This volume collects Professor Parker's major writings on American agricultural and industrial history, including some essays not previously published. Taken as a whole, these essays give an account of why and how the United States grew rich in the nineteenth century, as well as a background against which to judge the present position of the economy and its international position. Professor Parker focuses on the nineteenth-century experience of the three regions of the United States--northeast, south and midwest, and shows wherein lay the sources of their wealth and growth into a flourishing nation. A final chapter, looking at European development from an American perspective, is especially timely in view of the recent movements toward integration and democratization in the "mother continent."

Reviews & endorsements

"Parker's work touches on almost all of the issues and research that have, in the past thirty-five years, completely restructured our understanding of American economic development. No one with the slightest acquaintance with recent American historiography will be surprised by the very strong sections on slavery and Southern agriculture and on agriculture in the Midwest--these are, after all, the subjects that made Bill famous. To those who do not know him well, however, the equally strong chapters covering the growth of industry and the relationship between politics and economic development will come as a very pleasant surprise." Lance E. Davis, California Institute of Technology

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Product details

• Date Published: April 1991
• format: Paperback
• isbn: 9780521274791
• length: 392 pages

• dimensions: 229 x 22 x 152 mm
• weight: 0.57kg
• contains: 7 b/w illus. 19 tables
• availability: Available