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The Great Wave: Price Revolutions and the Rhythm of History

Average customer rating:

this book was fascinating
Price is relative(ly) UnsTabLe - the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Silly
The Great Wave: Price Revolutions and the Rythm of History
Disapointing

The Great Wave: Price Revolutions and the Rhythm of History
David Hackett Fischer
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Amazon.com

David Hackett Fischer is a master storyteller, capable of writing challenging histories in highly enjoyable prose. His earlier works, Albion's Seed and Paul Revere's Ride, have both been hailed for their extraordinary success as both scholarly achievements and readable histories. In The Great Wave, Professor Fischer directs his erudite attention to the ebbs and flows of prices, demonstrating that the historical costs of goods shed much light on patterns of human events, and the interpretation of those prices in turn discloses a great deal about the methods and biases of historians. The result is an intriguing study of both human history and a critical appraisal of the historian's craft. The greatest talent Fischer demonstrates is the ability to master a diverse amount of quantitative data and organize it into a remarkably clear story. Certain to interest lay readers, investors, and serious students alike, The Great Wave changes the way you look at those common signposts known as prices.

Book Description

David Hackett Fischer, one of our most prominent historians, has garnered a reputation for making history come alive--even stories as familiar as Paul Revere's ride, or as complicated as the assimilation of British culture in North America. Now, in The Great Wave, Fischer has done it again, marshaling an astonishing array of historical facts in lucid and compelling prose to outline a history of prices--"the history of change," as Fischer puts it--covering the dazzling sweep of Western history from the medieval glory of Chartres to the modern day. Going far beyond the economic data, Fischer writes a powerful history of the people of the Western world: the economic patterns they lived in, and the politics, culture, and society that they created as a result. As he did in Albion's Seed and Paul Revere's Ride, two of the most talked-about history books in recent years, Fischer combines extensive research and meticulous scholarship with wonderfully evocative writing to create a book for scholars and general readers alike. Records of prices are more abundant than any other quantifiable data, and span the entire range of history, from tables of medieval grain prices to the overabundance of modern statistics. Fischer studies this wealth of data, creating a narrative that encompasses all of Western culture. He describes four waves of price revolutions, each beginning in a period of equilibrium: the High Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and finally the Victorian Age. Each revolution is marked by continuing inflation, a widening gap between rich and poor, increasing instability, and finally a crisis at the crest of the wave that is characterized by demographic contraction, social and political upheaval, and economic collapse. The most violent of these climaxes was the catastrophic fourteenth century, in which war, famine, and the Black Death devastated the continent--the only time in Europe's history that the population actually declined. Fischer also brilliantly illuminates how these long economic waves are closely intertwined with social and political events, affecting the very mindset of the people caught in them. The long periods of equilibrium are marked by cultural and intellectual movements--such as the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and the Victorian Age-- based on a belief in order and harmony and in the triumph of progress and reason. By contrast, the years of price revolution created a melancholy culture of despair. Fischer suggests that we are living now in the last stages of a price revolution that has been building since the turn of the century. The destabilizing price surges and declines and the diminished expectations the United States has suffered in recent years--and the famines and wars of other areas of the globe--are typical of the crest of a price revolution. He does not attempt to predict what will happen, noting that "uncertainty about the future is an inexorable fact of our condition." Rather, he ends with a brilliant analysis of where we might go from here and what our choices are now. This book is essential reading for anyone concerned about the state of the world today.

Customer Reviews:

this book was fascinating.......2007-06-04

this was one of the most captivating books I have ever read. Mr. Fischer tells the story of western history in a completely new and fascinating way; he tells the story of modern western history in the language of price fluctuations and inflation. I found this to be fresh way of looking at the live of people from our past.

Mr. Fischer is not only a thourough researcher, but a good storyteller as well.

I did not, however, agree with some of his opinions of modern economic theory, but respect his work and enjoys his writings.

Price is relative(ly) UnsTabLe - the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.......2005-12-13

What is the time frame you are thinking in? You can get an incredible glimpse of monetary history just by looking at the table of contents and the table of Figures, charts and graphs.

I would say read this book slowly, here and there if nothing else - or just use it like an encyclopedia to begin to answer some question or another when it comes up. But buy it mostly just to give to your kids. It will help them figure out what happened when they look back on the economic wreckage a couple decades from now.

If a picture is worth 1000 words, then a good chart is worth 1,000,000. That makes "The Great Wave" invaluable. Plus the book even has some sort of interesting discussion between all the pages of clearly presented graphs.

Silly.......2005-11-27

The Great Wave is what results when someone who does not have any understanding of economics writes economic history.

The author's attempt to equate increases in prices due to catastrophic harvests or plague three to five hundreds years ago with the increase in general prices during the twentieth century to an expansionary monetary policy manages to, at once, understate what has been best about human progress and overstate what has been worst about it.

The Great Wave: Price Revolutions and the Rythm of History.......2005-11-15

Not just for economic or business geeks. One of the best history books I have read. My sister, a paralegal loved it as well. It ties historic events into patterns - and logic. Yes it has an economic basis but is just as much about human actions and societies. Fairly long, but so interesting and put together it reads like a novel.

Disapointing.......2004-11-17

Compared to his other superb books, this is one is tedious and boring. The overall thesis is a stretch - trying to find equivalences between pre-industrial (and pre-printing press) 13th century price paterns and those of the industrialized and post-industrial 20th century requires ignoring far to many factors. At a minimum comparing a world in which 90% of the population are attached to agricultural production and illiterate to world where almost precicly the reverse holds is just too big a leap to swallow.

Sadly, one suspects more than a little political axe-grinding is involved.

Enjoy Fischer's other books where he excells, but you won't miss much if you neglect to read The Great Wave. Besides, the subject has been better treated elsewhere by authors not so obviously out of their depth.

Average customer rating:

THE GREAT WAVE: PRICE REVOLUTIONS AND THE RHYTHM OF HISTORY.
David Hackett. Fischer
Manufacturer: The Softback Preview
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000HL0HR8

Average customer rating:

THE GREAT WAVE : PRICE REVOLUTIONS AND THE RHYTHM OF HISTORY.
David Hackett. Fischer
Manufacturer: Softback Preview
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000HH7O0U

Average customer rating:

THE GREAT WAVE: PRICE REVOLUTIONS AND THE RHYTHM OF HISTORY.
David Hackett. Fischer
Manufacturer: Softback Preview
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000HL5BVU

THE GREAT WAVE: PRICE REVOLUTIONS AND RHYTHM OF HISTORY.

Average customer rating:

THE GREAT WAVE: PRICE REVOLUTIONS AND RHYTHM OF HISTORY.
David Hackett. Fischer
Manufacturer: The Softback Preview
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000HL13MQ

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