Europe, America, and the Wider World: Volume 2, America and the Wider World
Essays on the Economic History of Western Capitalism

These essays give an account of why and how the United States grew rich in the nineteenth century.

William N. Parker (Author)

9780521254663, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 26 April 1991

390 pages, 7 b/w illus. 19 tables
23.9 x 15.8 x 3.1 cm, 0.7 kg

"The fascinating second volume of Europe, America, and the Wider World brings together several (published and unpublished) works of the quality that have made the author an eminent economic historian....a contribution not only to the study of American economic history, but also to the use of socioeconomics in historical analysis." Avner Greif, Journal of Interdisciplinary History

This volume collects Professor Parker's major writings on American agricultural and industrial history, including some previously unpublished essays. Taken as a whole, these essays give an account of why and how the United States grew rich in the nineteenth century, as well as a background against which to judge the present position of the economy and its international position. Professor Parker focuses on the nineteenth-century experience of the three regions of the United States - northeast, south and midwest, and shows wherein lay the sources of their wealth and growth into a flourishing nation. A final chapter, looking at European development from an American perspective, is especially timely in view of the recent movements toward integration and democratisation in the 'mother continent'.

Acknowledgments
Dedication
Preface
A note on notes
Part I. America And Europe: A History: 1. American civilisation: the impulse from Europe
Part II. The South In Slavery And In Freedom: 2. The slave plantation in American agriculture
3. Slavery and southern economic development: an hypothesis and some evidence
4. Labour productivity in cotton farming: a problem of research
5. The south in the national economy, 1865–1970
6. Capitalism: southern style
Part III. Capitalist Dynamics Of The Rural North: 7. Breakthrough to the midwest
8. Migration and a political culture
9. The technological bases of a productive agriculture
10. The true history of the northern farmer
Part IV. The North: Dynamics Of An Industrial Culture: 11. New England: the Puritan progenitor
12. The industrial civilisation of the midwest Epilogue: Denouement and decline
Part V. American Values In A Capitalist World: 13. Political controls on a national economy
14. Nationhood in a Common Market
15. European industrialisation in an American mirror.

Subject Areas: Economic history [KCZ]