The Origins of the Twenty First Century

by Tortella; Gabriel

• ISBN13: 9780415459822
• ISBN10: 0415459826
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2009-09-08
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This fascinating book provides a fully integrated explanation of the history of the modern world. Although the sheer complexity of society requires that it be studied from the standpoint of several social sciences (including Economics, Political Science, Sociology and Anthropology), using only the tools of just one of these is an obstacle to understanding the whole society, where social, economic and political conditions are interacting all the time. The book explains why and how modern communities have evolved from their pre-modern, Ancien regime, states in the early eighteenth century, to the early twenty-first century, where economic development had reached unprecedented levels. It shows that political revolutions have preceded economic revolutions, rather than the reverse, although there is a considerable degree of interaction between macroeconomic and political variables. Economic histories of the period neglect non-economic factors such as political and legal institutions, which from a wide perspective have a powerful impact on economic developments. The complexity of the world and of the times in which we live is overwhelming and growing. Professor Tortella provides an international approach and combines economic and social analysis with political, cultural, and scientific issues. Topics covered include: the Industrial Revolution capitalism and the West the First and Second World War the rise of communism and the era of Stalin the US depression and the Gold Standard social and class struggle

Author Biography

Gabriel Tortella is Professor of Economic History at the Universidad de Alcal, Spain. He has also worked as Associate Professor of History at the University of Pittsburgh and held visiting appointment at Harvard University and the University of Columbia University, the University of California, San Diego, EI Colegio de Mexico and the Universit de Bordeaux.

Table of Contents

Preface to the English edition	p. x
Introduction	p. xii
The triumph of Europe	p. 1
A long ascent	p. 3
England leads the way	p. 12
The first World Revolution	p. 21
The Atlantic Revolution	p. 21
North America	p. 26
Europe	p. 29
Ibero-America	p. 38
Conclusion	p. 42
The Industrial Revolution	p. 45
The cotton miracle	p. 46
Science and technology	p. 48
The steam engine	p. 50
Iron and steel	p. 52
The chemical industry	p. 53
Conclusion	p. 54
A century of progress and order	p. 56
The Agricultural Revolution	p. 57
Law and order	p. 60
Technical progress and development	p. 63
Trade and free trade	p. 71
The gold standard	p. 72
Banking and finance	p. 75
Division of labor and class struggle	p. 80
Economic growth and social change	p. 80
The standard of living	p. 85
Class struggle	p. 86
The belle epoque	p. 92
Followers and latecomers	p. 92
Welfare and standards of living	p. 116
Late nineteenth-century crisis	p. 118
Nationalism and imperialism	p. 121
The advance of democracy	p. 124
Conclusion	p. 126
The Second World Revolution	p. 127
The liberal bourgeois order	p. 127
The social democratic order	p. 129
Today's world	p. 133
Science and technology in the twentieth century	p. 135
War and democracy	p. 146
World War I	p. 146
The Communist Revolution	p. 151
The Democratic Revolution	p. 160
Conclusion	p. 172
Depression and totalitarianism	p. 173
Return to the gold standard	p. 173
The end of inflation	p. 176
Restoring the gold standard in Western Europe and Latin America	p. 179
The breakdown of the gold standard	p. 184
The Great Depression	p. 187
Fighting depression	p. 194
The triumph of totalitarianism	p. 204
World War II	p. 223
A new social and democratic order	p. 230
Reconstruction	p. 230
Alphabet soup	p. 230
The Keynesian miracle	p. 240
Conclusion	p. 246
The communist world	p. 248
The Stalin era	p. 248
Five Year Plans	p. 252
"Popular democracies"	p. 260
The era of stagnation	p. 263
The dustbin of history	p. 268
The rise of the Third World	p. 275
Underdevelopment and its causes	p. 275
Physical factors	p. 276
Colonialism	p. 278
Decolonization	p. 280
Independence	p. 284
The population explosion	p. 290
The totalitarian temptation	p. 293
Hard lessons	p. 296
Renewed capitalism	p. 302
The classical model again	p. 302
The end of Bretton Woods	p. 304
The oil crisis	p. 306
Milton Friedman's hour	p. 308
Europe's monetary unification	p. 313
Tomorrow, capitalism	p. 315
A somber twenty-first century?	p. 321
Successes	p. 321
Causes	p. 325
Stages	p. 328
Problems	p. 331
Bibliography	p. 338
Index	p. 349
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