Books by Joel Mokyr
Joel Mokyr is an economic historian at Northwestern University in the United States. In 2025, he was awarded the Nobel economics prize for “for having identified the prerequisites for sustained growth through technological progress.” Books by Joel Mokyr recommended on Five Books are listed below:
“This book was the first economics book that I ever read. My dad pushed it on me when I was in high school, and I loved it. It took me a surprisingly long time to read given that it’s not very long, but I was captivated. I decided, ‘This is what I have to do in life. I have to study these questions.’ It is just brilliantly and sharply written. He immediately captures the reader by attacking the received wisdom that ‘necessity is the mother of invention.’ He says, ‘Well, no, many societies have not successfully innovated when they really needed to.’ For me, as a young person, that was incredibly fascinating, and it makes him such a compelling author…Mokyr develops a theory of technological progress that is incredibly compelling.” Read more...
The best books on The Great Divergence
Davis Kedrosky, Economist
“Mokyr emphasises the supply of innovations. He asks whether there were some special characteristics of Britain which meant that the supply of innovations was higher there than in other parts of the world.” Read more...
The best books on Industrial Revolution
Sheilagh Ogilvie, Economist
Interviews where books by Joel Mokyr were recommended
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1
The Unbound Prometheus: Technological Change and Industrial Development in Western Europe from 1750 to the Present
by David S Landes -
2
Growth Recurring: Economic Change in World History
by Eric Jones -
3
The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective
by Robert C. Allen -
4
The Enlightened Economy: An Economic History of Britain 1700–1850
by Joel Mokyr -
5
Forging Ahead, Falling Behind and Fighting Back: British Economic Growth from the Industrial Revolution to the Financial Crisis
by Nicholas Crafts
The best books on Industrial Revolution, recommended by Sheilagh Ogilvie
The best books on Industrial Revolution, recommended by Sheilagh Ogilvie
The Industrial Revolution transformed the world forever by enabling self-perpetuating economic growth. But historians are still at odds about why the industrial revolution happened where it did and when it did. Here, Sheilagh Ogilvie, Chichele Professor of Economic History at All Souls College, Oxford, guides us through the debates and why they are still relevant today.
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1
The European Miracle: Environments, Economies and Geopolitics in the History of Europe and Asia
by E L Jones -
2
The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy
by Kenneth Pomeranz -
3
The Lever of Riches: Technological Creativity and Economic Progress
by Joel Mokyr -
4
Guns, Germs and Steel
by Jared Diamond -
5
How the World Became Rich: The Historical Origins of Economic Growth
by Jared Rubin & Mark Koyama
The best books on The Great Divergence, recommended by Davis Kedrosky
The best books on The Great Divergence, recommended by Davis Kedrosky
After a slow start, why did northwest Europe move ahead of the rest of the world in the early modern period and establish an economic dominance whose effects are felt to this day? Davis Kedrosky, a student at Berkeley and publisher of the economic history newsletter, Great Transformations, introduces ‘the Great Divergence’ and suggests some books that get to the heart of the question.
