Research Catalog

Title

The birth of plenty : how the prosperity of the modern world was created / William J. Bernstein.

Author

Bernstein, William J.

Publication

New York : McGraw-Hill, c2004.

Supplementary Content

Publisher description

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xii, 420 p. : ill., maps; 24 cm.

Summary

"The Birth of Plenty suggests - and supports with groundbreaking analysis - that from the dawn of recorded history through 1820, the "mass of man" experienced essentially zero growth, both in economic standing or living standards. It was only in the nineteenth century that the world's standard of living began to inexorably and irreversibly improve and the modern world was born." "The Birth of Plenty frames the modern world's prosperity - or, in far too many cases, continuing lack of prosperity - in terms that are ingenious yet simple, complex yet easily understood. Entertaining and provocative, it will forever change the way you view the human pursuit of happiness and bring the conflicts of both the world's superpowers and developing nations into a fascinating and informative new light."--BOOK JACKET.

Subject

• Wealth
• Economic history
• Quality of life

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 387-401).

Contents

Sect. I. The sources of growth -- Ch. 1. A hypothesis of wealth -- Ch. 2. Property -- Ch. 3. Reason -- Ch. 4. Capital -- Ch. 5. Power, speed, and light -- Ch. 6. Synthesis of growth -- Sect. II. Nations -- Ch. 7. The winners - Holland and England -- Ch. 8. Runners-ups -- Ch. 9. The last -- Sect. III. Consequences -- Ch. 10. God, culture, mammon, and the hedonic treadmill -- Ch. 11. The great trade-off -- Ch. 12. Mammon and Mars : the winner's curse -- Ch. 13. The end of growth? -- Ch. 14. When, where, and whither.

ISBN

0071421920 (hardcover : alk. paper)

LCCN

2003026155

OCLC

• ocm53839875
• SCSB-4881085

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries