This collection of essays by Alexander Gerschenkron, who has been called “the doyen of economic history in the United States,” is a companion volume to the author’s highly acclaimed Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective. The essays range over a wide variety of subjects, but the major theme, as in Gerschenkron’s previous book, is the conditions of industrial development, particularly in regard to nineteenth-century Europe.
The book is divided into three parts. In Part I, Methodology, the essays are: “On the Concept of Continuity in History,” “Some Methodological Problems in Economic History,” and “Reflections on Ideology as a Methodological and Historical Problem.” Part II, Problems in Economic History, deals with “The Typology of Industrial Development as a Tool of Analysis,” “The Industrial Development of Italy: A Debate with Rosario Romeo,” “The Modernization of Entrepreneurship,” “Russia: Agrarian Policies and Industrialization, 1861–1914,” and “City Economies Then and Now.” In Part III, The Political Framework, the essays are: “Reflections on the Economic Aspects of Revolution,” “The Changeability of a Dictatorship,” and “The Stability of Dictatorships.” A series of appendices presents reviews and review articles by Gerschenkron.

Continuity in History and Other Essays

Business & Money

Gerschenkron, Alexander

Economics

Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press

These fourteen essays covering a wide range of subjects of great current interest reflect the continuous evolution of the author’s thought from 1951 to 1961. Range and flexibility characterize Alexander Gerschenkron’s dynamic approach to Europe’s industrial history. Connecting evolution in individual countries with their degree of economic backwardness, he presents the industrialization of the continent as a “case of unity in diversity,” thus offering a cogent alternative, supported by case studies, to the traditional view of industrialization as monotonous repetition of the same process from country to country. Brought together for the first time, these essays were originally published in specialized periodicals in the United States and abroad.
Explaining and systematizing the elements of creative innovation in industrial history, Gerschenkron opens new paths of research and poses a number of pertinent questions for the problem of economic development in backward countries. His versatile analysis not only includes construction of ingenious industrial output indices and fruitful historical hypotheses on the index-number problem, but also original insights gleaned from a study of Soviet novels and a brilliant critique of Doctor Zhivago.

Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective (Belknap Press S)

In 1900 the newly appointed Austrian prime minister, Ernest von Koerber, initiated a novel program of economic development designed to solve the political and economic problems of the Habsburg Monarchy. Ambitious and ingenious as the plan was, it proved a failure, and in this book Alexander Gerschenkron assesses its career and significance for both Austrian and European history. The author explains the importance of Koerber's experiment as a way of increasing Austria's economic strength while drawing the country out of divisive political struggles. He ascribes its failure primarily to the obstructionist tactics of Eugen von Boehin-Bawerk, the famous economist, who headed the Austrian Ministry of Finance. In describing the experiment's brief but striking success, Professor Gerschenkron challenges the widespread belief among scholars that disintegrating nationalist forces were irresistible.Originally published in 1977.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

An Economic Spurt that Failed: Four Lectures in Austrian History (Eliot Janeway Lectures on Historical Economics)

Princeton University Press

In 1900 the newly appointed Austrian prime minister, Ernest von Koerber, initiated a novel program of economic development designed to solve the political and economic problems of the Habsburg Monarchy. Ambitious and ingenious as the plan was, it proved a failure, and in this book Alexander Gerschenkron assesses its career and significance for both Austrian and European history.
 The author explains the importance of Koerber's experiment as a way of increasing Austria's economic strength while drawing the country out of divisive political struggles. He ascribes its failure primarily to the obstructionist tactics of Eugen von Boehin-Bawerk, the famous economist, who headed the Austrian Ministry of Finance. In describing the experiment's brief but striking success, Professor Gerschenkron challenges the widespread belief among scholars that disintegrating nationalist forces were irresistible.
Originally published in 1977.
The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

A classic in its field, Bread and Democracy in Germany has been widely praised since its publication in 1943 for its account of German political and economic development. In his preface, Alexander Gerschenkron states: "The primary purpose of this study is to show, first, how, before 1914, the machinery of Junker protectionism is agriculture, coupled with the Junker philosophy... delayed the development of democratic institutions in Germany; and second, how the Junkers contrived to escape almost unscathed from the German revolution of 1918 and how this fact contributed to the constitutional weakness and subsequent disintegration of the Weimar Republic."
Emphasizing the importance of the problem of German agriculture in its relation to democratic reconstruction, Gerschenkron asserts that "the political attitude of farmers in several European countries had a decisive influence on the fate of European democracy. Nowhere is this more true than in Germany. The German farmers bear their full share of responsibility for the advent of fascism in that country."

Bread and Democracy in Germany (Cornell Studies in Security Affairs (Hardcover))

Cornell University Press

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Books by Gerschenkron, Alexander

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Gerschenkron, Alexander. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Continuity in History and Other Essays

Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective (Belknap Press S)

An Economic Spurt that Failed: Four Lectures in Austrian History (Eliot Janeway Lectures on Historical Economics)

An Economic Spurt that Failed: Four Lectures in Austrian History (Eliot Janeway Lectures on Historical Economics)

An Economic Spurt that Failed: Four Lectures in Austrian History (Eliot Janeway Lectures on Historical Economics)

Bread and Democracy in Germany (Cornell Studies in Security Affairs (Hardcover))