Overview

The most significant debate in global economic history over the past twenty years has dealt with the Great Divergence, the economic gap between different parts of the world. Thus far, this debate has focused on China, India and north-western Europe, particularly Great Britain. This book shifts the focus to ask how Japan became the only non-western county that managed, at least partially, to modernize its economy and start to industrialize in the 19th century. Using a range of empirical data, Peer Vries analyses the role of the state in Japan’s economic growth from the Meiji Restoration to World War II, and asks whether Japan’s economic success can be attributed to the rise of state power. Asserting that the state’s involvement was fundamental in Japan’s economic ‘catching up’, he demonstrates how this was built on legacies from the previous Tokugawa period. In this book, Vries deepens our understanding of the Great Divergence in global history by re-examining how Japan developed and modernized against the odds.

Full Product Details

9781350121676

Table of Contents

Reviews

[An] excellent overview of Japanese economic development from the Tokugawa (1600-1867) period until 1937 ... As major survey of the Japanese experience by a leading scholar of the Great Divergence, Averting a Great Divergence belongs on the shelves of all economic historians interested in comparative economic development. * EH.Net * This is a heroic undertaking by Professor Peer Vries to deepen our understanding of the Great Divergence in global history by re-examining the historic controversy of Japan's alleged volunteer changes towards modernity which we still know so little about. * Kent Deng, Professor of Economic History, London School of Economics, UK * A comprehensive, learned, and incisive account of the role that the Japanese state played in the development of the Japanese economy between the Meiji Restoration and World War 2. Recommended for all scholars of comparative economic and political development. * Mark Koyama, Associate Professor, George Mason University, USA *

This is a heroic undertaking by Professor Peer Vries to deepen our understanding of the Great Divergence in global history by re-examining the historic controversy of Japan's alleged volunteer changes towards modernity which we still know so little about. * Kent Deng, Professor of Economic History, London School of Economics, UK * A comprehensive, learned, and incisive account of the role that the Japanese state played in the development of the Japanese economy between the Meiji Restoration and World War 2. Recommended for all scholars of comparative economic and political development. * Mark Koyama, Associate Professor, George Mason University, USA *

Author Information

Peer Vries is Research Fellow at the International Institute of Social History, Netherlands, and has previously held positions as Professor of Global Economic History at University of Vienna, Austria, and Leiden University, Netherlands. His publications include State, Economy and the Great Divergence: Britain and China (2015) and Escaping Poverty: The Origins of Modern Economic Growth (2013).

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available