1st Edition

Erasing the Binary Distinction of Developed and Underdeveloped A Comparative Study of the Emergence of the Large-Scale Steel Industry in Imperial Russia, Imperial Britain, Imperial America, and Colonial India, 1880-1914

By Vinay Bahl Copyright 2024

    This book challenges the binary distinction of developed and underdeveloped in the categorization of any country while proposing to erase this binary with a yardstick of parity.

    Through a sample comparative historical study focusing on the question of the emergence of the large-scale steel industry (1880-1914) of four chosen countries, two considered "developed" (Imperial UK and Post-colonial Imperial USA) and two considered "underdeveloped" (Imperial Russia and Colonial India), it is shown how this yardstick of parity can be applied without the categorization of societies as either developed or underdeveloped.

    Print edition not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan or Bhutan)

    Preface and Acknowledgments

    INTRODUCTION

    SECTION I • Defining and Explaining the Problem

    1 • Spurious and Misleading Binary Distinction

    SECTION II • A Possible Alternative Perspective

    2 • Erasing the Binary Distinction

    SECTION III • Applying the Alternative Perspective

    3 • Interaction and Conjunction of International Historical Forces, 1800–1913

    4 • The Emergence of the Large-Scale Steel Industry in Imperial Russia, 1880–1914

    5 • The (Non)Emergence of the Large-Scale Steel Industry in Imperial Britain, 1880–1914

    6 • The Emergence of the Large-Scale Steel Industry in Post-Colonial Imperial US, 1880–1914

    7 • The Emergence of the Large-Scale Steel Industry in India Under British Colonial Rule, 1880–191

    SUMMARY AND OBSERVATIONS

    Bibliography

    About the Author

    Abstract

    Biography

    Vinay Bahl, presently a non-affiliated research scholar, taught historical sociology in the United States for many years. She received her Ph.D. degree in Sociology from Binghamton University, New York and M. Phil degree in Modern Indian History from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. She was an invited guest scholar of the College de France, Paris, for one academic year. She was also an Associate Fellow at the International Institute for Asian Studies in Amsterdam.