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A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World
by Gregory Clark

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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/150437.A_Farewell_to_Alms_A_Brief_Economic_History_of_the_World?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41uOmL%2Bf0mL._SL160_.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/150437.A_Farewell_to_Alms_A_Brief_Economic_History_of_the_World?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13964.Gregory_Clark">Gregory Clark</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8281369?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 2 of 5 stars Phew finally! I've been reading this exclusively on the train for a few weeks now. I picked up this book because the reviews made it sound like Mr. Clark would be making a case that the Industrial Revolution occurred when and where it did for strictly Darwinian reasons of breeding. I wanted to see how he would navigate those dangerous waters which have taken out even the likes of Jimmy the Greek.
 
 I began to get angry at the book during the introduction, when the author mentioned that he was trying to write a big history, in the tradition of The Wealth of Nations, Das Kapital, [and:] The Rise of the Western World..." Then followed a 16-page summery of the economic history of the world. The first figure in that chapter "proved" that there was a "great divergence" between rich and poor starting in 1880 by showing a single line indicating average wealth which split into two lines indicating the average wealth of rich and poor people respectively. This split occurred at 1880 on the timeline. I settled in for a long, painful read.
 
 For the record, let me state that I have virtually no background in economics. So although the author's explanation of Malthusian theory seemed highly counter-intuitive to me, I assume that it's the accepted theory of classical economics. I felt like some elaborate house of cards was being built in the early chapters, but I began ignoring the graphs and formulas (which were beyond my level), and concentrated on the narrative. 
 
 There's some great stuff in there about the filthiness of living conditions in 18th century England, to include the fact that the Globe theater had no bathroom facilities, and patrons generally relieved themselves in the stairwells between acts.
 
 But back to the central question of why the Industrial revolution occurred in England when it did,and not somewhere else some other time. 
 
 Mr. Clark makes the case that England at the time, more than anywhere else, was becoming a downwardly mobile society, where the gentry and middle class were so fertile that their offspring were destined to move down a rung on the ladder of wealth, and that the spread of middle-class values is what energized the workforce in a time when capital investment did no necessarily benefit from incremental gains in efficiency. After slogging through this, I can almost accept some of it, but then at the end of each point, he mumbles something about changes in culture...or possibly genetic predisposition towards delayed rewards to the worker.
 
 For all that has been made of the Darwinian claims, I don't even find a lot of those claims in the book. When the claim was made, it was tacked on as an afterthought, without much explanation. In fact, the dustcover may be the biggest proponent of that particular argument.
 
 All that aside, it was an interesting first look at economics for me, and I found the irony of the Malthusian model (at least as presented here) quite astounding (ie: England was so fertile due to a high death rate which was in turn due to the disgusting lack of hygiene compared to, say Asia).
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/171103?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

ba's review
rating:

status: Read in December, 2007

Phew finally! I've been reading this exclusively on the train for a few weeks now. I picked up this book because the reviews made it sound like Mr. Clark would be making a case that the Industrial Revolution occurred when and where it did for strictly Darwinian reasons of breeding. I wanted to see how he would navigate those dangerous waters which have taken out even the likes of Jimmy the Greek.

I began to get angry at the book during the introduction, when the author mentioned that he was trying to write a big history, in the tradition of The Wealth of Nations, Das Kapital, [and:] The Rise of the Western World..." Then followed a 16-page summery of the economic history of the world. The first figure in that chapter "proved" that there was a "great divergence" between rich and poor starting in 1880 by showing a single line indicating average wealth which split into two lines indicating the average wealth of rich and poor people res...more Phew finally! I've been reading this exclusively on the train for a few weeks now. I picked up this book because the reviews made it sound like Mr. Clark would be making a case that the Industrial Revolution occurred when and where it did for strictly Darwinian reasons of breeding. I wanted to see how he would navigate those dangerous waters which have taken out even the likes of Jimmy the Greek.

I began to get angry at the book during the introduction, when the author mentioned that he was trying to write a big history, in the tradition of The Wealth of Nations, Das Kapital, [and:] The Rise of the Western World..." Then followed a 16-page summery of the economic history of the world. The first figure in that chapter "proved" that there was a "great divergence" between rich and poor starting in 1880 by showing a single line indicating average wealth which split into two lines indicating the average wealth of rich and poor people respectively. This split occurred at 1880 on the timeline. I settled in for a long, painful read.

For the record, let me state that I have virtually no background in economics. So although the author's explanation of Malthusian theory seemed highly counter-intuitive to me, I assume that it's the accepted theory of classical economics. I felt like some elaborate house of cards was being built in the early chapters, but I began ignoring the graphs and formulas (which were beyond my level), and concentrated on the narrative.

There's some great stuff in there about the filthiness of living conditions in 18th century England, to include the fact that the Globe theater had no bathroom facilities, and patrons generally relieved themselves in the stairwells between acts.

But back to the central question of why the Industrial revolution occurred in England when it did,and not somewhere else some other time.

Mr. Clark makes the case that England at the time, more than anywhere else, was becoming a downwardly mobile society, where the gentry and middle class were so fertile that their offspring were destined to move down a rung on the ladder of wealth, and that the spread of middle-class values is what energized the workforce in a time when capital investment did no necessarily benefit from incremental gains in efficiency. After slogging through this, I can almost accept some of it, but then at the end of each point, he mumbles something about changes in culture...or possibly genetic predisposition towards delayed rewards to the worker.

For all that has been made of the Darwinian claims, I don't even find a lot of those claims in the book. When the claim was made, it was tacked on as an afterthought, without much explanation. In fact, the dustcover may be the biggest proponent of that particular argument.

All that aside, it was an interesting first look at economics for me, and I found the irony of the Malthusian model (at least as presented here) quite astounding (ie: England was so fertile due to a high death rate which was in turn due to the disgusting lack of hygiene compared to, say Asia)....less

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