Table of Contents

1. Advanced agricultural and mercantile civilizations before the modern era

2. From the Italian city-states to the age of discovery

3. Britain: the first European industrial nation

4. The British model: imitation and the role of the state

5. European industrialization

6. British decline and the emergence of the United States and Japan as competitors

7. Technology, business and socio-economic change

8. The international economy, 1870–1914: the gold standard, finance and colonialism

9. The socio-economic consequences of the First World War

10. The Soviet Union, 1917–39

11. The first international crisis

12. The 1930s and the Second World War

13. Postwar reconstruction and decolonization

14. The age of European growth and the return of instability

15. The process of European integration

16. The demise of the USSR and the rise of Asia

17. The second international crisis and the limits of growth

Epilogue

About the Author

Vera Zamagni is Professor of Economic History at the University of Bologna, and at SAIS Europe, the Johns Hopkins University (Bologna). Her books include The Economic History of Italy, 1860–1990 (1993) and Cooperative Enterprise: Facing the Challenge of Globalization (2011).

Reviews

A brilliant textbook. It is excellent at marrying historical narratives and economic history analyses. There is no text on the market that provides such a comprehensive overview.
*Giorgio Riello, University of Warwick*