In this bold, sweeping study
of the development of Western economies, Douglass C. North sets forth a new view of
societal change. At the core of Professor North's investigation is the question of
property rights, the arrangements individuals and groups have made through history to deal
with the fundamental economic problem of scarce resources.
In six theoretical chapters.
Professor North examines the structure of economic systems, outlines an economic theory of
the state and the ideologies that undergird various modes of economic organization, and
then explores the dynamic forces such as new technologies that cause institutions to adapt
in order to survive. With this analytical framework in place, major phases in Western
history come under careful reappraisal, from the origins of agriculture and the neolithic
revolution through the political economy of the ancient and medieval worlds to the
industrial revolution and the economic transformations of the twentieth century.
Structure and Change in
Economic History is a work that will reshape many established explanations of the growth
of the West.
Douglass C. North is
professor of economics at Washington University in St. Louis. His other books include The
Economic Growth of the United States, 1790-1860, also published in a Norton paperback
edition.
240 pages