08.16.07
Another transition book
Eric Mielants: “The Origins of Capitalism and the Rise of the Westâ€
Eric Mielants’s “The Origins of Capitalism and the Rise of the West†is necessary reading for anybody following the “transition debate†as well as a thought-provoking comparative study of Western Europe and the East in the late Middle Ages. Like Janet Abu-Lughod’s “Before European Hegemony: The World-System, A.D. 1250-1350,†it challenges the reader to think about how one of the world’s backwaters in that period–Europe–became dominant.