Page 71 - Berkshire Encyclopedia Of World History Vol Two

420 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

[History is] a useless heap of facts. • Lord Chesterfield (1694–1773)

(1997), suggesting that Eurasia had a geography well- lations into subordinate economic and political condi-
suited to farming and animal domestication; this in turn tions.Yet, many recent historical comparisons have also
supported more densely populated areas where more moved beyond simple dichotomies, highlighting in more
complex governments, sophisticated systems of commu- nuanced ways both similarities and differences and the
nication, and increased resistance to diseases all devel- way they interact to produce unique historical outcomes.
oped. Diamond has very little to say, however, about the
R. Bin Wong
causes of variations within Eurasia, the terrain across
which historians making comparisons have usually
Further Reading
moved. The great sweep of Diamond’s history across
Anderson, P. (1974). Lineages of the absolutist state. London: New Left
space and through time depends on some basic com-
Books.
parisons between environmental and biological traits of Barkey, K., & von Hagen, M. (Eds.). (1997). After empire: Multiethnic
Eurasia and other continents. Many books on environ- societies and nation-building: The Soviet Union and the Russian,
Ottoman, and Habsburg Empires. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
ment and biology in world history, like Alfred Crosby’s Bellah, R. (1957). Tokugawa religion: the values of pre-industrial Japan.
Ecological Imperialism, stress connections made by Euro- Glenco, Il: Free Press.
Bendix, R. (1978). Kings or people: Power and the mandate to rule. Berke-
pean expansion rather than comparisons among different
ley: University of California Press.
cases.Yet, common themes in environmental history can Benton, L. (2002). Law and colonial cultures: Legal regimes in world his-
be seen through comparisons, as John Richards demon- tory, 1400–1900. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Bloch, M. (1967). Land and work in medieval Europe. New York: Harper
strates in The Unending Frontier (2003). This history of Torchbooks.
the environment of the early modern world includes com- Braudel, F. (1992). Civilization and Capitalism, 15th–18th Century, vols
I-III. Berkeley: University of California Press.
parisons of agricultural settlement patterns on Taiwan,
Brenner, R. (1976). Agrarian class structure and economic development
mainland China, and Russia; land use patterns in the in pre-industrial Europe. Past & Present, 70, 30–76.
Americas; and the hunting and fishing industries. Brenner, R. (1982). Agrarian roots of European capitalism. Past & Pre-
sent, 97, 16–113.
Comparative methods have been used implicitly or Brenner, R. (2001). The Low Countries in the transition to capitalism.
explicitly in historical studies for a long time. Explana- Journal of Agrarian Change, 1.2, 169–241.
Brenner, R., & Isett, C. (2002). England’s divergence from China’s
tions and interpretations of a particular phenomenon
Yangzi delta: Property relations, micro-economics, and patterns of
depend on comparing the case at hand with more famil- development. Journal of Asian Studies, 61.2, 609–662.
iar examples of the same or at least similar phenomena. Crosby, A. (1993). Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of
Europe, 900-1900. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Among historical works that are explicitly comparative, Diamond, J. (1997). Guns, germs, and steel:The fates of human societies.
certain European experiences have often been taken as a New York: W.W. Norton.
Frank, A. G. (1998). ReOrient: Global economy in the Asian age. Berke-
benchmark against which to measure performance else-
ley: University of California Press.
where.Whether Marxist or Weberian, this approach has Goldstone, J. (1991). Revolution and rebellion in the early modern world.
motivated the search for similarities and differences Berkeley: University of California Press.
Goody, J. (1971). Technology, tradition, and the state in Africa. New York:
between European patterns of political, economic, and Oxford University Press.
social change and those in Africa, the Americas, and Asia. Goody, J. (1976). Production and reproduction:A comparative study of the
domestic domain. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Many such efforts stress the differences that make Europe
Goody, J. (1990). The oriental, the ancient, and the primitive: Systems of
the historical paradigm, while others argue, in a related marriage and the family in the pre-industrial societies of Eurasia. New
fashion, that historical change elsewhere in the world York: Cambridge University Press.
Goody, J. (1998). The East in the West. New York: Cambridge University
influenced by European principles and practices tends to Press.
result in comparable outcomes. Critics of what is usually Hall, J. A. (1985). Powers & liberties:The causes and consequences of the
rise of the West. Oxford, UK: Blackwell..
a cheerful view of convergence often contend that West-
Landes, D. (1998). The wealth and poverty of nations:Why are some so
ern expansion has been destructive, putting many popu- rich and others so poor? New York: W.W. Norton.