A transnational survey of the economic development of Europe, exploring why some regions advanced and some stayed behind.

This title considers the main similarities and differences in the industrialization processes of the major economies.

The industrial revolution in Great Britain was the first example of the transition to a modern industrial economy. Certain features of this transition were later copied and modified by other coutries undergoing the same process. This book considers the main similarities and differences in the process of industrialization, grouping the main countries

This book uses the levels of analysis approach first developed by Japanese political economist Kozo Uno to theorize stages of capitalist development. Stage theory is understood as a mid-range theory informed both by the theory of a purely capitalist society and by historical analysis. The four stages of mercantilism, liberalism, imperialism, and consumerism are theorized according to an abstract type of capital accumulation, which is understood broadly to include mutually supporting economic, ideological, legal, and political practices.

In Marx's familiar dictum, the more-developed country shows the less developed an image of its own future. Turning this idea upside down, In the Mirror of the Third World looks to the contemporary Third World for a reflection of European history. The resulting view challenges standard accounts of European social, economic, and political development. Sandra Halperin's analysis of the European experience begins where studies of Third World development often start: considering the legacies of colonial domination. Europe also had a colonial past, she reminds us, and the states of Europe, like those of today's Third World, were the product of colonialism and imperialism. From this starting point, Halperin traces features characteristic of Third World development through the history of European capitalism: enclave economies oriented to foreign markets; weak middle classes; alliances among the state, traditional landowning elites, and new industrial classes; unstable and partial democracy; sharp inequalities; and increasing poverty—all as much a part of European society on the eve of World War I as they are of developing countries today. Halperin also emphasizes the emergence of a militant, literal religion in Europe and its critical role in the class struggles of the nineteenth century.