Date: Wed, 4 Feb 1998 22:34:21 -0500
From: james m blaut <70671.2032-AT-CompuServe.COM>
Subject: Re: M-I: AG Frank etc. again


Barkley:

You: Not sure what you consider to be so "romantic" about 
this business with the Vikings.  Everything that I have 
said about their role in developing parliaments is widely 
accepted historical fact.  Go check it out in pretty much 
any source.

Me: I don't have time to look up those sources. Anyway, your Viking theory
fits perfectly in the old "Germanic tribes" theory -- supposedly the
fountainhead of European democracy, progressiveness, etc.

You: Well, I have agreed with you that 1492 was crucial, 
but to argue (and I confess to not having read your book) 
that there was no acceleration of European economic growth 
or technological change prior to 1492 is pretty hard to 
maintain.

Me: I don't say that. I argue that medieval progressin Europe was on a par
with that in other parts of the hemisphere.

You: Braudel and quite a few others see an 
initial takeoff around 1000 following the end of the Viking 
raids.  There was a further acceleration after 1200 that 
coincided with the raiding by Western Europeans

Me: Screw Braudel and all the other Eurocentric historians who think that
Europe had some quality for progress not possessed by others in the same
period.
 
You: I note that 
during the 1200s we saw in North Italy and Flanders for the 
first time probably the first places in world history where 
a majority of population was in some sense "urban". 

Me: Not so: urbanization was much more advanced in Asia than in Europe in
that period. This is not even controversial.

You: Nascent capitalism was already going by the 13th 
century in Western Europe 

Me: and elsewhere 

Jim  


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