This is a compendium of readings on “progress studies,” or essays and books which generally make the case for technological innovation, dynamism, economic growth, and abundance. I will update this list as additional material of relevance is brought to my attention.
Recent Essays
Alec Stapp & Caleb Watney, “
Progress is a Policy Choice,” Institute for Progress, January 20, 2022.Adam Thierer, “
How to Get the Future We Were Promised,” Discourse, January 18, 2022.Katherine Boyle, “
Building American Dynamism,” Future, January 14, 2022. Derek Thompson, “
A Simple Plan to Solve All of America’s Problems,” The Atlantic, January 12, 2022.Matthew Yglesias, “
The Case for More Energy,” October 7, 2021.Ezra Klein, “
The Economic Mistake the Left Is Finally Confronting,” The New York Times, September 19, 2021.Jason Crawford, “
We need a new philosophy of progress,” The Roots of Progress, August 23, 2021.Noah Smith, “
Techno-optimism for the 2020s,” December 3, 2020. Ezra Klein, “
Why We Can’t Build,” Vox, April 22, 2020.Marc Andreesen, “
It’s Time to Build,” Future, April 18, 2020.Eli Dourado, “
How do we move the needle on progress?” September 26, 2019.José Luis Ricón, “
About the ‘Progress’ in Progress Studies” September 6, 2019.Will Rinehart, “
Progress Studies: Some Initial Thoughts,” August 30, 2019.Adam Thierer, “
Is There a Science of Progress?” AIER, August 8, 2019.Patrick Collison and Tyler Cowen, “
We Need a New Science of Progress,” The Atlantic, July 30, 2019.Tyler Cowen, “
The Case for the Longer Term,” Cato Unbound, January 9, 2019.Vinod Khosla, “
We Need Large Innovations,” Medium, January 1, 2018.Adam Thierer, “
How Technology Expands the Horizons of Our Humanity,” Medium, November 19, 2018. Eli Dourado, “
How Technological Innovation Can Massively Reduce the Cost of Living,” PlainText, January 29, 2016.
Books
J. Storrs Hall,
Where Is My Flying Car? (Stripe Press, 2020).Matt Ridley,
How Innovation Works: And Why It Flourishes in Freedom (New York: Harper, 2020).Arthur M. Diamond Jr.,
Openness to Creative Destruction: Sustaining Innovative Dynamism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019).Tyler Cowen,
Stubborn Attachments: A Vision for a Society of Free, Prosperous, and Responsible Individuals (San Francisco, CA: Stripe Press, 2018).Steven Pinker,
Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress (New York: Viking, 2018).Hans Rosling,
Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong about the World—and Why Things Are Better Than You Think (New York: Flatiron Books, 2018).Tim Harford,
50 Things That Made the Modern Economy (New York: Riverhead Books, 2017).Joel Mokyr,
A Culture of Growth: The Origins of the Modern Economy (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2017).Adam Thierer,
Permissionless Innovation: The Continuing Case for Comprehensive Technological Freedom, 2nd ed. (Arlington, VA: Mercatus Center at George Mason University, 2016).Calestous Juma,
Innovation and Its Enemies: Why People Resist New Technologies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016).Deirdre N. McCloskey,
Bourgeois Equality: How Ideas, Not Capital or Institutions, Enriched the World (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016).Joe Carlen,
A Brief History of Entrepreneurship: The Pioneers, Profiteers, and Racketeers Who Shaped Our World (New York: Columbia University Press, 2016).Robert Bryce,
Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper: How Innovation Keeps Proving the Catastrophists Wrong (New York: Public Affairs, 2014).Matt Ridley,
The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves (New York: Harper Collins, 2010).Larry Downes,
The Laws of Disruption: Harnessing the New Forces That Govern Life and Business in the Digital Age (New York: Basic Books, 2009).Amar Bhidé,
The Venturesome Economy: How Innovation Sustains Prosperity in a More Connected World (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2008).Robert Friedel,
A Culture of Improvement: Technology and the Western Millennium (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2007).Benjamin M. Friedman,
The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth, (New York: Vintage Books, 2006).Virginia Postrel,
The Future and Its Enemies (New York: The Free Press, 1998).David Landes,
The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some are So Poor (New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 1998).Robert Nisbet,
History of the Idea of Progress (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1994).Joel Mokyr,
Lever of Riches: Technological Creativity and Economic Progress (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990).Nathan Rosenberg and L. E.. Birdzell,
How the West Grew Rich: The Economic Transformation of the Industrial World (New York: Basic Books, 1986).Samuel C. Florman,
The Existential Pleasures of Engineering (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1976, 1994).
