Before European Hegemony
Author | : Janet L. Abu-Lughod |
Publisher | : Oxford University Press |
Total Pages | : 462 |
Release | : 1991-02-21 |
ISBN-10 | : 9780198022541 |
ISBN-13 | : 0198022549 |
Rating | : 4/5 (41 Downloads) |
Book excerpt: In this important study, Abu-Lughod presents a groundbreaking reinterpretation of global economic evolution, arguing that the modern world economy had its roots not in the sixteenth century, as is widely supposed, but in the thirteenth century economy--a system far different from the European world system which emerged from it. Using the city as the working unit of analysis, Before European Hegemony provides a new paradigm for understanding the evolution of world systems by tracing the rise of a system that, at its peak in the opening decades of the 14th century, involved a vast region stretching between northwest Europe and China. Writing in a clear and lively style, Abu-Lughod explores the reasons for the eventual decay of this system and the rise of European hegemony.