Includes bibliographical references (p. 383-407) and index.

Introduction : the sixteen-page economic history of the world -- The Malthusian trap : economic life to 1800 -- The logic of the Malthusian economy -- Living standards -- Fertility -- Life expectancy -- Malthus and Darwin : survival of the richest -- Technological advance -- Institutions and growth -- The emergence of modern man -- The Industrial Revolution -- Modern growth : the wealth of nations -- The puzzle of the industrial revolution -- The industrial revolution in England -- Why England? Why not China, Japan or India? -- Social consequences -- The great divergence -- World growth since 1800 -- The proximate sources of divergence -- Why isn't the whole world developed? -- Conclusion : strange new world -- References.

Why are some parts of the world so rich and others so poor? Why did the Industrial Revolution--and the unprecedented economic growth that came with it--occur in eighteenth-century England, and not at some other time, or in some other place? Why didn't industrialization make the whole world rich--and why did it make large parts of the world even poorer? Economic historian Clark tackles these questions and suggests a new and provocative way in which culture--not exploitation, geography, or resources--explains the wealth, and the poverty, of nations.--From publisher description.