Why did the modern economy arise first in Northwestern Europe and Japan? And what distinguishes those few economies that have achieved sustained economic growth? These are the important puzzles that John P. Powelson answers in this original and important work. Building from an intriguing and neglected parallel between the histories of Japan and Northwestern Europe, he explores the paths of social and political development in those two regions to isolate a significant linkage between economic development and the distribution of political power. He then turns to other regions of the world, explaining why they have not experienced similar levels of economic success. Powelson offers a powerful theory that aids our understanding of many current issues, including the problems of the Third World and the long-term health of our own economy. "Extremely exciting. . . . Leverage . . . is a very important concept which I have never really seen stated in this way before." --The late Kenneth Boulding "A valuable piece of work, one which shows an immense breadth of reading. Very impressive!" --Douglass North, Nobel Laureate, 1993, Washington University, St. Louis "A major contribution . . . a big work done by an acknowledgedly careful scholar." --Mark Perlman, University of Pittsburgh John P. Powelson is Professor Emeritus of Economics, University of Colorado.

This work is the study of a family's century long involvement with Irish self rule and political freedom. Joe Johnston (1890-1972), from a Tyrone Presbyterian small-farm background, had 3 elder brothers who made their careers in the Indian Civil Service. The family were 'Home Rule within the Empire' supporters in the Ulster liberal tradition. After studying classics and ancient history in Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and then in Oxford, JJ became a Fellow of Trinity in 1913. He then published his anti-Carson book Civil War in Ulster, attacking the process which culminated in the 1914 Larne gun-running. He contributed significantly to the emergent national movement. He wrote critically about 1930s economic policies, and went on the serve in the Irish Senate/Sennad from 1939 to 1954. His son RJ (b.1929) was a pioneer of the student left in TCD in the 1940s, and was associated with the post-war attempt to bring European Marxist thinking into the Irish labour movement, with the foundation of the Irish Workers League in 1948. After a period in London in the early 1960s, he returned to Dublin, this time as a research scientist, and helped Cathal Goulding in his attempt to get the 1960s generation of republicans to go political, in a democratic left-wing mode, decoupling from the Stalinist incubus. He helped set the stage for the emergence of the Civil Rights approach to reform in Northern politics, as a means of opening up an all-Ireland perspective. His opponents in the Republican movement, the Provisionals, opted for violence . In the ensuing decades he participated in various politicising processes which may, in the end, show the counter-productive nature of the role of the gun in politics, in Ireland and elsewhere. Roy Johnston lives in Dublin and continues to be politically active. "An important addition to any library of 20th century Irish Studies" Professor J.Skelly

This book aims to introduce readers to the important macroeconomic events of the past two hundred years. It explains what went on and why during the most significant economic epochs of the nineteenth, twentieth and early twenty-first centuries and how where we are today fits in this historical timeline.

An engaging collection that probes at the existence of an early modern Eurasia

This volume offers a much needed look into the historical, social, and political developments leading up to the Iranian revolution. Bringing together a group of scholars, historians, and social scientists, most of them Iranian in origin, the book documents an extraordinary revolutionary heritage that predates this century.

This is an economic history of sixteenth-century Europe that combines the virtues of a scholarly monograph with those of a general history. Professor Miskimin describes the intellectual and philosophical context in which economic decisions were made, and on which the fundamental economic categories of the period were based.

On August 24-25, 2010, the National Defense University held a conference titled “Economic Security: Neglected Dimension of National Security?” to explore the economic element of national power. This special collection of selected papers from the conference represents the view of several keynote speakers and participants in six panel discussions. It explores the complexity surrounding this subject and examines the major elements that, interacting as a system, define the economic component of national security.