Gary B. Magee – författare

Focusing on the great population movement of British emigrants before 1914, this book provides a perspective on the relationship between empire and globalisation. It shows how distinct structures of economic opportunity developed around the people who settled across a wider British World through the co-ethnic networks they created. Yet these networks could also limit and distort economic growth. The powerful appeal of ethnic identification often made trade and investment with racial 'outsiders' less appealing, thereby skewing economic activities toward communities perceived to be 'British'. By highlighting the importance of these networks to migration, finance and trade, this book contributes to debates about globalisation in the past and present. It reveals how the networks upon which the era of modern globalisation was built quickly turned in on themselves after 1918, converting racial, ethnic and class tensions into protectionism, nationalism and xenophobia. Avoiding such an outcome is a challenge faced today.

Focusing on the great population movement of British emigrants before 1914, this book provides a perspective on the relationship between empire and globalisation. It shows how distinct structures of economic opportunity developed around the people who settled across a wider British World through the co-ethnic networks they created. Yet these networks could also limit and distort economic growth. The powerful appeal of ethnic identification often made trade and investment with racial 'outsiders' less appealing, thereby skewing economic activities toward communities perceived to be 'British'. By highlighting the importance of these networks to migration, finance and trade, this book contributes to debates about globalisation in the past and present. It reveals how the networks upon which the era of modern globalisation was built quickly turned in on themselves after 1918, converting racial, ethnic and class tensions into protectionism, nationalism and xenophobia. Avoiding such an outcome is a challenge faced today.

This edited volume presents a set of essays honouring the agricultural, environmental and world economic historian, Eric L. Jones. Drawing insights from contributors spanning the social sciences, it highlights how Jones' approach was ahead of its time, illuminating the benefits of studying economic history from a long-run, comparative perspective.In the spirit of Jones’ path-breaking book The European Miracle, this volume is divided into two parts. The first part takes the intellectual contributions of Eric Jones as its focus, closely considering Jones’ contributions to the development of a non-Eurocentric perspective of world history, our understanding of long-term social processes and Eliasian sociology, and the study of the urban built environment. The second part of the book changes tack, offering a series of detailed studies on historical and contemporary themes. Each essays in this part explicitly draws its influence and inspiration from Jones’ work. These ‘applied’ chapters, written by leading experts, make important and novel contributions to an array of important questions:  the Great Divergence, economic performance in Song China, the rise of Nazi Germany, the evolution of modern China’s economic links with Australia, and the likely effect on international politics of China and Russia’s current growing alliance.This book provides a wide-ranging introduction to the works of Eric Jones, one of the most influential economic historians of the twentieth century, and illustrates not only the ongoing relevance of Jones’ work, but, crucially, how contemporary researchers can learn from his approach to studying long-run change.

This edited volume presents a set of essays honouring the agricultural, environmental and world economic historian, Eric L. Jones. Drawing insights from contributors spanning the social sciences, it highlights how Jones' approach was ahead of its time, illuminating the benefits of studying economic history from a long-run, comparative perspective.In the spirit of Jones’ path-breaking book The European Miracle, this volume is divided into two parts. The first part takes the intellectual contributions of Eric Jones as its focus, closely considering Jones’ contributions to the development of a non-Eurocentric perspective of world history, our understanding of long-term social processes and Eliasian sociology, and the study of the urban built environment. The second part of the book changes tack, offering a series of detailed studies on historical and contemporary themes. Each essays in this part explicitly draws its influence and inspiration from Jones’ work. These ‘applied’ chapters, written by leading experts, make important and novel contributions to an array of important questions:  the Great Divergence, economic performance in Song China, the rise of Nazi Germany, the evolution of modern China’s economic links with Australia, and the likely effect on international politics of China and Russia’s current growing alliance.This book provides a wide-ranging introduction to the works of Eric Jones, one of the most influential economic historians of the twentieth century, and illustrates not only the ongoing relevance of Jones’ work, but, crucially, how contemporary researchers can learn from his approach to studying long-run change.

This book explains how ideology can be better integrated into economic history analysis, arguing that if economists and economic historians are to fully understand economic behaviour a much deeper appreciation of ideological processes is required. The book has two parts. The first part presents a comprehensive theory of ideology and ideological change that can be easily incorporated into economic analysis; the second provides an empirical case study of ideological change from East Germany of the 1960s.The book demonstrates how current restrictive views of ideology found within mainstream economics can be enhanced by adopting a more expansive, multidisciplinary understanding of ideology and its role in the processes of economic change. Merging a view of ideology as a fluid and politically practical concept with the framework of change offered by institutional economics, the authors use this theory to provide an in-depth analysis of how the ideological case for the New Economic System in East Germany and for de-Stalinisation more generally in the 1960s was built. Rich in archival material, the book both deepens our understanding of economic change in the communist world in the post-Stalin era and demonstrates the multifaceted role of ideology in economic decision making. With a cutting-edge approach, this book will be a valuable resource for students of economics, economic history, political economy, as well as of communist and German history.

East Germany’s economic history is typically told as a story of the unravelling of an inherently flawed system. Yet, while the system’s inefficiency is undeniable, its economic history was much richer than its comparatively poor economic performance suggests. For many who lived there, it was a system that, over its forty years, was capable of achievements and generally functioned at bearable levels. This book combines the insights of behavioural economics with archival research to peel away layers of rhetoric and assumptions about the East German economy and explore aspects of that underlying functionality. Through a series of cases studies that examine the establishment of socialist workplaces, the searches for productivity growth and efficiency, and the emergence of financial crisis, the book considers the system from the perspective of the humans who operated it and made the decisions that made it work. Unencumbered by political preconceptions, it offers a more realistic understanding of East German economic history than that derived from stagnant debates about the clash of systems. The new perspectives and approaches presented demonstrate that, extracted from its Cold War context, East Germany’s economic history can be analysed for what it was, rather than for what it symbolised.

East Germany’s economic history is typically told as a story of the unravelling of an inherently flawed system. Yet, while the system’s inefficiency is undeniable, its economic history was much richer than its comparatively poor economic performance suggests. For many who lived there, it was a system that, over its forty years, was capable of achievements and generally functioned at bearable levels. This book combines the insights of behavioural economics with archival research to peel away layers of rhetoric and assumptions about the East German economy and explore aspects of that underlying functionality.

Through a series of cases studies that examine the establishment of socialist workplaces, the searches for productivity growth and efficiency, and the emergence of financial crisis, the book considers the system from the perspective of the humans who operated it and made the decisions that made it work. Unencumbered by political preconceptions, it offers a more realistic understanding of East German economic history than that derived from stagnant debates about the clash of systems. The new perspectives and approaches presented demonstrate that, extracted from its Cold War context, East Germany’s economic history can be analysed for what it was, rather than for what it symbolised.  

East Germany’s economic history is typically told as a story of the unravelling of an inherently flawed system. Yet, while the system’s inefficiency is undeniable, its economic history was much richer than its comparatively poor economic performance suggests. For many who lived there, it was a system that, over its forty years, was capable of achievements and generally functioned at bearable levels. This book combines the insights of behavioural economics with archival research to peel away layers of rhetoric and assumptions about the East German economy and explore aspects of that underlying functionality. Through a series of cases studies that examine the establishment of socialist workplaces, the searches for productivity growth and efficiency, and the emergence of financial crisis, the book considers the system from the perspective of the humans who operated it and made the decisions that made it work. Unencumbered by political preconceptions, it offers a more realistic understanding of East German economic history than that derived from stagnant debates about the clash of systems. The new perspectives and approaches presented demonstrate that, extracted from its Cold War context, East Germany’s economic history can be analysed for what it was, rather than for what it symbolised.

Die Wirtschaftsgeschichte Ostdeutschlands wird in der Regel als eine Geschichte des Zusammenbruchs eines von Natur aus fehlerhaften Systems erzählt. Doch obwohl die Ineffizienz des Systems unbestreitbar ist, war seine Wirtschaftsgeschichte viel reicher, als seine vergleichsweise schlechte Wirtschaftsleistung vermuten lässt. Für viele, die dort lebten, war es ein System, das in den vierzig Jahren seines Bestehens zu Leistungen fähig war und im Allgemeinen auf einem erträglichen Niveau funktionierte. Dieses Buch kombiniert die Erkenntnisse der Verhaltensökonomie mit Archivrecherchen, um die Schichten der Rhetorik und der Annahmen über die ostdeutsche Wirtschaft abzuschälen und Aspekte der zugrunde liegenden Funktionalität zu untersuchen.Anhand einer Reihe von Fallstudien, die die Einrichtung sozialistischer Arbeitsplätze, das Streben nach Produktivitätssteigerung und Effizienz sowie die Entstehung der Finanzkrise untersuchen, betrachtet das Buch das System aus der Perspektive der Menschen, die es betrieben und die Entscheidungen trafen, die es zum Funktionieren brachten. Unbelastet von politischen Vorurteilen bietet es ein realistischeres Verständnis der ostdeutschen Wirtschaftsgeschichte als dasjenige, das sich aus festgefahrenen Debatten über den Zusammenprall der Systeme ergibt. Die vorgestellten neuen Perspektiven und Ansätze zeigen, dass die ostdeutsche Wirtschaftsgeschichte, herausgelöst aus ihrem Kontext des Kalten Krieges, als das analysiert werden kann, was sie war, und nicht als das, was sie symbolisierte.