"A smart, lively history of the world economy, seen through the crucial inventions that shaped it. Who thought up paper money? What was the secret element that made the Gutenberg printing press possible? What is the connection between The Da Vinci Code and the collapse of Lehman Brothers? In [this book], author and economist Tim Harford paints an epic yet intimate picture of economic change by telling the stories of the ideas, people, and tools that...

We are on the cusp of the fastest, deepest, most consequential transformation of human civilization in history, a transformation every bit as significant as the move from foraging to cities and agriculture 10,000 years ago. During the 2020s, key technologies will converge to completely disrupt the five foundational sectors that underpin the global economy, and with them every major industry in the world today. In information, energy, food, transportation,...

Uses primary source documents, narrative, and illustrations to recount the history of the industrial revolution in the United States, as society changed from reliance on agriculture and trade to modern manufacture.

A history of the Industrial Revolution focusing primarily on the United States during the nineteenth century and on the change from an agrarian society to one based on machines and factories.