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The Lever of Riches: Technological Creativity and Economic Progress. By Joel Mokyr. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990. ix + 349 pp. Figures, notes, bibliography, and index. $24.95. ISBN 0-19-506113-6.
Reviewed by William M. McBride
In this ambitious, chronologically comprehensive survey, economic historian Joel Mokyr surveys the relationship between technology and economic progress from antiquity to the eve (if the First World War. Mokyr seeks to explain why some societies were more technologically creative and progressed economically, in a Schumpeterian sense, more than others. One of Mokyr's premises is that "invention and innovation are complements [and] in the long run, technologically creative societies must be both inventive and innovative" (p. 10). Both characteristics require cultural mentality that support creativity.
After his introduction, Mokyr presents a 129-page summary of the history of technology in chapters on classical antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and beyond (1500-1750), the Industrial Revolution (1750-1830), and the period from 1830 to 1914. Mokyr's narrative reflects his keen analysis of the extensive corpus of existing historiography. This section could stand alone as an excellent introduction to technology for business history students, but it is presented as the foundation for a subsequent section, "Analysis and Comparisons," in which Mokyr presents his concept of technological progress in history and compares the technological complementarity of contrasting societies: classical antiquity and the medieval period; China and Europe; and Britain and Europe during the...