![]() ![]() ![]() For the many societies that have not enjoyed long periods of stability, industrialization has not been a blessing. The problem, Clark says, is that only societies that have long histories of settlement and security seem to develop the cultural characteristics and effective workforces that enable economic growth. ![]() ![]() He argues instead that these institutions gradually led to deep cultural changes by encouraging people to abandon hunter-gatherer instincts-violence, impatience, and economy of effort-and adopt economic habits-hard work, rationality, and education. Why are some parts of the world so rich and others so poor? Why did the Industrial Revolution-and the unprecedented economic growth that came with it-occur in eighteenth-century England, and not at some other time, or in some other place? Why didn't industrialization make the whole world rich-and why did it make large parts of the world even poorer? In "A Farewell to Alms," Gregory Clark tackles these profound questions and suggests a new and provocative way in which culture-not exploitation, geography, or resources-explains the wealth, and the poverty, of nations.Ĭountering the prevailing theory that the Industrial Revolution was sparked by the sudden development of stable political, legal, and economic institutions in seventeenth-century Europe, Clark shows that such institutions existed long before industrialization. ![]()
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