Metals, Culture and Capitalism An Essay on the Origins of the Modern World

Metals, Culture and Capitalism is an ambitious, broad-ranging account of the search for metals in Europe and the Near East from the Bronze Age to the Industrial Revolution and the relationship between this and economic activity, socio-political structures and the development of capitalism. Continuing his criticism of Eurocentric traditions, a theme explored in The Theft of History (2007) and Renaissances (2009), Jack Goody takes the Bronze Age as a starting point for a balanced account of the East and the West, seeking commonalities that recent histories overlook. Considering the role of metals in relation to early cultures, the European Renaissance and 'modernity' in general, Goody explores how the search for metals entailed other forms of knowledge, as well as the arts, leading to changes that have defined Europe and the contemporary world. This landmark text, spanning centuries, cultures and continents, promises to inspire scholars and students across the social sciences.

Part I. Explorers: 1. The age of metals and the ancient Near East; 2. A Bronze Age without bronze; 3. Metals and society; 4. Trade and religion in the Mediterranean; 5. The coming of the Iron Age and classical civilisation; 6. After the Romans; Part II. Merchants: 7. 'Capitalism', exchange, and the Near East; 8. China and the Eurasian corridor; 9. Renewal in the West; 10. Venice and the North; Part III. Accumulators: 11. Iron and the Industrial Revolution; 12. Metals, 'capitalism' and the Renaissances; Appendix 1. The metallurgy of iron (by Dr J. A. Charles); Appendix 2. Damascene steel and blades; Glossary.

Jack Goody is Emeritus Professor of Social Anthropology in the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of St John's College. Recently knighted by Her Majesty The Queen for services to anthropology, Professor Goody has researched and taught all over the world, is a Fellow of the British Academy and in 1980 was made a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2004 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and he was elected Commandeur des Arts et Lettres in 2006.