History, Politics and Theory in the Great Divergence Debate: A Comparative Analysis of the California School, World-Systems Analysis and Marxism

Olya Murphy

Published by De Gruyter Oldenbourg 2024

History, Politics and Theory in the Great Divergence Debate

A Comparative Analysis of the California School, World-Systems Analysis and Marxism

Olya Murphy

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111247144

Overview
Contents

About this book

World history suffers from a paucity of clearly articulated, convincing explanations. While the rise of postmodernism and challenges to Eurocentrism did lead to some important correctives, the pendulum has swung too far the other direction, with a corresponding danger of ‘throwing the baby out with the bathwater’. We need careful, theoretically informed debates about ways of organizing world history. What constitutes a good historical explanation? What should guide historians to choose relevant facts? Which theoretical schools could be made useful, and to what ends? These questions are especially relevant to the main topic of this book: the ‘great divergence’ between the west and the rest of the world, and how this historical rupture is to be explained.

The book provides extensive critical analyses of some of the key claims in world history, analyzing their strengths as well as their major weaknesses—too often rooted in insufficient familiarity of historians with theories they discard. It also historicizes the field and the debates to partly account for what caused some theories to become more influential and others to fall into oblivion—despite the fact that the more influential frameworks are seriously flawed and some of the more marginalized ideas are more coherent and plausible. The book offers insights regarding the theoretical and political relevance of older debates about the transition to capitalism and historical materialism. Three major schools of thought in world history are critically examined through an in-depth theoretical and comparative analysis that has not been undertaken elsewhere: the so-called ‘California School’, World Systems Analysis, and Marxist theories of history, capitalism, and the transition from feudalism to capitalism. Murphy argues that, despite some of the more recent criticisms of older approaches to world history, the older theories remain indispensable for the writing of world history and for coming to terms with issues of global poverty, inequality and eco-catastrophe.

Author / Editor information

Olya Murphy currently lectures in the fields of 'business and society' and labour studies in the department of social science at York University, Toronto, Canada. She received her PhD at York University in history, specializing in global economic history.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	V
Chapter 1 Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part I: Explaining Divergence: Defending Political Marxism Against the California School
Chapter 2 Eurocentrism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	15
Chapter 3 The California School and the “Similarities Thesis” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	47
Chapter 4 The California School and India Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	90
Part II: World-Systems Analysis
Chapter 5 Wallerstein’s World System Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	107
Chapter 6 Arrighi’s World System Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	117
Part III: Political Marxism and Historical Materialism: Rivals or Allies?
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	139
Chapter 7 Political Marxism and Historical Materialism: Part 1 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	141
Chapter 8 Political Marxism and Historical Materialism: Part 2 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	179
Chapter 9 Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	208
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	213
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	223

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter Oldenbourg
Audience: Scholars of global, world and transnational history, economic history, social theory, political theory
Pages
- Front matter: 8
- Main content: 228
Keywords: The Great Divergence; World System Analysis; Marxism; Eurocentrism

eBook

Published: December 31, 2023
ISBN: 9783111247144

Hardcover

Published: December 31, 2023
ISBN: 9783111246253