• Acknowledgments; Dedication; Preface; A note on notes; Part I. America And Europe: A History: 1. American civilisation: the impulse from Europe; Part II. The South In Slavery And In Freedom: 2. The slave plantation in American agriculture; 3. Slavery and southern economic development: an hypothesis and some evidence; 4. Labour productivity in cotton farming: a problem of research; 5. The south in the national economy, 1865–1970; 6. Capitalism: southern style; Part III. Capitalist Dynamics Of The Rural North: 7. Breakthrough to the midwest; 8. Migration and a political culture; 9. The technological bases of a productive agriculture; 10. The true history of the northern farmer; Part IV. The North: Dynamics Of An Industrial Culture: 11. New England: the Puritan progenitor; 12. The industrial civilisation of the midwest Epilogue: Denouement and decline; Part V. American Values In A Capitalist World: 13. Political controls on a national economy; 14. Nationhood in a Common Market; 15. European industrialisation in an American mirror.

"Parker's work touches on almost all of the issues and research that have, in the past thirty-five years, completely restructured our understanding of American economic development. No one with the slightest acquaintance with recent American historiography will be surprised by the very strong sections on slavery and Southern agriculture and on agriculture in the Midwest--these are, after all, the subjects that made Bill famous. To those who do not know him well, however, the equally strong chapters covering the growth of industry and the relationship between politics and economic development will come as a very pleasant surprise." Lance E. Davis, California Institute of Technology