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Ye Olde Natural Philosophy Discussion Group

== Reviews and comments on Alfred W. Crosby: "The Measure of Reality" [1987] ==

Our group wasn't very enthusiastic about this book; our average rating was only 3.5 on a scale of 0 to 10. It is indeed an important historical question as to why European imperialism arose to dominate the world, but we thought Jared Diamond did a much better job answering it in his book Guns, Germs, and Steel which we read later on. Scott thought more emphasis should have been given to the central importance of the rise of capitalism in the whole process—even if it is true that Crosby was intending to focus more on the reasons why capitalism arose in Europe first, rather than elsewhere. Rosie said Crosby's book and argument just didn't stick with her. John didn't think Crosby proved his point.

Kevin Coulter wrote up this summation, which I think many of the rest of us agreed with:

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