Trousson, Raymond / Vercruysse, Jeroom (dir.), Dictionnaire general de Voltaire. (Champion classiques, references et dictionnaires 18) 1272 p. 2020:10 (Champion, FR) <670-9>
ISBN 978-2-38096-016-7 paper ¥7,064.- (税込) EUR 38.00

Hartmann, Heinrich / Tischler, Julia (eds.), Planting Seeds of Knowledge: Agriculture and Education in Rural Societies in the Twentieth Century. (Environment in History: International Perspectives 24) 366 pp. 2023:6 (Berghahn, US) <723-261>
ISBN 978-1-80539-010-7 hard ¥31,262.- (税込) US$ 145.00 *

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, agricultural practices and rural livelihoods were challenged by changes such as commercialization, intensified global trade, and rapid urbanization. Planting Seeds of Knowledge studies the relationship between these agricultural changes and knowledge-making through a transnational lens. Spanning exchanges between different parts of Europe, North and South America, the Indian subcontinent, and Africa, the wide-reaching contributions to this volume reform current historiography to show how local experiences redefined global practice.

アイルランドの海洋漁業　1400～1600年－経済学、環境、エコロジー
Hayes, Patrick W, Ireland's Sea Fisheries, 1400-1600: Economics, Environment and Ecology. (Irish Historical Monographs) 330 pp. 2023:12 (Boydell, UK) <723-262>
ISBN 978-1-78327-706-3 hard ¥27,065.- (税込) GB￡ 95.00 *

This book examines the environmental, political, and economic history of Ireland's marine fisheries from 1400 to 1600. It combines a wide range of historical sources with innovative digital research methods to provide a comprehensive and systematic overview. Government letters and court documents highlight the diverse range of fishing fleets from across Europe that visited Irish waters in the early sixteenth century, bringing wealth and cultural influence to the native Irish, who developed complex systems to protect and tax the visitors. Furthermore, trade records illustrate that fish was Ireland's premier export in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. However, a range of factors led to the industry's collapse by the end of the sixteenth century: the Tudor conquest which disrupted fishing operations and fundamentally altered who controlled fishing resources; the destabilization of Irish waters resulting from the terrestrial conflict, which allowed pirates to thrive; an influx of cheap cod from the newly exploited fisheries in Newfoundland which changed consumption patterns in Ireland and across Europe; and shifting climatic conditions and decades of over-exploitation which meant fewer fish and poorer catches. Overall, the book reveals that fisheries form a vital part of the broader environmental, political, and economic history of Ireland.

Kouli, Yaman / Mueller, Uwe (eds.), The Middle-Income Trap in Central and Eastern Europe: Causes, Consequences and Strategies in Post-Communist Countries. (New Perspectives on Central and Eastern European Studies 4) 322 pp. 2023:11 (Berghahn, US) <723-263>
ISBN 978-1-80539-181-4 hard ¥29,106.- (税込) US$ 135.00 *

Since the 1990s, the economic development of Central and Eastern Europe has maintained high economic growth rates, seemingly leading to an era of prosperity. This very positive vision of future economic success, linked to current political backlash and a long history of economic adversity, is a thin veil of the economic "way west" for so-called transition countries. The Middle-Income Trap in Central and Eastern Europe examines the reality of the diminishing marginal utility of further international investments alongside the pitfalls of higher government spending to cultivate innovation which ultimately makes foreign capital less attractive. In this volume authors from diverse disciplinary perspectives reflect on current debates surrounding the developmental bottlenecks in East-Central Europe. Their common goal is to analyze the manner of socio-economic transformation, question of the relevance and impact of the "middle-income trap" and identify possible ways to escape it.

McLeod, Jane, Print, Politics and Trade in the French Atlantic: The Labottiere Family as Eighteenth-Century Cultural Brokers. (Knowledge and Communication in the Enlightenment World) 352 pp. 2024:7 (Boydell, UK) <723-264>
ISBN 978-1-83765-086-6 hard ¥27,065.- (税込) GB￡ 95.00 *

The epic histories of the French Revolution, Enlightenment, and colonialism in the West Indies, told through the history of one family. The Labottieres were the largest printing and bookselling dynasty in eighteenth-century Bordeaux. From the 1680s to the sale of their business in 1794 three generations of this family acted as major cultural brokers in this booming Atlantic port, serving the rapidly expanding commercial and legal sectors with books, pamphlets, and newspapers. The lives and businesses of this family are heavily entwined with the histories of the Enlightenment, French colonialism in the West Indies, and the French Revolution. We find the final generation, welcoming the Revolution, printing a pro-revolutionary newspaper that framed the revolts in Haiti and Martinique in pro-revolutionary terms. They would come to establish their shop as a Jacobin centre and, along with their workers and journalists, navigated the forces of popular censorship and state control. However, despite these activities, the Labottiere printing and bookselling enterprise would, eventually, be destroyed by the very Revolution it had supported. Through this lively microhistory of the Labottieres, Jane McLeod presents the important role played by the flourishing Atlantic port economy in supporting the expansion of printing and bookselling. Furthermore, from McLeod's extensive archival research into over thirty members of the Labottiere family, emerges a new understanding of the role played by printers and booksellers in the spreading of the ideas and concerns that underpinned some of the landmark social, cultural and political changes of the eighteenth century.

ブリストルと大西洋経済の誕生　1500～1700年
Stone, Richard, Bristol and the Birth of the Atlantic Economy, 1500-1700. 268 pp. 2024:6 (Boydell, UK) <723-265>
ISBN 978-1-83765-053-8 hard ¥22,792.- (税込) GB￡ 80.00 *

Analyses data from the Bristol Port Books to rewrite the history of trade in Bristol, including the city's early involvement with the slave trade. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were a transformative period for global commerce, with the principal focus of England's trade shifting away from trade with Europe, primarily in woollen cloth, to a new Atlantic system, with trade in a diverse range of commodities. Based on the fantastically detailed Bristol Port Books, previously thought impenetrable, and using new computer technology to analyse the vast amount of data, this book provides the first long duration history of a major Atlantic port in this period. It rewrites the history of Bristol's trade, overturning much established thinking, for example showing that trade flourished in the late Tudor and early Stuart period, demonstrating that Bristol was involved in the slave trade much earlier than was previously thought and charting the growth of commerce with North America and the Caribbean from nothing to three quarters of Bristol's imports in the short period from the 1630s to the 1650s. Overall, the book represents a major contribution to understanding how the Atlantic economy worked and how it developed in this crucial period.

Waldenstroem, Daniel, Richer and More Equal: A New History of Wealth in the West. 256 pp. 2024:6 (Polity Pr., UK) <723-267>
ISBN 978-1-5095-5778-3 hard ¥6,457.- (税込) US$ 29.95 *

Once there were princes and peasants and very few between. The extremes of wealth and poverty are still with us, but that shouldn't blind us to the fact our societies have been utterly transformed for the better over the past century. As Daniel Waldenstroem makes clear in this authoritative account of wealth accumulation and inequality in the modern west, we are today both significantly richer and more equal. Using cutting-edge research and new, sometimes surprising, data, Waldenstroem shows that what stands out since the late 1800s is a massive rise in the size of the middle class and its share of society's total wealth. Unfettered capitalism, it seems, doesn't have to lead to boundless inequality. The key to progress was political and institutional change that enabled citizens to become educated, better paid, and to amass wealth through housing and pension savings. Waldenstroem asks how we can consolidate these gains while encouraging the creation of new capital. The answer, he argues, is to pursue tax and social policies that raise the wealth of people in the bottom and middle rather than cutting wealth of entrepreneurs at the top. Richer and More Equal is a benchmark account of one of the most profound and encouraging social changes in human history and a blueprint for continued progress.

Curry, Helen Anne / Lorek, Timothy W. (eds.), Agricultural Science as International Development: Historical Perspectives on the CGIAR Era. 324 pp. 2024:10 (Cambridge U. Pr., UK) <723-173>
ISBN 978-1-009-43466-9 hard ¥22,788.- (税込) GB￡ 79.99 *

For more than fifty years, international aid for agricultural research has been shaped by an unusual partnership: an ad-hoc consortium of national governments, foreign aid agencies, philanthropies, United Nations agencies, and international financial institutions, known as CGIAR. Formed in 1971 following the initial celebration of the so-called Green Revolution, CGIAR was tasked with extending that apparent transformation in production to new countries and crops. In this volume, leading historians and sociologists explore the influence of CGIAR and its affiliated international research centres. Traversing five continents and five decades of scientific research, agricultural aid, and political transformation, it examines whether and how science-led development has changed the practices of farmers, researchers, and policymakers. Although its language, funding mechanisms, and decision-making have changed over time, CGIAR and its network of research centres remain powerful in shaping international development and global agriculture. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Velasco, Christian, Commercial Banking in Kenya: A History from Colonisation to Digital Age. (Routledge Studies in the Modern History of Africa) 192 pp. 2024:8 (Routledge, UK) <723-182>
ISBN 978-1-03-265860-5 hard ¥37,037.- (税込) GB￡ 130.00 *

This book investigates the impact of commercial banks in Kenya right through from their origins, to their role during the colonial period, the process of adaptation following independence, and up to their responses to new challenges and economic policies in the twenty-first century. The British colonisation of East Africa required the development of diverse political, social and economic institutions to advance and exercise control over the territories and their populations. Multinational commercial banks were among the first institutions, with the National Bank of India, Standard Bank of South Africa and Barclays Bank DCO all setting up business in Kenya, whilst continuing to maintain close relationships with the UK and other colonial actors. This book assesses the impact of commercial banks during the last years of colonial domination and the tools they used to adapt in the first decades of independence. The book concludes by considering how the colonial banking system has influenced the development of modern financial institutions in Kenya in the twenty-first century. This book argues that commercial banks are fundamental to understanding African colonies, and the foundations over which the financial system of contemporary Africa was constructed. It will be of interest to researchers of banking, economic history, the colonial period, and African studies.