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David Landes and Andre Gunder Frank
debate
"ReOrient" vs.
"The Wealth and Poverty of Nations"
-- Two views of the World Economy in History
The World History Seminar at Northeastern University, with
co-sponsorship by the NU Department of Economics, presents a debate
between David Landes (Harvard University) and Andre Gunder Frank
(University of Amsterdam, emeritus)
Wednesday, Dec. 2nd
3:00-4:30 p.m.
450 Dodge Hall
Northeastern University
Event is free and open to the public.
Teachers are encouraged to bring their students.
for information contact World History Center Co-ordinator, Jeff Sommers
ph. 617-373-3676 email: <jsommers@lynx.neu.edu> or see our web page
http://www.whc.neu.edu
ReORIENT HISTORY, THEORY AND POLICY?
DEBATING THE WEALTH AND POVERTY OF LANDES AND FRANK
Of Landes' work, J.K.GALBRAITH says "Truly wonderful. No question that
this will establish David Landes as preeminent in his field and in his
time."
ALBERT BERGESEN contends that Gunder Frank's ReOrient is "absolutely
essential to understanding world history."
LANDES maintains that Max Weber was right about the RISE OF THE WESTí
in the past, Francis Fukuyama is right about THE END OF HISTORYí and
Harvard colleague SAMUEL HUNTINGTON is right about the coming CLASH OF
CIVILIZATIONSí between THE WEST AND THE RESTí. For Landes and them,
the key to the Westís success has been the exceptionalism of its
values and institutions, that were and still are lacking in the Rest.
Thus, Landes refers to China as a culturally and intellectually
homeostatic society that had indifference to technology, lacked
institutions for finding and learning, abhorred mercantile success,
showed deliberate introversion, isolationism, risk aversion,
irrationality, xenophobia, arrogance, haughtiness, stunned
submissiveness, self-defeating escapism and so on.
FRANK retorts that Weber got it all wrong, and Marx, Polanyi, Parsons,
Rostow, Braudel , Wallerstein and Frank [Mark I] too. Landes himself
already got it wrong in his 1969 book UNBOUND PROMETHIUS
AND, and his neglect or dismissal of the intervening 30 years of
scholarship make him still more wrong now. Received social theory,
developed and uncritically accepted by all of the above and most
other
historians, economists and social scientists is vitiated by the
ingrained
EUROCENTRISM of historiography and social theory that concentrate
their
inquiry under the European American streetlight, which blacks out the
evidence from the rest of the world and distorts that of the West
itself.
This triumphalist not to mention racist ideology masquerading as history
and even science neglects or altogether rejects holistic historical
analysis of the global economy and society , which shows that not
Europe but instead Asia, and particularly Middle Kingdom China,
remained
predominant in the world until at 1800. The subsequent Decline of the
East and the shift of the center of gravity to the West were more
globally than locally determined temporary processes that have run their
historical course and are already coming full circle with the
contemporary renewed rise of East Asia and
particularly of China. Therefore, it is high time to ReORIENT our
historiography, social theory and political policy as well, all the
more so in view of the reiteration of and accolades for the poverty of
Landesí empirically mistaken historyí and theoretically unfounded
analysis, which also dovetail with the equally unfounded and
socio-politically dangerous propaganda about End of Historyî
and Clash of Civilizationsî.
ReORIENT blurbs refer to the fundamental rethinking by the iconoclast
Frank who challenges virtually all other significant scholarship about
the historical origins of the
contemporary world in a benchmark study for the millennium that is
absolutely essential for understanding
world history.
LANDES retorts that Frank and his echoes are a magnet for fallacies and
fantasies [and] the invention of folklore. Bad history.
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David Landes and Andre Gunder Frank
debate
"ReOrient" vs.
"The Wealth and Poverty of Nations"
-- Two views of the World Economy in History
The World History Seminar at Northeastern University, with co-sponsorship by the NU Department of Economics, presents a debate between David Landes (Harvard University) and Andre Gunder Frank (University of Amsterdam, emeritus)
Wednesday, Dec. 2nd
3:00-4:30 p.m.
450 Dodge Hall
Northeastern University
Event is free and open to the public.
Teachers are encouraged to bring their students.
for information contact World History Center Co-ordinator, Jeff Sommers
ph. 617-373-3676 email: <jsommers@lynx.neu.edu> or see our web page
http://www.whc.neu.edu
ReORIENT HISTORY, THEORY AND POLICY?
DEBATING THE WEALTH AND POVERTY OF LANDES AND FRANK
Of Landes' work, J.K.GALBRAITH says "Truly wonderful. No question that this will establish David Landes as preeminent in his field and in his time."
ALBERT BERGESEN contends that Gunder Frank's ReOrient is "absolutely
essential to understanding world history."
LANDES maintains that Max Weber was right about the RISE OF THE
WEST’
in the past, Francis Fukuyama is right about THE END OF HISTORY’
and
Harvard colleague SAMUEL HUNTINGTON is right about the coming CLASH
OF
CIVILIZATIONS’ between THE WEST AND THE REST’. For Landes and
them,
the key to the West’s success has been the exceptionalism of
its
values and institutions, that were and still are lacking in the Rest.
Thus, Landes refers to China as a culturally and intellectually
homeostatic society that had indifference to technology, lacked
institutions for finding and learning, abhorred mercantile success,
showed deliberate introversion, isolationism, risk aversion,
irrationality, xenophobia, arrogance, haughtiness, stunned
submissiveness, self-defeating escapism and so on.
FRANK retorts that Weber got it all wrong, and Marx, Polanyi, Parsons,
Rostow, Braudel , Wallerstein and Frank [Mark I] too. Landes
himself
already got it wrong in his 1969 book UNBOUND PROMETHIUS
AND, and his neglect or dismissal of the intervening 30 years
of
scholarship make him still more wrong now. Received social
theory,
developed and uncritically accepted by all of the above
and most other
historians, economists and social scientists is vitiated by the ingrained
EUROCENTRISM of historiography and social theory that concentrate
their
inquiry under the European American streetlight, which
blacks out the
evidence from the rest of the world and distorts that of the West itself.
This triumphalist not to mention racist ideology masquerading as history
and even science neglects or altogether rejects holistic
historical
analysis of the global economy and society , which shows
that not
Europe but instead Asia, and particularly Middle Kingdom China,
remained
predominant in the world until at 1800. The subsequent
Decline of the
East and the shift of the center of gravity to the West
were more
globally than locally determined temporary processes that have run
their
historical course and are already coming full circle with the contemporary
renewed rise of East Asia and
particularly of China. Therefore, it is high time to ReORIENT our
historiography, social theory and political policy as well, all the
more so in view of the reiteration of and accolades for the poverty
of
Landes’ empirically mistaken history’ and theoretically
unfounded
analysis, which also dovetail with the equally unfounded and
socio-politically dangerous propaganda about End of History”
and Clash of Civilizations”.
ReORIENT blurbs refer to the fundamental rethinking by the iconoclast
Frank who challenges virtually all other significant scholarship
about the historical origins of the
contemporary world in a benchmark study for the millennium that is
absolutely essential for understanding
world history.
LANDES retorts that Frank and his echoes are a magnet for fallacies
and
fantasies [and] the invention of folklore. Bad history.
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