A CRITIQUE OF ‘ECONOMIC SUCCESS’ IN THE POPULAR CULTURE AND HISTORIOGRAPHY: A SEARCH FOR ALTERNATIVE PERSPECTIVES

Historians in the West are tacitly unanimous on what we could call ‘economic success’ in the historical context: Those who have produced most physical output in the historical process are the most successful. In particular, the narratives on Industrial Revolution reflect this mindset, or assumption. On the other hand, the popular culture defines what economic success is or should be, not historians. It is obvious that historians are influenced by modern economic understandings, and by interpreting economic success presentmindedly, they fall into the trap of anachronism. Nonetheless, it is possible to find alternative economic understandings in pre-modern texts.