[back cover bio]Joel Mokyr is the Robert H. Strotz Professor of Arts and Sciences and professor of economics and history at Northwestern University and Sackler Professor at the Eitan Berglas School of Economics at the University of Tel Aviv. Joel Mokyr is the Robert H. Strotz Professor of Arts and Sciences and professor of economics and history at Northwestern University and Sackler Professor at the Eitan Berglas School of Economics at the University of Tel Aviv. His many books include The Enlightened Economy and The Gifts of Athena (Princeton). He is the recipient of the Heineken Prize for History and the International Balzan Prize for Economic History.
The book represents recognition that culture has finally arrived as an important and legitimate concept in discussions of economic growth. In this endeavor, the book is an important landmark. . . . Students and scholars working in the field will benefit from the intelligent and rich discussion provided in A Culture of Growth.---Mark Koyama, The Independent Review This is a tour d'horizon of an exciting new area of inquiry, which offers important insights into the future of our civilization and the evolution of an increasingly technical world. Mokyr's book is so rich and stimulating that no brief review can do it justice. So, dear reader, read the book!---Wolfgang Kasper, Policy A fresh historical treatment.---Darcy Allen, IPA Review Wide-ranging and erudite.... Mokyr offers a useful corrective to excessively deterministic and materialistic treatments of economic history.---Nicholas Crafts, History Today This book is the latest example of Mokyr's ability to explicate complex issues, illustrating his big-picture thesis with a myriad of fascinating details. He writes with clarity--enjoyable for the general reader as well as for the specialist in economic history.A Culture of Growthis a must-read for anyone interested in how Western society got where it is today and what this implies for the spread of technology in the global economy of the future. --Uday Balakrishnan, Hindu Business Line This book is the latest example of Mokyr's ability to explicate complex issues, illustrating his big-picture thesis with a myriad of fascinating details. He writes with clarity--enjoyable for the general reader as well as for the specialist in economic history.A Culture of Growthis a must-read for anyone interested in how Western society got where it is today and what this implies for the spread of technology in the global economy of the future.---Uday Balakrishnan, Hindu Business Line Economic historian Joel Mokyr has written a capstone work on the dynamics of the industrial revolution.---Ted Nield, Geoscientist Online Someone needed to write a book like this, and there could have been no better author to do so than Mokyr.---Peer Vries, Foreign Affairs Ultimately, without the impetus of science, economic growth would have fizzled out after 1815.A Culture of Growthis certainly making me rethink. --Alan Ryan, Literary Review Ultimately, without the impetus of science, economic growth would have fizzled out after 1815.A Culture of Growthis certainly making me rethink.---Alan Ryan, Literary Review Mokyr . . . dives into the mystery of how the world went from being poor to being so rich in just a few centuries. . . . Drawing on centuries of philosophy and scientific advancements, Mokyr argues that there's a reason the Industrial Revolution occurred in Europe and not, for example, in China, which had in previous centuries shown signs of more scientific advancement: Europe developed a unique culture of competitive scientific and intellectual advancement that was unprecedented and not at all predestined.---Ana Swanson, WashingtonPost.com's, Wonkblog What stands out from Mokyr's approach is the highly contingent character of the Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution. They happened because a lot of different things happened to fall into place; small deviations in the course of events could have given us an entirely different world of technological and economic power.---Brad DeLong, Nature In pointing to growth-boosting factors that go beyond either the state or the market, Mokyr's book is very welcome.---Victoria Bateman, Times Higher Education InA Culture of Growth, Joel Mokyr explores in detail the interactions among groups of educated people that led to the creation of specific innovative ideas important in the Industrial Revolution. Mokyr's historical laboratory is early modern Europe but his methods and findings seem to me equally useful in thinking about the prospects for a variety of contemporary economies the world over.---Deirdre McCloskey, author of, Bourgeois Equality A fine book.... One of our country's great economic historians has helped us better understand the greatest transformation in human welfare our planet has ever seen.---Richard Vedder, Wall Street Journal Finalist for the 2017 Hayek Prize, The Manhattan Institute Honorable Mention for the 2017 PROSE Award in European and World History, Association of American Publishers One of MIT Technology Review's Best Books of 2016 More praise forA Culture of Growth---Adam Gopnik, New Yorker One of MIT Technology Review's Best Books of 2016 Honorable Mention for the 2017 PROSE Award in European and World History, Association of American Publishers The book represents recognition that culture has finally arrived as an important and legitimate concept in discussions of economic growth. In this endeavor, the book is an important landmark. . . . Students and scholars working in the field will benefit from the intelligent and rich discussion provided in A Culture of Growth. --Mark Koyama, The Independent Review This is a tour d'horizon of an exciting new area of inquiry, which offers important insights into the future of our civilization and the evolution of an increasingly technical world. Mokyr's book is so rich and stimulating that no brief review can do it justice. So, dear reader, read the book! --Wolfgang Kasper, Policy Wide-ranging and erudite.... Mokyr offers a useful corrective to excessively deterministic and materialistic treatments of economic history. --Nicholas Crafts, History Today A Culture of Growthis a book of immense importance for us Indians especially when we are getting comfortable, forever playing victim to the depredations of British imperialism instead of wholeheartedly focusing on beating the West at its game as the Chinese are doing.... Well worth tackling. --Progressive Post It is not often that a book leaves me gasping in admiration for the breadth and depth of an author's reading and knowledge, but this one did. --Finance & Development Economic historian Joel Mokyr has written a capstone work on the dynamics of the industrial revolution. --Ted Nield, Geoscientist Online The sheer elegance of Mr. Mokyr's theory ... has much to commend it. And it is refreshing that an economist is taking seriously the idea that ideas and culture make a difference to economic growth. --The Economist What stands out from Mokyr's approach is the highly contingent character of the Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution. They happened because a lot of different things happened to fall into place; small deviations in the course of events could have given us an entirely different world of technological and economic power. --Brad DeLong, Nature InA Culture of Growth, Joel Mokyr explores in detail the interactions among groups of educated people that led to the creation of specific innovative ideas important in the Industrial Revolution. Mokyr's historical laboratory is early modern Europe but his methods and findings seem to me equally useful in thinking about the prospects for a variety of contemporary economies the world over. --Deirdre McCloskey, author ofBourgeois Equality [Mokyr] is a wonderfully well-read lucid and continuously interesting guide to a vast literature and invariably thought provoking. --Publishers Weekly A fine book.... One of our country's great economic historians has helped us better understand the greatest transformation in human welfare our planet has ever seen. --Richard Vedder, Wall Street Journal More praise forA Culture of Growth--Adam Gopnik, New Yorker A fresh historical treatment. --Darcy Allen, IPA Review Someone needed to write a book like this, and there could have been no better author to do so than Mokyr. --Peer Vries, Foreign Affairs Mokyr . . . dives into the mystery of how the world went from being poor to being so rich in just a few centuries. . . . Drawing on centuries of philosophy and scientific advancements, Mokyr argues that there's a reason the Industrial Revolution occurred in Europe and not, for example, in China, which had in previous centuries shown signs of more scientific advancement: Europe developed a unique culture of competitive scientific and intellectual advancement that was unprecedented and not at all predestined. --Ana Swanson, WashingtonPost.com's Wonkblog In pointing to growth-boosting factors that go beyond either the state or the market, Mokyr's book is very welcome. --Victoria Bateman, Times Higher Education