Kenneth Pomeranz Books
Kenneth Pomeranz is an American historian and professor at the University of Chicago, specializing in Chinese history, comparative economic history, and world history. His research focuses on the economic and environmental transformations that shaped the modern world, and he is a leading figure in the field of global history.
Known for: The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy, The World That Trade Created: Society, Culture, and the World Economy, 1400 to the Present
Books by Kenneth Pomeranz
The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy
Why did industrial capitalism emerge first in Western Europe rather than in other highly developed parts of the world, especially China’s prosperous Yangzi Delta? In The Great Divergence, historian Ke...
The World That Trade Created: Society, Culture, and the World Economy, 1400 to the Present
This book explores how global trade shaped societies and cultures from 1400 to the present. Through a series of concise, engaging essays, Kenneth Pomeranz and Steven Topik examine the social and cultu...
Key Insights from Kenneth Pomeranz
A Comparative Lens Changes Everything
The most important questions in history often depend on what we choose to compare. Kenneth Pomeranz begins by rejecting the habit of measuring the whole of Asia against the most dynamic parts of Europe, a method that almost guarantees a European victory. Instead, he compares Europe’s leading regions...
From The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy
China Was Not Economically Backward
One of Pomeranz’s most provocative insights is that early modern China was not a stagnant giant waiting to be surpassed. The lower Yangzi region, in particular, was highly productive, densely commercialized, and deeply integrated into market exchange. Farmers specialized in cash crops, households pa...
From The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy
Preindustrial Growth Faced Ecological Limits
Before fossil fuels transformed production, every economy lived under the shadow of nature. Pomeranz argues that both Europe and East Asia were pushing against ecological ceilings by the eighteenth century. Population growth raised demand for food, fuel, fiber, and building materials, while availabl...
From The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy
Coal Gave Britain Room to Breathe
Sometimes world-changing advantages are buried underground. Pomeranz argues that Britain’s ready access to coal was one of the decisive factors that enabled it to break free from the land constraints facing advanced agrarian economies. Coal mattered not simply because it existed, but because it was ...
From The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy
The New World Reshaped Europe’s Future
Europe’s rise, in Pomeranz’s account, cannot be understood without the Americas. This is one of the book’s most consequential arguments. The New World supplied Europe with enormous quantities of land-intensive goods—especially sugar, cotton, timber, dyes, and later grain—while also absorbing populat...
From The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy
China’s Frontiers Worked Differently
At first glance, China also appears to have had room to expand. It possessed a vast empire, internal frontier zones, and diverse regional economies. So why didn’t these internal frontiers serve the same role for China that the New World served for Europe? Pomeranz’s answer is subtle: China’s frontie...
From The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy
About Kenneth Pomeranz
Kenneth Pomeranz is an American historian and professor at the University of Chicago, specializing in Chinese history, comparative economic history, and world history. His research focuses on the economic and environmental transformations that shaped the modern world, and he is a leading figure in t...
Read more
Kenneth Pomeranz is an American historian and professor at the University of Chicago, specializing in Chinese history, comparative economic history, and world history. His research focuses on the economic and environmental transformations that shaped the modern world, and he is a leading figure in t...
Kenneth Pomeranz is an American historian and professor at the University of Chicago, specializing in Chinese history, comparative economic history, and world history. His research focuses on the economic and environmental transformations that shaped the modern world, and he is a leading figure in the field of global history.
Frequently Asked Questions
Kenneth Pomeranz is an American historian and professor at the University of Chicago, specializing in Chinese history, comparative economic history, and world history. His research focuses on the economic and environmental transformations that shaped the modern world, and he is a leading figure in the field of global history.
Read Kenneth Pomeranz's books in 15 minutes
Get AI-powered summaries with key insights from 2 books by Kenneth Pomeranz.