'Writing [a] new economic history of Europe from a regional perspective is a very ambitious project and an increasingly difficult task for a single individual. I can only praise and admire Professor Berend for his ambition, erudition, and courage. The coverage of multiple dimensions, economic, social and cultural, of economic disparities during nineteenth-century industrialisation in Europe is really impressive.' Leandro Prados de la Escosura, Universidad Carlos III, Madrid
Introduction; Part I. Gradual Revolution: 1. From merchant to industrial capitalism in Northwestern Europe; Part II. Successful Industrial Transformation of the West: 2. Knowledge and the entrepreneurial state; 3. Agriculture, transportation, and communication; 4. The organisation of business and finance; 5. Three versions of successful industrialization; 6. The miracle of knowledge and the state: Scandinavia; 7. Demographic revolution, transformation of life and standard of living; 8. The Europeanization of Europe; Part III. The Peripheries: Semi-Success or Failure of Modern Transformation: 9. The 'sleeping' peripheries, traditional institutions and values; 10. The Western sparks that ignite modernization; 11. Advantage from dependence: Central Europe, the Baltic Area, Finland and Ireland; 12. Profiting from foreign interests: the Mediterranean and Russia; 13. The predator Leviathan in peasant societies: the Balkans and the borderlands of Austria-Hungary; Epilogue: economic disparity – and alternative postwar economic regimes; References.