Main description: Few observers of Mexico and Brazil in the 1930s, or South Korea and Taiwan in the mid-1950s, would have predicted that these nations would become economic "miracles" several decades later. These newly industrializing countries (NICs) challenge much of our conventional wisdom...

"Written by fifteen leading academics from the Japan Society for International Development (JASID), this book undertakes a review of Japan's economic developmentover the last 150 years,and seeks to clarify Japanese priorities in domestic and foreign policy for the coming decades"--

Contrary to popular narratives, 'The Great Divergence Reconsidered' shows that Europe's rise to its current status as an undisputed world economic leader was not the effect of the Industrial Revolution, nor can it be explained by coal or colonial exploitation. Using a wealth of new historical...