Multicultural Origins of the Global Economy
Beyond the Western-Centric Frontier
Published on 10. December 2020
Book
Hardback
518 pages
978-1-108-84082-8 (ISBN)
Description
Westerners on both the left and right overwhelmingly conflate globalisation with Westernisation and presume that the global economy is a pure Western-creation. Taking on the traditional Eurocentric Big Bang theory, or the 'expansion of the West' narrative, this book reveals the multicultural origins of globalisation and the global economy, not so as to marginalise the West but to show how it has long been embedded in complex interconnections and co-constitutive interactions with non-Western actors/agents and processes. The central empirical theme is the role of Indian structural power that was derived from Indian cotton textile exports. Indian structural power organised the first (historical-capitalist) global economy between 1500 and c.1850 and performed a vital, albeit indirect, role in the making of Western empire, industrialisation and the second (modern-capitalist) global economy. These textiles underpinned the complex inter-relations between Africa, West/Central/East/Southeast Asia, the Americas and Europe that collectively drove global economic development forward.
Reviews / Votes
'Building on his past path-breaking work, Hobson lays a historical foundation for a 'non-Eurocentric new Global Political Economy' in this engagingly written book. Teachers will be rewriting their lectures after reading its many fascinating arguments about the role of the 'non-West' in constructing the global economy.' Eric Helleiner, University of Waterloo 'Hobson's compelling story takes us beyond Eurocentrism without falling prey to Eastern-centrism, finally offering a proper global-historical account that locates the origins of capitalism and the global economy not in 'the West' nor in 'the East' but in the complex relations in-between. This is a much-needed work of historiographical synthesis and conceptual innovation.' Julian Go, Boston University 'This is a masterful and revisionary account of the premodern and global lineages of capitalism. It shows how the complexity of non-European societies and economies shaped their encounter with Europe as well as with each other. A necessary and supple corrective to Eurocentric histories of both modernity and globalization.' Ania Loomba, University of Pennsylvania '... monumental work ... Highly recommended.' M. F. Farrell, Choice MagazineMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
Worked examples or Exercises; 4 Tables, black and white; 3 Halftones, black and white; 18 Line drawings, black and white
Dimensions
Height: 231 mm
Width: 196 mm
Thickness: 30 mm
Weight
816 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-108-84082-8 (9781108840828)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
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Book
12/2020
Cambridge University Press
€42.50
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E-Book
12/2020
Cambridge University Press
€26.99
Available for download
E-Book
12/2020
Cambridge University Press
€28.99
Available for download
Person
John M. Hobson is Professor of Politics & International Relations at the University of Sheffield and is a Fellow of the British Academy. He has previously written eight books, including The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation (Cambridge University Press, 2004), and The Eurocentric Conception of World Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2012).
Content
1. Taking Stock for the Journey Ahead - Mapping a New Global Political Economy; Part I. Multicultural Origins of the First (Historical Capitalist) Global Economy, 1500-1850: 2. Going Global 1.0: Chinese Agency in the Making of the First Global Economy; 3. The Afro-Indian Pivot (I): Indian Structural Power and the Global Atlantic System; 4. The Afro-Indian Pivot (II): Entangled Agencies and Power of Africans, Indians and West Asian Muslims; 5. Entangled Indo-European Agencies: Implications of Indian Structural Power; 6. Indian Merchant-Financial Capitalists: Navigating beyond the Western-centric Sea Frontier; Part II. What was Global about the First Global Economy, 1500-c.1850?: 7. Countering the Neoliberal/Transformationalist Rejection of the First Global Economy: Un-veiling Global Structural Properties; 8. Countering the Fundamentalist-Marxist Rejection of the First Global Economy: Un-veiling Global Historical Capitalism; Part III. The First Global Economy in the Making of Modern Industrial Capitalism, 1500-1800: 9. The Global Atlantic-Production Driver and the Imperial Primitive Accumulation of British Capital; 10. The Global Atlantic-Consumption Driver and British Late-Developmental Agency in Global Uneven and Combined Development; Part IV: Differing 'Developmental Architectures' in Differing Global Contexts in the Second Great Divergence, 1600-1800: 11. Why Britain initiated a Cotton-Industrialization and why India and China did not; 12. Why Britain initiated an Iron and Steel Industrialization and why India and China did not; Part V. Rehabilitating and Provincializing Western Imperialism: Afro-Asians Inside and Outside the Shadow of Empire: 13. Multicultural Origins of the Second Global Economy: Un-veiling the 'Multicultural Contact Zone', C.1850-C.1940; 14. Varieties of Global Economy: From Historical Capitalism to Modern Capitalism, C.1500-2020.