Kenneth Pomeranz is best known for The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy, published by Princeton University Press in 2000. The book argued that key regions of China were comparable to advanced parts of Europe in living standards and market development well into the eighteenth century, and that the widening economic gap came later for specific historical reasons. It won both the John K. Fairbank Prize and the World History Association Book Prize in 2001.
Where does Kenneth Pomeranz teach?
Kenneth Pomeranz holds the position of University Professor of History at the University of Chicago. Before that appointment, he taught at the University of California, Irvine, for more than twenty years.
What prizes has Kenneth Pomeranz won?
Pomeranz has won the John K. Fairbank Prize twice, in 1994 for The Making of a Hinterland and in 2001 for The Great Divergence. He also received the World History Association Book Prize in 2001, the Dan David Prize in 2019, and the Toynbee Prize in 2021. He held a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in 1997.
Who was Kenneth Pomeranz's doctoral advisor at Yale?
Kenneth Pomeranz completed his Ph.D. at Yale University in 1988 under Jonathan Spence, one of the most prominent historians of China in the twentieth century.
What is the California School of economic history and how does Pomeranz relate to it?
The California School of economic history is an intellectual movement associated with scholars who challenged Eurocentric narratives about Western economic dominance by demonstrating that regions such as China had sophisticated markets and institutions well into the early modern period. Pomeranz has been described as a major figure in this school, and his work on comparative living standards and global economic divergence sits at its center.
When was Kenneth Pomeranz president of the American Historical Association?
Kenneth Pomeranz served as president of the American Historical Association during 2013-2014. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2006 and a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy in 2017.