It is closely related to the idea of the Great Divergence, but the latter's focuses, rather than the origins of the rise of Europe during the Renaissance, is the 18th-century culmination of the process and the subsequent "imperial century" of Britain.

Jones aims to explain why modern states and economies developed first in the peripheral and late-coming culture of Europe.

The growth of banking, accounting and general financial infrastructure in such cities is seen as unique and vital to the rise of Europe.

Some historians, in particular of the "California school", have felt that Jones overstated the degree of difference between Europe and non-European regions on the eve of the Industrial Revolution.

[citation needed] The attention attracted by the book has also resulted in it being described by the American historian Joel Mokyr as "the whipping boy of those who have resented what they viewed as historiographical triumphalism, eurocentricity, and even racism.