History Department Faculty
Prasannan Parthasarathi
Professor and Chairperson of the Department
Prasannan Parthasarathi
Ph.D.
Contact
Stokes Hall S323
Telephone: 617-552-1579
Email: prasannan.parthasarathi@bc.edu
ORCID 0000-0002-6378-4194
Education
- Ph.D., Harvard University
Research Interests
Modern South Asian history; global history; labor history; economic history; environmental history
Expertise
- South Asia
- Economic History, Labor, & Migration
- Environment & Food Sustainability
- History
Department
Biography
Professor Parathasarathi joined the faculty in the fall of 1998. He teaches courses on modern South Asia, global history, and environmental history. He is now engaged in a study of environmental change, agriculture, and labor in nineteenth-century South India. His research has been supported by fellowships from the Dibner Institute and the American Council for Learned Societies. He is a senior editor of International Labor and Working Class History and serves on the editorial boards of a number of journals including Textile History, the Medieval History Journal, and the American Historical Review.
Representative Publications
Why Europe Grew Rich and Asia Did Not: Global Economic Divergence 1600-1850 (Cambridge, 2011) - Received the Jerry Bentley Book Prize of the World History Association and was named a Choice magazine outstanding academic title
The Spinning World: A Global History of Cotton Textiles, 1200-1850 (Oxford, 2009)
"The State of Indian Social History," Journal of Social History (2003)
"The Great Divergence," Past and Present (August 2002)
The Transition to A Colonial Economy: Weavers, Merchants and Kings in South India, 1720-1800 (Cambridge, 2001)
"Rethinking Wages and Competitiveness in the Eighteenth Century: Britain and South India," Past and Present (1998)