Stephen Broadberry, who has ‘revised’ the revisionist historiography of the British Industrial Revolution, argues that the Great Divergence between Great Britain and Jiangnan, China happened around 1700. As a result, issues in the Great Divergence...
Stephen Broadberry, who has ‘revised’ the revisionist historiography of the British Industrial Revolution, argues that the Great Divergence between Great Britain and Jiangnan, China happened around 1700. As a result, issues in the Great Divergence debates extend to the criteria and dynamics of the Divergence. The article examines these debates and explores their comparative historical implications. The East Asian Development Path thesis, based on the so-called East Asian Industrious Revolution, is not free from a ‘essentialist’ representation of Europe and (East) Asia in comparative and global history. Alternative approach needs to be sought for a comparative and global history of Modern paths to the long twentieth century.