Russia and America: The Roots of Economic Divergence

Russia and America (1987) examines the divergence between two countries organised on diametrically opposed economic principles – one centrally-planned, state-dominated, the other a highly decentralised market economy, free from significant government intervention. It highlights not the political changes brought about by the Russian revolution, but a longer more gradual process of interaction between physical and human environments. A comparative study extending over several centuries is used to account for the striking differences in their economic history.