The Great Wave: Price Revolutions and the Rhythym of History - Hardcover

Fischer, David Hackett

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 019505377X ISBN 13: 9780195053777

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1996

Synopsis

David Hackett Fischer, one of our most prominent historians, has garnered a reputation for making history come alive - even stories as familiar as Paul Revere's ride, or as complicated as the assimilation of British culture in North America. Now, in The Great Wave, Fischer has done it again, marshalling an astonishing array of historical facts in lucid and compelling prose to outline a history of prices - `the history of change', as Fischer puts it - covering the dazzling sweep of Western history from the medieval glory of Chartres to the modern day. Going far beyond the economic data, Fischer writes a powerful history of the people of the Western world: the economic patterns they lived in, and the politics, culture, and society that they created as a result. As he did in Albion's Seed and Paul Revere's Ride, two of the most talked-about history books in recent years, Fischer combines extensive research and meticulous scholarship with wonderfully evocative writing to create a book for scholars and general readers alike.

Records of prices are more abundant than any other quantifiable data, and span the entire range of history, from tables of medieval grain prices to the overabundance of modern statistics. Fischer studies this wealth of data, creating a narrative that encompasses all of Western culture. He describes four waves of price revolutions, each beginning in a period of equilibrium: the High Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and finally the Victorian Age. Each revolution is marked by continuing inflation, a widening gap between rich and poor, increasing instability, and finally a crisis at the crest of the wave that is characterized by demographic contraction, social and political upheaval, and economic collapse. The most violent of these climaxes was the catastrophic fourteenth century, in which war, famine, and the Black Death devastated the continent - the only time in Europe's history that the population actually declined.

Fischer also brilliantly illuminates how these long economic waves are closely intertwined with social and political events, affecting the very mindset of the people caught in them. The long periods of equilibrium are marked by cultural and intellectual movements - such as the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and the Victorian Age - based on a belief in order and harmony and in the triumph of progress and reason. By contrast, the years of price revolution created a melancholy culture of despair.

Fischer suggests that we are living now in the last stages of a price revolution that has been building since the turn of the century. The destabilizing price surges and declines and the diminished expectations the United States has suffered in recent years - and the famines and wars of other areas of the globe - are typical of the crest of a price revolution. He does not attempt to predict what will happen, noting that `uncertainty about the future is an inexorable fact of our condition'. Rather, he ends with a brilliant analysis of where we might go from here and what our choices are now. This book is essential reading for anyone concerned about the state of the world today.

About this title

Review:

a work of phenomenal scope and erudition, which examines the history of inflation ... Fischer's history of inflation is a thoroughly good read ... He should send the Treasury a copy. (Mark Archer, The Sunday Telegraph)

Mr Hackett Fischer's book is an important one, not least because it focuses not on a seven-week election campaign but on 700 years of history divided into four great price revolutions. Mr Hackett Fischer's scholarship is admirable. (Larry Elliott, The Guardian)

This is a fascinating book; it is also an important one. It will appeal to the antiquarian that lurks in many of us ... his is a powerful piece of historical analysis and ought to become part of everyone's framework of understanding. (William Rees-Mogg, New Statesman & Society)

After reading this superbly written and potentially controversial book, you'll never glare at a price tag in quite the same way again. (Keay Davidson, SF Examiner)

an entertaining and provocative mixture of deep insights and highly questionable statements (Paul Ormerod, The Guardian)

sweeping historical tour. ... a provocative and thoughtful journey through history. (The Economist (UK) Review section, 19 July 1997)

the book is choc-a-bloc with fascinating graphs, which chart everything from the price of oxen, wheat and cheese in England, 1210-1325, to the price of fuel oil in the United States, 1960-92. ... I admire this book hugely; it is erudite, smart, lucid and, in places, it is also very convincing. (The Sunday Telegraph, 14 September 1997)

stimulating, colourful and accessible to a wide readership ... controversial, thought-provoking ... The strength of the book is in the broad sweep of its subject matter and in the engaging narrative style which dispenses with the traditional dusty prose of the professional and substitutes a more direct and dramatic manner which makes the subject accessible to layman and student alike ... I am sure the book will attract a great deal of comment and will be of interest to both students and non-specialists alike. (Michael Collins, History Today)

From the Back Cover:

"The history of prices is the history of change", writes David Hackett Fischer in this broad sweep of western history from the middle ages to our own time. His primary sources are price records, which are more abundant for the study of historical change than any other type of quantifiable data. Fischer uses these materials to frame a narrative of price-movements in western history from the eleventh century to the present. He finds that prices tended to rise throughout this long period, but most of their increase happened in four great waves of inflation - which he calls the price-revolutions of the thirteenth, sixteenth, eighteenth, and twentieth centuries. The four waves shared many qualities in common. All had the same movements of prices and price-relatives, falling real wages, rising returns to capital, and growing gaps between rich and poor. They were also very similar in the structure of change. Each of them started silently, developed increasing instability, and ended in a shattering crisis that combined social disorder, political upheaval, economic collapse, and demographic contraction. These crises happened in the fourteenth, seventeenth, and late eighteenth centuries. They were followed by long periods of comparative equilibrium: the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and the Victorian era. In all of these eras prices fell and stabilized, wages rose, and inequalities diminished. Then another great wave began and the pattern repeated itself, but not in precisely the same way. Fischer quotes Mark Twain: history doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes. Through all of these movements, Fischer explores the linkages between economic trends, social tendencies, political events, andcultural processes. He finds that long periods of price-equilibrium were marked by a faith in order, harmony, progress, and reason. By contrast, price-revolutions created cultures of despair in their middle and later stages. Fischer examines the cause of these movements, and discusses the models that have been used to explain them. He also considers their consequences. Fischer does not attempt to predict what will happen next, noting that "uncertainty about the future is an inexorable fact of our condition". Rather, he ends with an analysis of where we might go from here, and what our choices are now. This book should be required reading for anyone who is seriously concerned about the state of the world today.

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 019505377X
• ISBN 13: 9780195053777
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 556