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The Rise of the Western Nuclear Family and the ‘European Miracle’

The Rise of the Western Nuclear Family and the ‘European Miracle’
Self-portrait of Flemish painter Cornelis de Vos with his wife and their children, circa 1630. Public Domain
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Commentary

It’s now been nearly 35 years since E.L. Jones first published his watershed book “The European Miracle.” Jones’s history of economic development examined the reasons why Europe—a comparatively poor and backward part of the world in the Middle Ages—somehow became the wealthiest and most productive place on earth in the 19th century. The fundamental question remains: Why did Europe surpass other civilizations that had once been much richer than the West?

Ryan McMaken
Ryan McMaken
Author
Ryan McMaken is the editor of Mises Wire and The Austrian. He has degrees in economics and political science from the University of Colorado and was the economist for the Colorado Division of Housing from 2009 to 2014. He is the author of "Commie Cowboys: The Bourgeoisie and the Nation-State in the Western Genre."