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Eurasian Historical Comparisons

Conceptual Issues in Comparative Historical Inquiry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

Daniel Little
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Abstract

The article discusses the conceptual and methodological challenges of comparative economic history, focusing on recent debates concerning alternative pathways of development in Europe and Asia, the agricultural systems of early modern England and the lower Yangzi region in China, and the historical demography of Eurasia. The article concludes that such debates support the perspective that there is substantial path dependency and contingency in economic history and that alternative development paths can be discerned across and within Europe and Asia.

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Type
Special Section: Eurasian Comparisons
Information
Social Science History , Volume 32 , Issue 2 , Summer 2008, pp. 235 - 261
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 2008 

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