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Before European Hegemony: The World System A.D. 1250-1350
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Before European Hegemony: The World System A.D. 1250-1350 |
One in a series of more recent corrective works on the medieval world economy, Abu-Lughod here lays out a compelling case that the Dark Ages were less than dark outside of northern and western Europe. This is no longer a novel position, indeed there have been plenty of revisionist studies that point out that even in Europe the traditional notion of "the Dark Ages" has probably been overblown. Nonetheless this is a terrific introduction to the overlapping international economic structure in the middle ages and in particular how it was dominated by Asia during the Mongol age. It charts a series of subsystems and how they interacted, including such European centers as Flanders and northern Italy, but also rather more importantly at this time, the transit zones of the Middle East and the massively productive regions of south and east Asia.
If this study has any flaws it is probably a bit too facile in buying into the standard notion of a general "eastern" economic collapse during the 15th-16th century that led to the economic usurpation by the West. For example it seems that despite its many vicissitudes Chinese internal production continued to dwarf Europe's well into the 18th century (see Andre Gunter Frank among others). But that's a pretty minor quibble overall. The real value of this book is just as much in its examination of the eastern trade system as it is in any of its conclusions as to its dissolution.
Posted by Tamerlane at August 30, 2006 06:33 PM
Filed Under: Economics
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Comments
What's the publication date?
Posted by: The Lounsbury at October 1, 2006 08:01 PM
First published 1989.
So, not terribly new, but of more modern antecedents, scholarship-wise. In the 1989 edition ( the one I have ) she cites articles up through 1988.
Posted by: Tamerlane at October 2, 2006 01:59 AM
1250-1350 the Dark Ages? More like the High Middle Ages.
Posted by: Robert McDougall at October 2, 2006 12:29 PM
Oh, sure - nitpick with your filthy facts. See, "the High Middle Ages were less than high" just doesn't scan as well.
But you're right of course. Mea culpa :).
Though if we really wanted to nitpick, it would actually be the transition period between High and Late Middle Ages ;).
Posted by: Tamerlane at October 2, 2006 05:13 PM
Bollocks, academic nit-picking over entirely theoretical periodisation.
Posted by: The Lounsbury at October 2, 2006 10:14 PM
