Metals, Culture and Capitalism
An Essay on the Origins of the Modern World

A landmark exploration of the role of metals across Europe and Asia from the Bronze Age to the Industrial Revolution.

Jack Goody (Author)

9781107614475, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 15 November 2012

366 pages, 12 b/w illus. 14 maps
24.6 x 17.2 x 1.9 cm, 0.74 kg

Metals, Culture and Capitalism is an ambitious, broad-ranging account of the search for metals in Europe and the Near East from the Bronze Age to the Industrial Revolution and the relationship between this and economic activity, socio-political structures and the development of capitalism. Continuing his criticism of Eurocentric traditions, a theme explored in The Theft of History (2007) and Renaissances (2009), Jack Goody takes the Bronze Age as a starting point for a balanced account of the East and the West, seeking commonalities that recent histories overlook. Considering the role of metals in relation to early cultures, the European Renaissance and 'modernity' in general, Goody explores how the search for metals entailed other forms of knowledge, as well as the arts, leading to changes that have defined Europe and the contemporary world. This landmark text, spanning centuries, cultures and continents, promises to inspire scholars and students across the social sciences.

Part I. Explorers: 1. The age of metals and the ancient Near East
2. A Bronze Age without bronze
3. Metals and society
4. Trade and religion in the Mediterranean
5. The coming of the Iron Age and classical civilisation
6. After the Romans
Part II. Merchants: 7. 'Capitalism', exchange, and the Near East
8. China and the Eurasian corridor
9. Renewal in the West
10. Venice and the North
Part III. Accumulators: 11. Iron and the Industrial Revolution
12. Metals, 'capitalism' and the Renaissances
Appendix 1. The metallurgy of iron (by Dr J. A. Charles)
Appendix 2. Damascene steel and blades
Glossary.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC], General & world history [HBG], History [HB]