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Patrick Graves

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Power and Plenty: Trade, War, and the World Economy in the Second Millennium

by Ronald Findlay

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Reading for the 2nd time

read in January 2016

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Patrick Graves said: " As good as Gold:
The book was actually better than I expected. It advertised itself as a standard, relatively monotone and boring nonfiction work, but I decided to continue anyway as my brother highly recommended it. Not only were there incredibly de As good as Gold:
The book was actually better than I expected. It advertised itself as a standard, relatively monotone and boring nonfiction work, but I decided to continue anyway as my brother highly recommended it. Not only were there incredibly detailed facts and descriptions of the world economy and political situations, but they had statistics and sources in the footnotes to back up their statements and claims. No claim made was without reason, and each reason had a well researched source, including primary and secondary sources. I personally thought the book was very interesting, as it described the political and economic situations of the second millennium world in great detail and with an interesting philosophical explanation for some of the reasoning for acts and decisions made by countries and important political figures at the time. I believe the facts definitely outweighed the propaganda, as the authors had no obvious reason to be biased in any way, and the book was definitely a more informative text rather than one which attempted to persuade the reader. Based on the extensive cited sources and research I believe the book was definitely based mostly, if not purely on fact. The information was definitely extensive, as the book is fairly lengthy, and the authors covered many topics throughout the book. Each chapter covered a new topic or time period, and as it progressively moved chronologically through history, one could observe how as time progressed, the developing philosophical and logical progressions made by humans seemed to play a role in the general thought and reasoning made by political leaders and the general populace.

Like Water in a desert:
I would describe the authors tone as informative, but also as critical, since he describes trade as the basis for international globalization, but also as a a primary reason for conflict and rivalries between nations to erupt. He describes some actions of past human actions in a negative way, such enslavement of humans as a result of the Atlantic system, and the eradication of many native american and mesoamerican cultures. Definitely anyone interested in History would find this book interesting, but also people interested in economics and politics would also find the information found here to be interesting. ...more "

Jan 27, 2016 03:46PM · see review