Recommendations from our site
“This book sets up the modern question of the Great Divergence in an economic history sense. Jones’s book is a little bit more ad hoc, presenting a more traditional stylized history. Pomeranz puts the debate into rigorous quantitative terms. I won’t say he comes up with a grand theory, but he sets the terms of the debate such that everyone who is attempting to research this question knows what side they’re taking.” Read more...
The best books on The Great Divergence
Davis Kedrosky, Economist
“I cannot tell you how exciting that book was, when it hit the press. It was a Princeton University Press book, so very much an academic publisher, but one looking out for new directions, in fields being developed. And Pomeranz was almost instantly on a lecture tour all over the world, for at least two years after that book was published; it was being read everywhere.” Read more...
The best books on Global History
Maxine Berg, Historian
“The significance of Pomeranz’s findings is twofold: firstly, he created a universally homogenous gauge for all societies in the form of material life, living standards, instead of inputs and outputs in the production system; secondly, given that China remained stable in living standards, it was Europe that changed beyond recognition. In his own phrase, China was normal but Europe was a freak. His eye-opening comparison of living standards between China and Western Europe bins the old cliché that China was desperately poor and rapidly declining. In contrast to early thinkers like Hegel and Marx who view Europe as the mainstream of world history and the rest of the world as less important, Pomeranz’s new approach puts China back in the mainstream of world history. This has huge implications as to how we view China in the 21st century.” Read more...
The best books on China in the World Economy
Kent Deng, Economist
