Kenneth Pomeranz Books

In a series of brief, highly readable vignettes, the authors bring to life international trade and its actorsmerchants and bankers, pirates and privateers, sailors and slaves, traders and tree tappers. In the process they make clear that the seemingly modern concept of economic globalization has deep historical roots. The third edition provides expanded coverage of the twentieth century, new selections on silver and gold in Brazil and Mexico, the rise of Panama as a financial center, the transition from coal to oil, fair trade laws, and the expansion of offshore manufacturing since World War II. A new illustration program has been added that offers a more visual appeal to the text.

A landmark comparative history of Europe and China that examines why the Industrial Revolution emerged in the West The Great Divergence sheds light on one of the great questions of history: Why did sustained industrial growth begin in Northwest Europe? Historian Kenneth Pomeranz shows that as recently as 1750, life expectancy, consumption, and product and factor markets were comparable in Europe and East Asia. Moreover, key regions in China and Japan were no worse off ecologically than those in Western Europe, with each region facing corresponding shortages of land-intensive products. Pomeranz’s comparative lens reveals the two critical factors resulting in Europe's nineteenth-century divergence—the fortunate location of coal and access to trade with the New World. As East Asia’s economy stagnated, Europe narrowly escaped the same fate largely due to favorable resource stocks from underground and overseas. This Princeton Classics edition includes a preface from the author and makes a powerful historical work available to new readers.