The Routledge Handbook of Global Economic History documents and interprets the development of economic history as a global discipline from the later nineteenth century to the present day. Exploring the normative and relativistic nature of different schools and traditions of thought, this handbook not only examines current paradigmatic western approaches, but also those conceived in less open societies and in varied economic, political and cultural contexts. In doing so, this book clears the way for greater critical understanding and a more genuinely global approach to economic history. This handbook brings together leading international contributors in order to systematically address cultural and intellectual traditions around the globe. Many of these are exposed for consideration for the first time in English. The chapters explore dominant ideas and historiographical trends, and open them up to critical transnational perspectives. This volume is essential reading for both academics and students in economic and social history. As this field of study is very much a bridge between the social sciences and humanities, the issues examined in the book will also have relevance for those seeking to understand the evolution of other academic disciplines under the pressures of varied economic, political and cultural circumstances, on both national and global scales.
1. Global economic history: Towards an interpretive turn Part I Anglo-American traditions 2. Economic history in Britain: The 'first industrial nation' 3. Beyond the old and the new: Economic history in the United States 4. Making a country (and an economy): Economic history in Canada 5. The rise and fall of Australian economic history Part II West European roots and responses 6. The legacy of German economic history: Archetypes and global diffusion 7. Economic history in France: A Sonderweg? 8. Icarus' flight: Economic history in the Italian mirror 9. Manufacturing the historic compromise: Swedish economic history and the triumph of the Swedish model 10. Spanish economic history: Lights and shadows in a process of convergence 11. The Low Countries, intellectual borderlands of economic history Part III Turning to the East 12. Economic history from the Russian Empire to the Russian Federation 13. A periphery at the centre of attention: Economic history in Poland 14. Continuity and discontinuity in the Czech and Slovak historiographies 15. Crossroads and Turns in Hungarian economic history Part IV The wider world 16. Economic history in Middle Eurasia: Beyond histories of stagnation and deficiencies 17. The history of Indian economic history 18. Economic history in China: Tradition, divergence and potential 19. Japanese economic history: Exploring diversity in development 20. Latin American economic history: Looking backwards for the future 21. Mexico's economic history: Much more than cliometrics and dependency theory 22. The formation of economic history in Brazil: From the South Atlantic to South America 23. Beyond a footnote: Indigenous scholars and the writing of West African economic history 24. Reflections on the economic history of South Africa 25. African encounters with global narratives Part V Challenges and ways ahead 26. Culture, power and contestation: Multiple roads from the past to the future
