Includes bibliographical references (p. 139-150) and index
Contents:
Alternation or supremacy? -- Why European and not Eurasian? -- Domestic aspects of the 'miracle' -- Eurasia and the Bronze Age -- Merchants and their role in alternation -- Merchant wealth and puritanical asceticism -- Towards a knowledge society -- The temporary advantage in alternation of the post-Renaissance west -- Alternation in Eurasia -- Appendix 1. Arguments of the Europeanists -- Appendix 2. Water in east and west
Summary:
The idea of long-term European dominance is characteristic of most evolutionary theories of human culture and society in the 19th century. It was commonly believed that there was a natural progression from antiquity through feudalism to capitalism which could not have taken place elsewhere. In this book, Jack Goody examines this topic