Reviews for Peasants into Farmers? The Transformation of Rural Economy and Society in the Low Countries (Middle Ages - 19th Century) in Light of the Brenner Debate.

The average rating for Peasants into Farmers? The Transformation of Rural Economy and Society in the Low Countries (Middle Ages - 19th Century) in Light of the Brenner Debate. based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-06-17 00:00:00 Cameron Roberton David Ringrose's "Spain, Europe, and the 'Spanish Miracle,' 1700-1900," builds an engaging reevaluation of Spanish historiography out of recent work on the historical period encompassing the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. His primary argument challenges the convention that Spain floundered economically at the close of the early modern period, as the rest of Western Europe entered a phase of heavy industialization, and failed to recover lost ground in later centuries. Though his conclusions are drawn from an incomplete analysis of the period, there does appear to be strong support for the view that Spain actually exhibited a previously unrecognized degree of economic resiliency. This resiliency is based off a view of the later colonial period that sees the loss of Spanish America as an unremarkable moment in Spain's economic relationship with the Americas. Ringrose argues trade between Spain and its colonies had become by the early eighteenth century similar to that with other independant states. The only territories of real colonial value - Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines - remained tied to the Spanish Crown. This developement, in turn, relied on a series of liberalizing reforms launched in the late eighteenth century that broke down the existing monopolistic trade system in favor of increasing commodification. This change favored ports along the North Atlantic coastline and Mediterranean especially. Ringrose's analysis divides the country into four geographic region. The first, composed of the Mediterranean littoral, streching from Genoa to Gibraltar and centered at Barcelona, proved especially strong economically. In the North, the second region, extending along the Atlantic coastline centered around Bilbao and later Santander, grew especially strong from mining. Of all regions, the third region or Castilian interior, suffered some stagnation. However, it was by far the Andulsia of the Guadalquivir basin that suffered most draatically from the loss of monopoistic protections on trade with Spanish possessions in the Western Hemisphere. In closing, Ringrose argues that despite his accout of the economic "successes" of modern Spain, the political and social state of the country eveloved very little during this period, maintaining its reliance on powerful families and local privileges. Though, perhaps here too there remains much work to be done.

Review # 2 was written on 2015-12-23 00:00:00 Michael Demarco First book on recent Russian development, solved many of my concerns on Russian's attitude towards the West and their past. Authors tactfully included comparison of Yelsin's & Gorbachev's neoliberal approach with the (still-continuing) Chinese economic reform - interesting to see the absence of the Chinese way in the last section, where authors chose to talk vague on idealized theories - on the lessons for future socialism. It deserves 5-star, but the last section is quite vague.