Does the Great Divergence Matter?

Since Samuel Huntington’s introduction of the phrase “Great Divergence” a good deal of important scholarship, particularly relating to China, has fundamentally changed our view of the chronology and the criteria behind the disparities between industrial development and material living standards in early modern Europe and Asia. At the same time, changes in global narratives, and particularly in the history of Eurasia, reasonably prompt a reassessment of the credibility, meaning and significance of the Great Divergence.