Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Account
Palgrave Macmillan
Book cover

An Economic Inquiry into the Nonlinear Behaviors of Nations

Dynamic Developments and the Origins of Civilizations

  • Book
  • Open Access
  • © 2017

You have full access to this open access Book

Download book PDF
Download book EPUB

Overview

Authors:
  1. Rongxing Guo

    1. Peking University, Beijing, China

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Provides in-depth studies of both ancient and modern civilizations

  • Introduces new data and explanatory variables to analysis of over 150 countries

  • Combines analytic, narrative, and narrative analytic approaches

Buy print copy

Softcover Book USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Table of contents (9 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xvii
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    • Rongxing Guo
    Pages 1-7
    Download chapter PDF

  3. The Paradoxes of Humans, Civilizations and Nations

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 9-9
      Download chapter PDF

    2. Culture as an Anti-Darwinian Process

      • Rongxing Guo
      Pages 11-37
      Download chapter PDF

    3. Good Environment, Bad Environment

      • Rongxing Guo
      Pages 39-69
      Download chapter PDF

    4. Living in the Lands Threatened

      • Rongxing Guo
      Pages 71-106
      Download chapter PDF

    5. Are There Any Optimal Strategies for Nations?

      • Rongxing Guo
      Pages 107-135
      Download chapter PDF

  4. Cultural Cyclicity and the Nonlinear Behaviors of Nations

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 137-137
      Download chapter PDF

    2. Civilization as a Cyclical Human Process

      • Rongxing Guo
      Pages 139-172
      Download chapter PDF

    3. China: Short Cycles, Long Cycles

      • Rongxing Guo
      Pages 173-205
      Download chapter PDF

    4. Western World: A Longer Cycle

      • Rongxing Guo
      Pages 207-243
      Download chapter PDF

    5. In Cycle We Trust

      • Rongxing Guo
      Pages 245-276
      Download chapter PDF

  5. Back Matter

    Pages 277-294
    Download chapter PDF
Back to top

Keywords

About this book

This book applies an economic approach to examine the driving forces behind the dynamic behaviors of developing nations. Taking into account initial conditions and environmental and external factors often oversimplified by historians and anthropologists, Guo finds that the rise and fall of civilizations and nations followed an anti-Darwinian process: physical weakness, rather than strength, induced humans to adapt. Cultures facing unfavorable physical and environmental conditions developed complex societies to overcome these challenges, while favorable conditions did not incentivize major economic and cultural change. Over centuries of economic growth and development, nations and civilizations’ adaptive behaviors have followed a cyclical path at both the country level and in an international context. This interdisciplinary book incorporates elements of history, anthropology, and development into an astute economic analysis that changes the way we think about the origins and evolutions of civilizations. 

Reviews

“Innovative and stimulating! Guo introduces a much-needed new perspective on the traditional topic of ‘the emergence and fall of empires’ that has become a much-discussed important field, given the ongoing reshaping of the international order that is due to the decline of the uni-polar world (dominated by the US), the emergence of a multi-polar world with some new international powers (such as China), and the re-emergence of old powers (such as Russia).” (Paolo Urio, University of Geneva, Switzerland)

“Professor Guo explores the dynamics of civilizations from the beginnings to our perplexingly complex world. There are lots of thought-provoking ideas here on the rise and decline of nations as well as on China’s current and future place in the world economy. Anyone wishing to understand global developments should give this book serious consideration.” (John Komlos, University of Munich, Germany, and Duke University, USA)<

“It is interesting to see a Chinese perspective on the questions of deep history that have engaged Jared Diamond, Yuval Harari and David Christian. Guo argues that understanding cyclical threats has been the key to human progress, which is driven by the dialectic of material privation and human ingenuity.” (Peter Rutland, Wesleyan University, USA)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Peking University, Beijing, China

    Rongxing Guo

About the author

Rongxing Guo is Professor and Head of the Regional Economics Committee in the Regional Science Association of China at Peking University in Beijing, China. He has 30 years of experience teaching and researching in China, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Italy, Germany, and the USA. He has led research projects for the OECD and the World Bank, and has undertaken consultation for the Chinese government.

Bibliographic Information

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Back to top

Search

Navigation