Rethinking the Rise of the West and the Industrial Revolution (2002) [pdf]
csun.edu
csun.edu
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Across the map of Europe, only two regions even approach the ideal of a centralized nation state united in language, religion and collective cultural identity: France and Portugal. With regard to France, however, it is questionable whether the unity of elite and national culture truly held. [...]
In short, a tour of Europe ca. 1700 reveals only one society that is oriented to a national centralized state, harmonized culturally and linguistically with its people, and that is Portugal (although even that somewhat diluted by the size and wealth of its Brazilian colony). [...]
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