Growth in a Traditional Society: The French Countryside, 1450-1815
5/5
()
About this ebook
Philip Hoffman shatters the widespread myth that traditional agricultural societies in early modern Europe were socially and economically stagnant and ultimately dependent on wide-scale political revolution for their growth. Through a richly detailed historical investigation of the peasant agriculture of ancien-régime France, the author uncovers evidence that requires a new understanding of what constituted economic growth in such societies. His arguments rest on a measurement of long-term growth that enables him to analyze the economic, institutional, and political factors that explain its forms and rhythms. In comparing France with England and Germany, Hoffman arrives at fresh answers to some classic questions: Did French agriculture lag behind farming in other countries? If so, did the obstacles in French agriculture lurk within peasant society itself, in the peasants' culture, in their communal property rights, or in the small scale of their farms? Or did the obstacles hide elsewhere, in politics, in the tax system, or in meager opportunities for trade? The author discovers that growth cannot be explained by culture, property rights, or farm size, and argues that the real causes of growth derived from politics and gains from trade. By challenging other widely held beliefs, such as the nature of the commons and the workings of the rural economy, Hoffman offers a new analysis of peasant society and culture, one based on microeconomics and game theory and intended for a wide range of social scientists.
Philip T. Hoffman
Philip T. Hoffman is professor of business economics and professor of history at the California Institute of Technology.
Related to Growth in a Traditional Society
Related ebooks
The Spirit of French Capitalism: Economic Theology in the Age of Enlightenment Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBecoming Bourgeois: Love, Kinship, and Power in Provincial France, 1670–1880 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLegendary Locals of West Palm Beach Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGoing the Distance: Eurasian Trade and the Rise of the Business Corporation, 1400-1700 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Short History of Finland Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCreating Wine: The Emergence of a World Industry, 1840-1914 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5War, Wine, and Taxes: The Political Economy of Anglo-French Trade, 1689–1900 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDynamic Forest: Man Versus Nature in the Boreal Forest Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLarding the Lean Earth: Soil and Society in Nineteenth-Century America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Edith Wharton in France Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSummary of Fintan O'Toole's Heroic Failure Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Factious People: Politics and Society in Colonial New York Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5William the Third Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSavages, Romans, and Despots: Thinking about Others from Montaigne to Herder Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFarming in Carroll County Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Prodigal Daughters: Susanna Rowson's Early American Women Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lady Fanshawe's Receipt Book: The Life and Times of a Civil War Heroine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5History of the Wars of the French Revolution, Volume 1 of 4 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe History of France (Vol. 1-6): Complete Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGlorious Misadventures: Nikolai Rezanov and the Dream of a Russian America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Godfather of the Revolution: The Life of Philippe Égalité, Duc D'Orléans Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Color of Equality: Race and Common Humanity in Enlightenment Thought Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOrientalism (A Selection Of Classic Orientalist Paintings And Writings) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Making of the Great West (Illustrated Edition): History of the American Frontier 1512-1883 Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5A Great and Monstrous Thing: London in the Eighteenth Century Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsConsumed: Food for a Finite Planet Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLatin America: At War with the Past Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEngland under the Tudors Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
European History For You
Oscar Wilde: The Unrepentant Years Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing England: The Brutal Struggle for American Independence Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Quite Nice and Fairly Accurate Good Omens Script Book: The Script Book Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mein Kampf: English Translation of Mein Kamphf - Mein Kampt - Mein Kamphf Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dry: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jane Austen: The Complete Novels Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Psychedelic Gospels: The Secret History of Hallucinogens in Christianity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith and Love Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rise of the Fourth Reich: The Secret Societies That Threaten to Take Over America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Six Wives of Henry VIII Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Law Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Forgotten Highlander: An Incredible WWII Story of Survival in the Pacific Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Anglo-Saxons: A History of the Beginnings of England: 400 – 1066 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Celtic Mythology: A Concise Guide to the Gods, Sagas and Beliefs Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Putin's People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took On the West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Violent Abuse of Women: In 17th and 18th Century Britain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of English Magic Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Woman in Berlin: Eight Weeks in the Conquered City: A Diary Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Short History of the World: The Story of Mankind From Prehistory to the Modern Day Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for Growth in a Traditional Society
1 rating0 reviews