The new opportunities for economic development in Eastern Europe and the approach of 1992 have heightened interest in the development of the European economy. This volume, which includes contributions from some of the world's leading economic historians, presents and discusses the latest research findings on the industrialization and modernization of the European economy during the nineteenth century.

Industrialization is still the factor that distinguishes the modern world from the past, and advanced countries from undeveloped ones. In this revised and expanded edition, Tom Kemp uses the historical record of industrialization to explore key questions about its impact and the significance we assign to it. The book adopts a thematic approach to examine the roles of technology, banking, transport and the state; the fate of the peasantry in an industrializing society; and the changing features of industrial capitalism in the latter part of the 19th century. It features four contrasted case studies from outside Europe - India, Canada, Japan and, for the first time in this second edition, South Africa. It is aimed at 1st year University/Polytechnic students and is suitable for courses in economic history, social history, development studies, applied economics, international economics and area studies.

Written for the layman as well as the economic historian this famous and much-used book not only presents a general synthesis of the pattern of European industrialisation; it also provides material for a comparative study by illustrating, in separate case studies, the specific characteristics of development in Britain, France, Germany, Russia and Italy.

Originally published in 1981, Patterns of European Urbanisation Since 1500 examines urbanisation in Europe since 1500, paying particular attention to the underlying factors which govern the differentiated process of urbanisation. The book goes on to formulate some of the ways in which these factors can be generalised in an attempt to delineate the process of urbanisation in theoretic terms.

Between the end of the Middle Ages and the Industrial Revolution, the long-established structures and practices of European agriculture and industry were slowly, disparately, but profoundly transformed. Transitions to Capitalism in Early Modern Europe, first published in 1997, narrates and analyzes the diverse patterns of economic change that permanently modified rural and urban production, altered Europe's economy and geography, and gave birth to new social classes. Broad in chronological and geographical scope and explicitly comparative, the book introduces readers to a wealth of information drawn from thoughout Mediterranean, east-central, and western Europe, as well as to the classic interpretations and current debates and revisions. The study incorporates scholarship on topics such as the world economy and women's work, and it discusses at length the impact of the emergent capitalist order on Europe's working people.

Why did the Industrial Revolution happen in Western Europe? Was it a sudden acceleration of the European economy, or should we look at specific institutions arising in Western Europe since the Middle Ages? This book puts these big questions of European economic history in a global perspective, deals with the institutions that developed in Europe, and measures their relative efficiency over time and compared with other parts of Eurasia. It traces the growth of human capital in the centuries between 1000 and 1800, in comparison with China, Japan and India. It also demonstrates how important the European Marriage Pattern was for understanding Europe’s past. The result is a new synthesis of the origins of the Industrial Revolution.