1.

Record Nr.

UNISA996247978903316

Autore

Goody Jack

Titolo

The East in the West / / Jack Goody [[electronic resource]]

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge : , : Cambridge University Press, , 1996

ISBN

1-139-17105-4

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (x, 295 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Disciplina

657/.2/0954

Soggetti

Bookkeeping

Family-owned business enterprises

India Commerce History

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Nota di contenuto

Cover -- Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of figures -- List of tables -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction: the West's problem with the East -- Rationality in review -- Rationality and ragioneria: the keeping of books and the economic miracle -- Indian trade and economy in the medieval and early colonial periods -- The growth of Indian commerce and industry -- Family and business in the East -- From collective to individual? The historiography of the family in the west -- Labour, production and communication -- Revaluations -- Appendix: early links between East and West -- Bibliography -- Index.

Sommario/riassunto

The East in the West reassesses Western views of Asia. Traditionally many European historians and theorists have seen the societies of the East as 'static' or 'backward'. Jack Goody challenges these assumptions, beginning with the notion of a special Western rationality which enabled 'us' and not 'them' to modernise. He then turns to book-keeping, which several social and economic historians have seen as intrinsic to capitalism, arguing that there was in fact little difference between East and West in terms of mercantile activity. Other factors said to inhibit the East's development, such as the family and forms of labour, have also been greatly exaggerated. This Eurocentrism both fails to explain the current achievements of the East, and misunderstands Western history. The East in the West starts to redress the balance, and so marks a fundamental shift in our view of Western



and Eastern history and society.