Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective

These fourteen essays covering a wide range of subjects of great current interest reflect the continuous evolution of the author’s thought from 1951 to 1961. Range and flexibility characterize Alexander Gerschenkron’s dynamic approach to Europe’s industrial history. Connecting evolution in individual countries with their degree of economic backwardness, he presents the industrialization of the continent as a “case of unity in diversity,” thus offering a cogent alternative, supported by case studies, to the traditional view of industrialization as monotonous repetition of the same process from country to country. Brought together for the first time, these essays were originally published in specialized periodicals in the United States and abroad. Explaining and systematizing the elements of creative innovation in industrial history, Gerschenkron opens new paths of research and poses a number of pertinent questions for the problem of economic development in backward countries. His versatile analysis not only includes construction of ingenious industrial output indices and fruitful historical hypotheses on the index-number problem, but also original insights gleaned from a study of Soviet novels and a brilliant critique of Doctor Zhivago. Introduction 1 Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective 5 2 Reflections on the Concept of "Prerequisites" of Modern Industrialization 31 3 Social Attitudes, Entrepreneurship, and Economic Development 52 4 Notes on the Rate of Industrial Growth in Italy, 1881- 1913 72 5 Rosario Romeo and the Original Accumulation of Capital 90 6 Russia: Patterns and Problems of Economic Development, 1861-1958 119 7 Economic Development in Russian Intellectual History of the Nineteenth Century. Annex: Realism and Utopia in Russian Economic Thought, A Review 152 8 Some Aspects of Industrialization in Bulgaria, 1878-1939 198 9 Soviet Heavy Industry: A Dollar Index of Output, 1927- 1937 235 I o Notes on the Rate of Industrial Growth in Soviet Russia 254 r 1 Industrial Enterprise in Soviet Russia 270 1 2 A Neglected Source of Economic Information on Soviet Russia 296 1 3 Reflections on Soviet Novels 318 1 + Notes on Doctor Zhivago 341 The Approach to European Industrialization: A Postscript 353 Appendix I: Description of an Index of Italian Industrial Development, 1881-1913 367 Appendix II: Industrialization in Bulgaria, Basic Data and Calculations 422 Appendix III: Problems of Measuring Long-Term Growth in Income and Wealth 436 Index 445