An Economic History of Europe

Citation

Persson, K. G., Sharp, P., & Lampe, M. (2025). An Economic History of Europe: Knowledge, Institutions and Welfare, Prehistory to the Present (3rd ed.). Cambridge University Press.

Chapter Summary

The third edition has an introduction, eleven chapters, a combined conclusion and epilogue, a short appendix and a glossary, in about 290 pages of text (the publisher lists 334 pages in all, including front and back matter). Most chapters run to roughly 20 to 26 pages. The publisher says this edition expands the scope to cover prehistory and the classical economies, adds a focus on welfare, sustainability and efficiency, and adds bullet-point summaries to each chapter. The descriptions below rely on the chapter titles and on the publisher's account of the book's themes.

Introduction and Chapters 1–2: The Making of Europe; Europe from Obscurity to Economic Recovery

The publisher presents the book as a pan-European history of economic development, set within its wider global context. Chapter 1, The Making of Europe (to page 38), and Chapter 2, Europe from Obscurity to Economic Recovery (pages 39–63), open the narrative; their titles point to how Europe took shape and how its economy recovered from obscurity. The publisher lists prehistoric and classical economies as new in this edition, whereas the previous edition's subtitle began in the year 600.

Chapters 3–4: Population and Resource Constraints; The Nature and Extent of Economic Growth in the Pre-industrial Epoch

Chapter 3 (pages 64–84) and Chapter 4 (pages 85–107) deal with the limits that population and resources set on pre-industrial economies and with the nature and extent of growth before industrialisation. They set up the questions on institutions and knowledge that follow.

Chapters 5–6: Institutions and Efficiency; Knowledge, Technology Transfer and Convergence

Chapters 5 (pages 108–131) and 6 (pages 132–154) take up two of the three terms in the book's subtitle: institutions and the efficiency of economies, and knowledge and technology, with their transfer between places and convergence. The previous edition's publisher description named the same interplay between institutions and knowledge-based technologies.

Chapters 7–9: Money, Credit and Banking; Trade and Globalization; Factor Markets and Globalization

Chapter 7 (pages 155–177) covers financial systems. Chapters 8 (pages 178–203) and 9 (pages 204–229) are the two chapters on globalization, the first on trade and the second on factor markets. Together they correspond to the publisher's list of key themes, which includes globalization and the Industrial Revolution.

Chapters 10–11: What Governments (Should) Do; Inequalities between Individuals, Households and Nations

Chapter 10 (pages 230–253) is on the role of government, consistent with the publisher's new emphasis on the wider impact of economic policies on welfare. Chapter 11 (pages 254–274) is on inequality at the level of individuals, households and nations.

Conclusion and Epilogue; Appendix: Choosing and Using Historical Data

A combined conclusion and epilogue (about 13 pages, new in this edition) addresses historical progress and future challenges. A two-page appendix on choosing and using historical data and a glossary follow.

Key Concepts

• Institutions and efficiency: the title of Chapter 5 and one of the three terms in the subtitle.
• Knowledge and technology transfer: the title of Chapter 6, with convergence between economies.
• Welfare: the third term in the new subtitle, reflecting the publisher's broader understanding of societal well-being.
• Pre-industrial growth and resource constraints: the topics of Chapters 3 and 4.
• Globalization and factor markets: treated across Chapters 8 and 9, alongside money, credit and banking in Chapter 7.
• Inequality: the subject of Chapter 11, at the level of individuals, households and nations.
• Sustainability: the publisher's stated link between economic history and modern global challenges.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Wide time span in a short book. The third edition covers prehistory to the present in about 290 pages of text, and the publisher stresses the pan-European view within a global context.
• Accessible use of economics. The publisher says a chronological structure, clear explanations, case studies and minimal complex mathematics let students apply economic theories to historical cases.
• Study aids. New bullet-point summaries for each chapter, a glossary and an appendix on choosing and using historical data are listed.
• Current themes. The new edition connects historical development to welfare, sustainability and efficiency, and includes research up to the Eurozone crisis.
• Endorsements. The publisher quotes Kevin O'Rourke, Anne McCants, Jane Humphries and Kerstin Enflo, describing the book as a leading, readable and well-structured text; these are publisher-selected blurbs rather than journal reviews.

Limitations

• Concise by design. With chapters of about 20 to 26 pages, topics such as banking, state policy or inequality are treated briefly, and readers will need specialist reading for any one of them.
• Economics framing. The book applies economic reasoning to history, so readers with no economics background may need to use the glossary to follow it.
• Very recent edition. It appeared in October 2025, and independent critical reviews of the third edition were not found at the time of checking.
• Contents are by theme. The chapter titles show that the book is organised thematically rather than as a narrative of events, so readers who want a political or social history of Europe will need another book.

Where It Fits in the Course

Persson, Sharp and Lampe provide the pan-European economic survey in this economic and social history course. Allen's Global Economic History: A Very Short Introduction is a short explanation of why some parts of the world became rich after 1500, and works as a preliminary read or a comparison with the global frame. Pomeranz's The Great Divergence is a comparative argument about why Western Europe rather than China industrialised first, and is a good follow-up to Chapters 4 to 6. Stearns's The Industrial Revolution in World History is a concise global history of industrialisation.

Thompson's The Making of the English Working Class covers the social experience of industrialisation in England from about 1780 to 1832 and complements the more economic account here, and Burke's A Social History of the Media is a related but separate history of communication technologies.

How to Use This Book

An introductory economics course helps, though the book explains the concepts it uses and requires only simple quantitative reasoning. It suits undergraduates in economics and history and those taking a course on the economic history of Europe or on long-run growth.

A practical plan: read the Introduction and Chapters 1 and 2 for the framework and long chronology, Chapters 3 to 6 for growth, institutions and knowledge, and then Chapters 7 to 9 on finance and globalization; Chapters 10 and 11 and the Conclusion and Epilogue suit a course on policy, welfare and inequality. Use the chapter summaries before and after reading, the glossary for terms, and the appendix when working with historical data. Pair a chapter with a specialist book from the course list to go deeper.