Mowry's review
A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World
by Gregory Clark
Mowry's review
A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World by Gregory Clark
Mowry's review
rating:
This is a fantastic book that uses some pretty interesting (and thorough) historical data to set a few economic assumptions about the Industrial Revolution on their heads. I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in economics and serious scholarship.
My only criticism: Clark spends a lot of time developing his theory on why the Industrial Revolution happened where and when it happened, but does very little to make suggestions to current economic policy. I'm very interested in how he thinks his work can be used to solve modern economic problems. Perhaps he wanted to only lay the groundwork for some very controversial arguments without actually being the one to say them (that not all cultures are ready for the Industrial Revolution and that modern intervention in sub-Saharan Africa has, on average, made everyone there worse off). Nonetheless, I look forward to where other economists will take his work and theories.
My only criticism: Clark spends a lot of time developing his theory on why the Industrial Revolution happened where and when it happened, but does very little to make suggestions to current economic policy. I'm very interested in how he thinks his work can be used to solve modern economic problems. Perhaps he wanted to only lay the groundwork for some very controversial arguments without actually being the one to say them (that not all cultures are ready for the Industrial Revolution and that modern intervention in sub-Saharan Africa has, on average, made everyone there worse off). Nonetheless, I look forward to where other economists will take his work and theories.
