Rome and the Rise of the West : How the Roman Empire Shaped the Modern Economy / Taco Terpstra.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Terpstra, Taco, Author.

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ Princeton University Press, [2026]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

How the Roman empire shaped the West and the emergence of the modern economy Most historians recounting the rise of the West begin their narratives somewhere in the Middle Ages. In this groundbreaking account, historian Taco Terpstra argues that if we want to understand how the rise of the West unfolded, we need to look further back—all the way to the Neolithic, when an upward trend in social development began. For millennia after the Neolithic Revolution, the fastest rising part of the West was the area of Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Levant and the Aegean. Yet around 1400 CE, the highest levels of social development shifted from the southeastern corner of the Mediterranean to the northwestern parts of Europe—northern Italy, France, Germany, the Low Countries, and Britain. As Terpstra shows, it was the shock of the Roman occupation that created the unprecedented and anomalous shift. The post-Roman northwest built on the gains it had made during the imperial era to catch up in social development and achieve Western supremacy. Thus, it was imperial Rome that determined where the modern economy emerged.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1 Social Development and the Ratchet Effect

2 The Geography of Western Social Development

3 Rome and the Levers of Power

4 Rome and the Rise of the Northwest

5 The Western Core: North by Northwest

6 The West and the Idea of Progress

Conclusion

Appendix: Social Development Scores

Notes

Bibliography

Index

The Princeton Economic History of the Western World

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed August 05 2026)

ISBN:

9780691291352