This collection of essays by Alexander Gerschenkron, who has been called “the doyen of economic history in the United States,” is a companion volume to the author’s highly acclaimed Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective. The essays range over a wide variety of subjects, but the major theme, as in Gerschenkron’s previous book, is the conditions of industrial development, particularly in regard to nineteenth-century Europe.

The book is divided into three parts. In Part I, Methodology, the essays are: “On the Concept of Continuity in History,” “Some Methodological Problems in Economic History,” and “Reflections on Ideology as a Methodological and Historical Problem.” Part II, Problems in Economic History, deals with “The Typology of Industrial Development as a Tool of Analysis,” “The Industrial Development of Italy: A Debate with Rosario Romeo,” “The Modernization of Entrepreneurship,” “Russia: Agrarian Policies and Industrialization, 1861–1914,” and “City Economies Then and Now.” In Part III, The Political Framework, the essays are: “Reflections on the Economic Aspects of Revolution,” “The Changeability of a Dictatorship,” and “The Stability of Dictatorships.” A series of appendices presents reviews and review articles by Gerschenkron.

These fourteen essays covering a wide range of subjects of great current interest reflect the continuous evolution of the author’s thought from 1951 to 1961. Range and flexibility characterize Alexander Gerschenkron’s dynamic approach to Europe’s industrial history. Connecting evolution in individual countries with their degree of economic backwardness, he presents the industrialization of the continent as a “case of unity in diversity,” thus offering a cogent alternative, supported by case studies, to the traditional view of industrialization as monotonous repetition of the same process from country to country. Brought together for the first time, these essays were originally published in specialized periodicals in the United States and abroad.

Explaining and systematizing the elements of creative innovation in industrial history, Gerschenkron opens new paths of research and poses a number of pertinent questions for the problem of economic development in backward countries. His versatile analysis not only includes construction of ingenious industrial output indices and fruitful historical hypotheses on the index-number problem, but also original insights gleaned from a study of Soviet novels and a brilliant critique of Doctor Zhivago.

Long respected as a classic in Europe, this translation is welcomed as the first comprehensive survey of Swedish economic history available in this country. Herein the late Eli Filip Heckscher discusses Swedish economy from the feudalism of the Middle Ages to World War II socialism.

Complete coverage is given to such diverse yet interrelated subjects as land distribution and use, agrarian reforms, growth of cities, social structure, foreign influence and immigration, development of iron and other metals, forest industry, population growth, trade beginnings, cooperatives, and the growth of socialism.

Faithfully translated, and with a newly added conclusion by Gunnar Heckscher, the author's son, this interesting book is valuable as a study of one of Europe's most economically advanced countries. Well-illustrated with maps, charts, and graphs, it provides invaluable reference material.