologies and industries that emerged in the "second industrial revolution," and by the end of the nineteenth century some of France's industries were outperforming Britain's handily. The Path Not Taken shows that the foundations of this success were laid during the first industrial revolution. Horn posits that the French state's early attempt to emulate Britain's style of industrial development foundered because of revolutionary politics. The "threat from below" made it impossible for the state or entrepreneurs to control and exploit laborers in the British manner. The French used different means to manage labor unruliness and encourage innovation and entrepreneurialism. Technology is at the heart of Horn's analysis, and he shows that France, unlike England, often preferred still-profitable older methods of production in order to maintain employment and forestall revolution. Horn examines the institutional framework established by Napoleon's most important Minister of the Interior, Jean-Antoine Chaptal. He focuses on textiles, chemicals, and steel, looks at how these new institutions created a new industrial environment. Horn's illuminating comparison of French and British industrialization should stir debate among historians, economists, and political scientists.