Global Economic History

What are the problems addressed by the growing field of global economic history? What debates and methodologies does it engage with?

As Global Economic History shows, there are many answers to these questions. Riello and Roy, alongside 20 leading academics from the US, UK, Europe, Australia and Japan, explain why a global perspective matters to economic history. The impressive cast recruited by the editors brings together top scholars in their respective areas of expertise, including John McNeill, Patrick O'Brien, and Prasannan Parthasarathi.

An ambitious scope of topics ranges from the 'Great Divergence' to the rise of global finance, to the New World and the global silver economy. Chapters are organized both thematically (Divergence in Global History and Emergence of a World Economy), and geographically (Regional Perspectives on Global Economic Change), ensuring the global perspective required on these challenging courses today.

The result is a textbook which provides students with a quick and confident grasp of the field and its essential issues.

Giorgio Riello is Professor of Global History and Culture at the University of Warwick, UK. He has authored or edited several books on the history of early modern Europe and Asia, including The Spinning World (2009); How India Clothed the World (with T. Roy, 2009); Writing Material Culture History (2014); and Cotton: The Fabric that Made the Modern World (2013).

Tirthankar Roy is Professor of Economic History at the London School of Economics, UK. He has published extensively on the economic history of modern South Asia, and is the author of India in the World Economy from Antiquity to the Present (2012); The Economic History of India 1857-1947 (2012); and An Economic History of Early Modern India (2013).