SIMON KUZNETS'S COPY

ROSTOW, W. W.

The Process of Economic Growth.

New York, Norton & Company, 1952. 8vo. In the original full black cloth with gilt lettering to spine in the original dust jacket. Previous owner's name on front free end-paper (The economist Simon Kuznets) Gilt lettering with a bit of wear and capitals on dust jacket with wear. Otherwise a very fine and clean copy.

First printing - and Simon Kuznets copy - of Rostow's famous work in which Rostow, probably for the first time, introduced an analytical tool and framework to analyze growth and progress in historical and contemporary economics. Rostow states in the preface that: "I should like to acknowledge valuable exchanges with [...] S. S. Kuznets" (Preface, p. IX).

Rostow's work is to a large extent a response to Marx's stages (of feudalism, capitalism, socialism, and communism). Rostow's categorized economic growth and development in four stages: 1.The traditional society; 2.The pre-condition for take off; 3.The drive to maturity; 4.The age of high mass consumption.
"Rostow's exposition has received very wide attention and approval, perhaps for several reasons. First, it is evolutionary; second, it is grounded in historical studies; third, it seems to show a predestined affluence for all; finally, it presents a case for an inner logic and drive from one stage to the next that requires no conscious decision-making or deliberate efforts to promote growth; it is analytic without being programmatic." (Ibid.).

Walt Whitman Rostow (1916-2003) had a prominent role in the shaping of US foreign policy in Southeast Asia during the 1960s, he was a staunch anti-communist, and was noted for a belief in the efficacy of capitalism and free enterprise. Rostow served as a major adviser on national security affairs under the Kennedy and Johnson administrations..

In 1960 Rostow published the book "The Stages of Economic Growth: A non-communist manifesto", in which he elaborated the ideas presented in the present book.

Simon Smith Kuznets (1901 - 1985) Russian American economist was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for "his empirically founded interpretation of economic growth which has led to new and deepened insight into the economic and social structure and process of development".
Kuznets revolutionized econometrics with the important book "National Income and Its Composition, 1919-1938. Published in 1941 which eventually formed the famous Kuznets Curve. This work relied to a large extent on Bowley's work on national income.

Order-nr.: 46051