| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 106.3

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to the AHR online. About 214 words from this article are provided below; about 521 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the American Historical Association, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time. AHA members can go to the AHA individual membership section to locate their member numbers.
If you are not a member of the American Historical Association, you can:: • Join the AHA and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the American Historical Review.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the American Historical Review (104.3-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the American Historical Review.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 106.3 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Comparative/World

Kenneth Pomeranz. The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy. (Princeton Economic History of the Western World.) Princeton: Princeton University Press. 2000. Pp. x, 382.

Why did the Industrial Revolution occur when and where it did? Although some economic historians now think that this is no longer the right question to ask, Kenneth Pomeranz takes a fresh look at it in a global context. This book is very important and will have to be taken seriously by anyone who thinks that explaining the Industrial Revolution (or the industrious one, or industrialization) is crucial to our understanding of the modern world. 1

What is new and noteworthy in this book includes the following. First, Pomeranz examines previous explanations of European industrialization and then, using new scholarship on Asia, shows that the characteristics usually thought to have been unique to Europe apply equally to China. Pomeranz shows that China was not entering a Malthusian crisis, that Chinese institutions and cultural values also were not obstacles for the deployment of capital, and that wage rates and standards of living were comparable in the core regions of China and northwestern Europe. In short, Pomeranz sees broad equivalencies between China and the most highly developed portions of Europe. . . .

There are about 521 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.