The Golden Age Illusion: Rethinking Postwar Capitalism - Hardcover

Rigby, David L.; Webber, Michael J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0898625734 ISBN 13: 9780898625738

Publisher: Guilford Press, 1996

Synopsis

Reassessing common interpretations of postwar economic history and geography, this book focuses on the evolution of the global economy from the 1950s to the present. It is a thorough integration of theoretical and empirical work, drawing data from around the world, with detailed studies of two advance industrialized nations--Japan and the United States; two semi-peripheral economies--Australia and Canada; and three newly industrializing countries--Brazil, South Korea, and Taiwan. The authors build on standard models of economic change to incorporate new developments in regional dynamics: they use nonlinear, nonequilibrium, and evolutionary arguments to frame discussions of profit rates, technological change, and interregional capital flows. In assessing traditional explanations of postwar economic growth and crisis, the work highlights the geographic form of postwar growth, globalization. It clearly illustrates the failure of traditional theories to adequately account for the emergence of selected newly industrializing countries. The authors conclude with a new interpretation of the global slowdown--one that emphasizes the endogenous nature of capitalist crises and demonstrates how the newly industrializing economies expanded as a result of that slowdown.

About this title

About the Author

Michael Webber, a Professor of Geography at the University of Melbourne in Australia, is deputy convenor of The Victoria Foundation, a think tank that promotes justice in social and economic policies. His research interests have evolved from location theory and urban planning to industrial development and regional growth.

David Rigby is an Associate Professor of Geography at the University of California, Los Angeles. His research interests include evolutionary models of technological change and economic dynamics, regional growth theory, and uneven development.

Edition details

• Publisher: Guilford Press
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0898625734
• ISBN 13: 9780898625738
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 734