Audio only
Length15h 50m
About this audiobook
From Nobel Prize
–winning economist Joel Mokyr, a classic book now available on audio
With narration by Anu Anand, who tells the story of how Enlightenment culture sparked the Industrial Revolution
During the late eighteenth century, innovations in Europe triggered the Industrial Revolution and the sustained economic progress that spread across the globe. While much has been made of the details of the Industrial Revolution, what remains a mystery is why it took place at all. Why did this revolution begin in the West and not elsewhere, and why did it continue, leading to today's unprecedented prosperity? In this groundbreaking book, celebrated economic historian Joel Mokyr argues that a culture of growth specific to early modern Europe and the European Enlightenment laid the foundations for the scientific advances and pioneering inventions that would instigate explosive technological and economic development. Bringing together economics, the history of science and technology, and models of cultural evolution, Mokyr demonstrates that culture—the beliefs, values, and preferences in society that are capable of changing behavior—was a deciding factor in societal transformations.
Mokyr looks at the period 1500–1700 to show that a politically fragmented Europe fostered a competitive "market for ideas" and a willingness to investigate the secrets of nature. At the same time, a transnational community of brilliant thinkers known as the "Republic of Letters" freely circulated and distributed ideas and writings. This political fragmentation and the supportive intellectual environment explain how the Industrial Revolution happened in Europe but not China, despite similar levels of technology and intellectual activity. In Europe, heterodox and creative thinkers could find sanctuary in other countries and spread their thinking across borders. In contrast, China's version of the Enlightenment remained controlled by the ruling elite.
Combining ideas from economics and cultural evolution,
A Culture of Growth provides startling reasons for why the foundations of our modern economy were laid in the mere two centuries between Columbus and Newton.
Audiobook details
GenreBusiness and Economics
Length15 hrs 50 mins
Narrated byAnu Anand
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateFeb 7, 2023
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Opening Anno, Preface
12Chapter 11 - Fragmentation, Competition, and Cultural Change
2Part I Evolution, Culture, and Economic History, Chapter 1 Culture and Economics
13Chapter 12 - Competition and the Republic of Letters
3Chapter 2 - Nature and Technology
14Chapter 12 - Continued
4Chapter 3 - Cultural Evolution and Economics
15Part IV Prelude to the Enlightenment, Chapter 13 Puritanism and British Exceptionalism
5Chapter 4 - Choice-based Cultural Evolution
16Chapter 14 - A Culture of Progress
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6Chapter 5 - Biases in Cultural Evolution
17Chapter 15 - The Enlightenment and Economic Change
7Part II Cultural Entrepreneurs and Economic Change, 1500–1700, Chapter 6 Cultural Entrepreneurs and Choice-Based Cultural Evolution
18Part V Cultural Change in the East and West, Chapter 16 China and Europe
8Chapter 7 - Francis Bacon, Cultural Entrepreneur
19Chapter 16 - Continued
9Chapter 8 - Isaac Newton, Cultural Entrepreneur
20Chapter 17 - China and the Enlightenment
10Part III Innovation, Competition, and Pluralism in Europe, 1500–1700, Chapter 9 Cultural Choice in Action: Human Capital and Religion
21Epilogue Useful Knowledge and Economic Growth, Closing Anno
11Chapter 10 - Cultural Change and the Growth of Useful Knowledge, 1500)17
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