‘THE POLITICS OF BACKWARDNESS. The first of these continuities, that of the problem of economic back- wardness, has haunted and challenged every generation in the region since the early nineteenth centugy, or, more precisely, since the Industrial Revolu- tion ran its course in Britain in the half century between 1780 and 1830. Evi- dence for this otherwise obvious fact has been collected by several genera- tions of economists, While this evidence may be subjected to criticism for its margins of error, the conclusion is inescapable that generation after gen- eration, indeed decade by decade, economic disparities between the Euro- pean core and the peripheries of the Said emeny have not only persisted, bur have steadily increased. The landmarks of this downward drift have