Technology, Skills and the Pre-Modern Economy in the East and the West

Technology, Skills and the Pre-Modern Economy in the East and the West

Author:

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2013-05-30

Total Pages: 372

ISBN-13: 900425157X

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Technology, Skills and the Pre-Modern Economy investigates how technological skills and knowledge were reproduced and disseminated in the advanced agrarian societies of China, India, Russia and Europe in the centuries before the Industrial Revolution. The book offers regional surveys of Europe, China and India, as well as comparative studies of building, porcelain manufacturing, instrument making, printing, and shipbuilding. The authors engage with the on-going debate about the ‘great divergence’ between Asia and Europe, and its possible causes. Technology has so far had a minor role in that debate. This book is bound to change that, through the bold claims made by various contributors. Contributors are: Karel Davids, S.R. Epstein †, Gijs Kessler, Jan Lucassen, Christine Moll-Murata, Patrick O'Brien, Kenneth Pomeranz, Maarten Prak, Tirthankar Roy, Richard Unger, and Jan Luiten van Zanden.


Global Labour History

Global Labour History

Author: Jan Lucassen

Publisher: Peter Lang

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 796

ISBN-13: 9783039115761

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Part I: Historiography Writing Global Labour History c. 1800-1940: A Historiography of Concepts, Periods, and Geographical Scope 39 Jan Lucassen African Labor History 91 Frederick Cooper Reflections on Labor and Working-Class History in the Middle East and North Africa 117 Zachary Lockman Paradigms in the Historical Approach to Labour Studies on South Asia 147 Sabyasachi Bhattacharya The History of Labor in Japan in the Twentieth Century: Cycles of Activism and Acceptance 161 Akira Suzuki Fin-de-Si6cle Labour History in Canada and the United States: A Case for Tradition 195 Bryan D. Palmer Labour in Western Europe from c. 1800 227 Dick Geary The Laboring and Middle-Class Peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean: Historical Trajectories and New Research Directions 289 John D. French What's in a Name? Labouring Antipodean History in Oceania 335 Lucy Taksa Workers, Class, and the Socialist Revolution in Modern China 373 Arif Dirlik The Drama of the Russian Working Class and New Perspectives for Labour History in Russia 397 Andrei Sokolov Part 2: Case Studies in Comparative Labour History Worldwide Agricultural Labor and Property: A Global and Comparative Perspective 455 Prasannan Parthasarathi Studying Asian Domestic Labour Within Global Processes: Comparisons and Connections 479 Ratna Saptari Brickmakers in Western Europe (17oo00-19oo) and Northern India (1800-2000): Some Comparisons 513 Jan Lucassen Global Labour History in the Twenty-First Century: Coal Mining and Its Recent Pasts 573 Ian Phimister "Nothing to Lose but a Harsh and Miserable Life Here on Earth": Dock Work as a Global Occupation, 1790-1970 591 Lex Heerma van Voss Railroad Labor and the Global Economy: Historical Patterns 623 Shelton Stromquist.


Ashoka in Ancient India

Ashoka in Ancient India

Author: Nayanjot Lahiri

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2015-08-05

Total Pages: 460

ISBN-13: 0674915259

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In the third century BCE, Ashoka ruled an empire encompassing much of modern-day India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh. During his reign, Buddhism proliferated across the South Asian subcontinent, and future generations of Asians came to see him as the ideal Buddhist king. Disentangling the threads of Ashoka’s life from the knot of legend that surrounds it, Nayanjot Lahiri presents a vivid biography of this extraordinary Indian emperor and deepens our understanding of a legacy that extends beyond the bounds of Ashoka’s lifetime and dominion. At the center of Lahiri’s account is the complex personality of the Maurya dynasty’s third emperor—a strikingly contemplative monarch, at once ambitious and humane, who introduced a unique style of benevolent governance. Ashoka’s edicts, carved into rock faces and stone pillars, reveal an eloquent ruler who, unusually for the time, wished to communicate directly with his people. The voice he projected was personal, speaking candidly about the watershed events in his life and expressing his regrets as well as his wishes to his subjects. Ashoka’s humanity is conveyed most powerfully in his tale of the Battle of Kalinga. Against all conventions of statecraft, he depicts his victory as a tragedy rather than a triumph—a shattering experience that led him to embrace the Buddha’s teachings. Ashoka in Ancient India breathes new life into a towering figure of the ancient world, one who, in the words of Jawaharlal Nehru, “was greater than any king or emperor.”


Harappan Architecture and Civil Engineering

Harappan Architecture and Civil Engineering

Author: Jagat Pati Joshi

Publisher:

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 9788129111838

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For the first time ever, this book gives a full view of Harappan architecture and engineering. It begins with the history of the discovery of the Indus Civilisation, from Alexander Cunninghan, through Marshall to Wheeler and recent excavators. It delineates the genesis and growth of urban architecture of the Harappans through the various discoveries from about twenty sites in the Indian subcontinent. It discusses the Harappan settlement pattern, its distribution in different ecological zones, and the regional variation in their architectural edifices. The architectural genius of the Harappans has been elucidated by a thorough treatment of the various aspects of town planning, fortification, gateways, streets, lanes, houses, drainage system, bathing floors, platforms for houses. The outstanding buildings such as the Great Bath, the granaries at Mohenjodaro and Harappa and the College Building at Mohenjodaro have been discussed in great detail.


The Grid Book

The Grid Book

Author: Hannah B Higgins

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2009-01-23

Total Pages: 311

ISBN-13: 0262512408

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Ten grids that changed the world: the emergence and evolution of the most prominent visual structure in Western culture. Emblematic of modernity, the grid is the underlying form of everything from skyscrapers and office cubicles to paintings by Mondrian and a piece of computer code. And yet, as Hannah Higgins makes clear in this engaging and evocative book, the grid has a history that long predates modernity; it is the most prominent visual structure in Western culture. In The Grid Book, Higgins examines the history of ten grids that changed the world: the brick, the tablet, the gridiron city plan, the map, musical notation, the ledger, the screen, moveable type, the manufactured box, and the net. Charting the evolution of each grid, from the Paleolithic brick of ancient Mesopotamia through the virtual connections of the Internet, Higgins demonstrates that once a grid is invented, it may bend, crumble, or shatter, but its organizing principle never disappears. The appearance of each grid was a watershed event. Brick, tablet, and city gridiron made possible sturdy housing, the standardization of language, and urban development. Maps, musical notation, financial ledgers, and moveable type promoted the organization of space, music, and time, international trade, and mass literacy. The screen of perspective painting heralded the science of the modern period, classical mechanics, and the screen arts, while the standardization of space made possible by the manufactured box suggested the purified box forms of industrial architecture and visual art. The net, the most ancient grid, made its first appearance in Stone Age Finland; today, the loose but clearly articulated networks of the World Wide Web suggest that we are in the middle of an emergent grid that is reshaping the world, as grids do, in its image.


A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India

A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India

Author: Upinder Singh

Publisher: Pearson Education India

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 708

ISBN-13: 9788131716779

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A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India is the most comprehensive textbook yet for undergraduate and postgraduate students. It introduces students to original sources such as ancient texts, artefacts, inscriptions and coins, illustrating how historians construct history on their basis. Its clear and balanced explanation of concepts and historical debates enables students to independently evaluate evidence, arguments and theories. This remarkable textbook allows the reader to visualize and understand the rich and varied remains of India s ancient past, transforming the process of discovering that past into an exciting experience.