Posted by Kenneth Anderson:
Dan Drezner's Top Ten Books of International Economic History:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_07_26-2009_08_01.shtml#1248885941
Dan Drezner, at his blog at the Foreign Policy blog site, l[1]ists his
selections for the top ten books of international economic history.
Let me raid his list plus commentary:
1. Gregory Clark, [2]A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History
of the World (2007). I've already tagged this book as an
interesting read. If nothing else, the first chapter of this book -
"The Sixteen-Page Economic History of the World" - actually matches
the audacity of the title. As I said, I don't completely buy
Clark's explanation of Malthus + genetics = Industrial Revolution
in Great Britain. His attempt to explain away the irrelevance of
institutions doesn't hold up to scrutiny. Still, I will say I
better appreciated the heyday of mercantilism after reading Clark.
(KA: I agree with the criticism, but think the book is better than
the critique suggests. I think Dan thinks so too, but doesn't want
to get into any extended arguments.)
2. Nathan Rosenberg and L.E. Birdzell, Jr., [3]How the West Grew
Rich (1986). Perfect when paired with Clark, because Rosenberg and
Birdzell present the classical argument for why Western Europe was
the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. (KA: read this first.)
3. Jared Diamond, [4]Guns, Germs, and Steel (1997). The third leg
in the triad of "why did Europe dominate the globe?" explanations.
If Clark focuses on genetics/culture, and Rosenberg and Birdzell
focus on institutions, Diamond proffers a geographical determinism.
Simply put, he thinks the temperate climate of Eurasia was bound to
produce the most sophisticated societies with the most advanced
animals, germs, and technologies. Diamond's argument compliments
rather substitutes for the institutions and culture arguments. If
nothing else, it is impossible to read this book and ever buy the
ending to War of the Worlds. (KA: you already know everything about
this book.)
4. John Nye, [5]War, Wine and Taxes (2007). David Ricardo's classic
example of comparative advantage was English wool for Portuguese
wine. Nye explodes the "natural" aspect of this trade,
demonstrating how high tariffs against French wine proved a boon to
both the Portuguese and English beer distillers. Nye stretches his
argument too far at times, but the interrelationship between war,
protectionism, and statebuilding is pretty damn fascinating. (KA:
this one I have not read.)
5. Douglas Irwin, [6]Against the Tide: An Intellectual History of
Free Trade (1996). Irwin's book is more a history of economic
thought than economic history, but nevertheless tells a remarkable
story: how did the idea of free trade knock off mercantilism,
protectionism, strategic trade theory, and other doctrines? (KA:
since I think one of the big problems with current economics
teaching is its deliberately obscuring ahistoricism, I always
appreciated this book.)
6. Kevin O'Rourke and Jeffrey Williamson, [7]Globalization and
History (1999). A lucid, detailed and fascinating study of how the
nineteenth century of globalization went down. When anyone argues
that the current (fast fading?) era of globalization is
historically unique, take the hardcover version of this book and
whack them on the head with it. (KA: I have not read this.)
7. Jeffry Frieden, [8]Global Capitalism: Its Fall and Rise in the
Twentieth Century (2006). This book is to the twentieth centiury as
Williamson and O'Rourke's book is to the nineteenth - except it's
written for a wider audience, so it's a more accessible read.
Accessible doesn't mean simple, however - this book is chock full
of interesting arguments, cases, and counterarguments. (KA: I
haven't read this, but think now that I should.)
8. Barry Eichengreen, [9]Globalizing Capital: A History of the
International Monetary System, second edition (2008). A more narrow
work than Frieden's, Eichengreen's book is the starting point for
understanding the classical gold standard, the Bretton Woods
regime, and whatever the hell system we have now the Bretton Woods
II regime. (KA: This is a great book. I also like Robert Solomon's
[10]The International Monetary System, 1945-1981, although it is
too time limited and out of print; I read it in Costa Rica one
summer, when I supposed to be filing documents for the
Interamerican Court of Human Rights.)
9. Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw, [11]The Commanding Heights
(1997). Yergin and Stanislaw tell a cheerleader's tale of how the
Washington Consensus displaced the old quasi-Keynesian,
quasi-socialist economic order that had its apogee and downfall in
the 1970s. What's particularly interesting is their argument that
what mattered was the content and spread of the ideas themselves,
and not some coercive power, that led to the re-embrace of markets.
(KA: I once skimmed this at a London bookstore and alas none of it
comes back to me.)
10. Paul Blustein, [12]The Chastening (2001). Blustein, a reporter
for the Washington Post, tells the you-are-there version of the
Asian financial crisis and the reaction from the U.S. Treasury
Department. If you want to know why Pacific Rim economies started
hoarding foreign exchange reserves beginning in 1999, read this
book. (KA: terrific book!)
He asks what readers would add to the list. I put the same question to
you, gentlereaders. This list is a fine one - I've read most of them,
and tend to agree. What would I add?
First, a book I have mentioned here before - the absolutely superb
James Macdonald, [13]A Free Nation Deep in Debt: The Financial Roots
of Democracy (2003 FSG). I think it's stronger than just about any
other entry in the field interlinking finance, economics, and a
strong, provocative, well supported thesis about politics in history.
I would also probably add something from the traditional of radical
economic history - Perry Anderson, I guess - [14]Passages from
Antiquity to Feudalism or [15]Lineages of the Absolutist State. Not
precisely economic history, but Marxist historical materialism. (Perry
Anderson is one of the most graceful writers to appear in the academy
of the last fifty years; every paragraph, I find, is a pleasure to
read, even when I don't agree with a word of it.)
What would you add to this list? Leaving aside my Perry Anderson
suggestions, please stick with international economic history. What's
missing? Good alternatives welcomed, too, especially as some of this
stuff is a bit hard to locate.
References
1.
http://drezner.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/07/27/the_top_ten_books_to_read_about_international_economic_history
2.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001EWRNIK?ie=UTF8&tag=daniewdrezn-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B001EWRNIK
3.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001KW02QE?ie=UTF8&tag=daniewdrezn-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B001KW02QE
4.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001BKCWOU?ie=UTF8&tag=daniewdrezn-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B001BKCWOU
5.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691129177?ie=UTF8&tag=daniewdrezn-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0691129177
6.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691011389?ie=UTF8&tag=daniewdrezn-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0691011389
7.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0262650592?ie=UTF8&tag=daniewdrezn-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0262650592
8.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/039332981X?ie=UTF8&tag=daniewdrezn-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=039332981X
9.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691139377?ie=UTF8&tag=daniewdrezn-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0691139377
10.
http://www.amazon.com/international-monetary-system-1945-1981/dp/0060150041/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1248885097&sr=1-1
11.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FBJH9Y?ie=UTF8&tag=daniewdrezn-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000FBJH9Y
12.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1903985250?ie=UTF8&tag=daniewdrezn-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creativ
13.
http://www.amazon.com/Free-Nation-Deep-Debt-Financial/dp/0691126321/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1248885397&sr=1-1
14.
http://www.amazon.com/Passages-Antiquity-Feudalism-Verso-Classics/dp/1859841074/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1248885509&sr=1-5
15.
http://www.amazon.com/Lineages-Absolutist-State-PERRY-ANDERSON/dp/086091710X/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b
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