The Great Wave: Price Revolutions and the Rhythm of History
- Marcus Nikos
- Mar 28
- 4 min read

David Hackett Fischer, one of our most prominent historians, has garnered a reputation for making history come alive--even stories as familiar as Paul Revere's ride, or as complicated as the assimilation of British culture in North America.
Now, in The Great Wave, Fischer has done it again, marshaling an astonishing array of historical facts in lucid and compelling prose to outline a history of prices--"the history of change," as Fischer puts it--covering the dazzling sweep of Western history from the medieval glory of Chartres to the modern day.
Going far beyond the economic data, Fischer writes a powerful history of the people of the Western world: the economic patterns they lived in, and the politics, culture, and society that they created as a result. As he did in Albion's Seed and Paul Revere's Ride, two of the most talked-about history books in recent years, Fischer combines extensive research and meticulous scholarship with wonderfully evocative writing to create a book for scholars and general readers alike.
Records of prices are more abundant than any other quantifiable data, and span the entire range of history, from tables of medieval grain prices to the overabundance of modern statistics. Fischer studies this wealth of data, creating a narrative that encompasses all of Western culture.
He describes four waves of price revolutions, each beginning in a period of equilibrium: the High Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and finally the Victorian Age. Each revolution is marked by continuing inflation, a widening gap between rich and poor, increasing instability, and finally a crisis at the crest of the wave that is characterized by demographic contraction, social and political upheaval, and economic collapse.
The most violent of these climaxes was the catastrophic fourteenth century, in which war, famine, and the Black Death devastated the continent--the only time in Europe's history that the population actually declined.
Fischer also brilliantly illuminates how these long economic waves are closely intertwined with social and political events, affecting the very mindset of the people caught in them. The long periods of equilibrium are marked by cultural and intellectual movements--such as the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and the Victorian Age-- based on a belief in order and harmony and in the triumph of progress and reason. By contrast, the years of price revolution created a melancholy culture of despair.
Fischer suggests that we are living now in the last stages of a price revolution that has been building since the turn of the century. The destabilizing price surges and declines and the diminished expectations the United States has suffered in recent years--and the famines and wars of other areas of the globe--are typical of the crest of a price revolution.
He does not attempt to predict what will happen, noting that "uncertainty about the future is an inexorable fact of our condition." Rather, he ends with a brilliant analysis of where we might go from here and what our choices are now. This book is essential reading for anyone concerned about the state of the world today.
History is a discipline of many voices.
History is the essence of innumerable biographies.
The study of history is a powerful antidote to contemporary arrogance. It is humbling to discover how many of our glib assumptions, which seem to us novel and plausible, have been tested before, not once but many times and in innumerable guises; and discovered to be, at great human cost, wholly false.
History is a debt that the present owes to the past.
The historian's task is to find the particular in the general.
Empower Your Mind Anywhere Anytime.
History is the most creative of all the arts.
Minds are like parachutes; they only function when open.
Historical insight seldom comes on wings; we must pursue it with patience and persistence.
The past is never dead. It’s not even past.
The past is a slippery thing. We must grasp it with both hands
Powerful ideas are just in your pocket.
We need to reclaim and reinterpret the rich diversity of the human past as a resource for our contemporary lives.
We need to reclaim and reinterpret the rich diversity of the human past as a resource for our contemporary lives.
To know fragments intimately is the key to understanding the whole.
To know fragments intimately is the key to understanding the whole.
The historian must always reach beyond documentation to form an imaginative synthesis of a reality that cannot be observed directly.
The historian must always reach beyond documentation to form an imaginative synthesis of a reality that cannot be observed directly.
The study of the past is important because it helps us to understand the present and shape the future.
The study of the past is important because it helps us to understand the present and shape the future.
The search for human understanding never stops.
The search for human understanding never stops.
We are all influenced by history whether we recognize it or not.
We are all influenced by history whether we recognize it or not.
History should be written with the same passion with which playwrights write their dramas and poets their verses.
History should be written with the same passion with which playwrights write their dramas and poets their verses.
The past is not a seamless robe, but a richly embroidered tapestry.
The past is not a seamless robe, but a richly embroidered tapestry.
Complexity is the hallmark of true history.
Complexity is the hallmark of true history.
History is a study of continuity and change.
History is a study of continuity and change.
Historical truth is as elusive and insubstantial as the silver globules we draw from air on a cold winter day.
Historical truth is as elusive and insubstantial as the silver globules we draw from air on a cold winter day.
We are all part of the historical process, and we all must strive to make it better.
We are all part of the historical process, and we all must strive to make it better.
History is a tapestry woven by people who are dead but still live in the memories of the living.
History is a tapestry woven by people who are dead but still live in the memories of the living.
Quotes Interpret
Like a detective, the historian must follow evidence wherever it leads.
Like a detective, the historian must follow evidence wherever it leads.
Quotes Interpret
We cannot claim the past if we are ignorant of it.
We cannot claim the past if we are ignorant of it