Joel Mokyr
Born
in Leiden, Netherlands
July 26, 1946
Genre
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The Lever of Riches: Technological Creativity and Economic Progress
8 editions
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published
1990
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A Culture of Growth: The Origins of the Modern Economy
6 editions
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published
2016
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The Enlightened Economy: An Economic History of Britain 1700-1850
6 editions
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published
2010
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The Gifts of Athena: Historical Origins of the Knowledge Economy
2 editions
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published
2002
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The British Industrial Revolution: An Economic Perspective
6 editions
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published
1993
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The Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History Set
2 editions
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published
2003
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Why Ireland Starved: A Quantitative and Analytical History of the Irish Economy, 1800-1850
8 editions
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published
1983
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The Economics of the Industrial Revolution
8 editions
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published
1985
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La culture de la croissance. Les origines de l’économie moderne
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Twenty-Five Centuries of Technological Change: An Historical Survey
6 editions
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published
1990
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“All this is not to suggest that the growth in useful knowledge is leading us to a world of bliss. Athena's gifts were many: she gave King Cecrops the olive tree, but she also gave the city of Troy the wooden horse that led to its destruction. Technology makes people more powerful in exploiting nature, but how and for what purpose they do so remains indeterminate. If the twentieth century has shown us anything, it is that the capacity of humans for intolerance, stupidity, and selfishness has not declined as their technological power has increased.”
― The Gifts of Athena: Historical Origins of the Knowledge Economy
― The Gifts of Athena: Historical Origins of the Knowledge Economy
“A century ago, historians of technology felt that individual inventors were the main actors that brought about the Industrial Revolution. Such heroic interpretations were discarded in favor of views that emphasized deeper economic and social factors such as institutions, incentives, demand, and factor prices. It seems, however, that the crucial elements were neither brilliant individuals nor the impersonal forces governing the masses, but a small group of at most a few thousand people who formed a creative community based on the exchange of knowledge. Engineers, mechanics, chemists, physicians, and natural philosophers formed circles in which access to knowledge was the primary objective. Paired with the appreciation that such knowledge could be the base of ever-expanding prosperity, these elite networks were indispensable, even if individual members were not. Theories that link education and human capital to technological progress need to stress the importance of these small creative communities jointly with wider phenomena such as literacy rates and universal schooling.”
― The Gifts of Athena: Historical Origins of the Knowledge Economy
― The Gifts of Athena: Historical Origins of the Knowledge Economy
“Nations and their economies grow in large part because they increase their collective knowledge about nature and their environment, and because they are able to direct this knowledge toward productive ends. But such knowledge does not emerge as a matter of course. While most societies that ever existed were able to generate some technological progress, it typically consisted of one-off limited advances that had limited consequences, soon settled down, and the growth it generated fizzled out. In only one case did such an accumulation of knowledge become sustained and self-propelling to the point of becoming explosive and changing the material basis of human existence more thoroughly and more rapidly than anything before in the history of humans on this planet. That one instance occurred in Western Europe during and after the Industrial Revolution.”
― A Culture of Growth: The Origins of the Modern Economy
― A Culture of Growth: The Origins of the Modern Economy
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