Name: The Gifts of Athena
ISBN: 9780691120133

The Gifts of Athena

"The growth of technological and scientific knowledge in the past two centuries has been the overriding dynamic element in the economic and social history of the world. Its result is now often called the knowledge economy. But what are the historical origins of this revolution and what have been its mechanisms? In The Gifts of Athena, Joel Mokyr constructs an original framework to analyze the concept of "useful" knowledge. He argues that the growth explosion in the modern West in the past two centuries was driven not just by the appearance of new technological ideas but also by the improved access to these ideas in society at large - as made possible by social networks comprising universities, publishers, professional sciences, and kindred institutions. Through a wealth of historical evidence set in clear and lively prose, he shows that changes in the intellectual and social environment and the institutional background in which knowledge was generated and disseminated brought about the Industrial Revolution, followed by sustained economic growth and continuing technological change.". "Mokyr draws a link between intellectual forces such as the European enlightenment and subsequent economic changes of the nineteenth century, and follows their development into the twentieth century. He further explores some of the key implications of the knowledge revolution. Among these is the rise and fall of the "factory system" as an organizing principle of modern economic organization.

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mrDmrTmrJAug 2021

Historically, all three of the examples you site (Industrial revolution in the UK, Chemical manufacturing in Germany, and current commercial space industry in the US) are exceedingly rare*. The vast majority of both countries and time periods show a total absence of new technological development. Roman agricultural productivity was under 0.1% for the entirety of the empire. [1]

You're siting 0.1% historical outcomes when you look across all of the active civilizations across all of human history.

The conditions in the US currently, and Pax Americana more generally, are extremely rare in the history.

[1] Joel Moker's Lever of Riches: Technological Creativity and Economic Progress. I'd also highly recommend Moker's "The Gifts of Athena"

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skmurphyAug 2019

I have seen a lot of push back in various forums and whenever this link is tweeted but a lot of it seems to conflate "materials science" and "civil engineering" or "mechanical engineering." There is a very big difference between understanding historical trends--which is very important--and designing viable positive sum technology ecosystems. That being said, here are six technology historians I have found very insightful:

Donald Cardwell in "Turning Points in Western Technology"

Joel Mokyr in "Lever of Riches" and "Gifts of Athena"

Edward Hutchinson in "Cognition in the Wild"

James Utterback "Mastering the Dynamics of Innovation"

David A. Mindell "Between Human and Machine: Feedback, Control, and Computing before Cybernetics"

Stephen B. Johnson "The Secret of Apollo: Systems Management in American and European Space Programs"

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dredmorbiusDec 2022

You could start with the guy who was there, and coined the term, Arnold Toynbee (not to be confused with his similarly-named nephew, who writes the preface to this edition), The Industrial Revolution, developed from a series of lecture notes 1880-81:

<https://archive.org/details/industrialrevol00toyngoog/page/n...>

See note on Worldcat links / surveillance below.

I'm strongly partial to looking at history through the lens / frame of energy. Several books and authors do this:

- Matthieu Auzanneau, Oil, Power, and War: a dark history. Chelsea Green Publishing Co., (2020). https://www.worldcat.org/title/oil-power-and-war-a-dark-hist...

- Vaclav Smil, Energy in World History. Routledge (1994) https://www.worldcat.org/title/energy-in-world-history/oclc/...

- Vaclav Smil, Energy and civilization : a history. Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, (2018) https://www.worldcat.org/title/energy-and-civilization-a-his...

- Manfred Weissenbacher, Sources of power : how energy forges human history (2 vols). Praeger, (2009). https://www.worldcat.org/title/sources-of-power-how-energy-f...

- Richard Rhodes, Energy : a human history. Simon & Schuster (2019) https://www.worldcat.org/title/energy-a-human-history/oclc/1...

- Economic history of energy and environment. Springer (2016). https://www.worldcat.org/title/economic-history-of-energy-an...

- Anthony N Penna, A history of energy flows : from human labor to renewable power. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, (2020). https://www.worldcat.org/title/history-of-energy-flows-from-...

- Cutler J Cleveland, Concise encyclopedia of history of energy. Elsevier, (2009) https://www.worldcat.org/title/concise-encyclopedia-of-histo...

- Joseph A Pratt, Energy Capitals : Local Impact, Global Influence. University of Pittsburgh Press, (2014). https://www.worldcat.org/title/energy-capitals-local-impact-...

There's a series edited by Joel Mokyr of Northwestern University and published by the Princeton University Press, "The Princeton Economic History of the Western World" with a number of highly recommended titles:

<https://press.princeton.edu/series/the-princeton-economic-hi...>

In particular:

- Gregory Clark, A Farewell to Alms, looking specifically at why the Industrial Revolution arose in Britain in the 19th century.

- Robert J. Gordon The Rise and Fall of American Growth, on the 150 years from 1870--2020, and the trajectory of growth in the US over that period.

(There are far more books in the series, and I've read only a small fraction. Numerous other titles look highly promising.)

There's Joel Mokyr's own The Gifts of Athena: <https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691120133/th...>

R.U. Ayres (Robert) has written a number of articles and essays looking at technological development which are IMO highly underrated.

The question of why the IR arose in the UK has been called "the Needham Question" (especially in contrast with why it did not arise in China, which has a long and deep history of technological innovation). I'm not aware of any single treatment of this, and Needham's own Science and Civilisation in China despite its excellence in cataloguing China's accomplishments really doesn't serve as a concise answer either.

Warning that Worldcat seems to exfiltrate both search terms and searcher's IPs to Facebook and Google. See: <https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1570183006689673222.html>.

Unfortunately I'm not aware of a suitable replacement service presently, though Internet Archive's Open Library is getting there.

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dredmorbiusNov 2019

Nowhere does Diamond claim to have invented geographic determinism. He does suggest a model for a specific mechanism, largely urbanisation (accounting for much of the terms), technology, and a wide range of domesticated animals, including multiple heavy draft animals. Not all of these are specific to Western Europe, and several decidedly did not originate there.

Going beyond the Age of Discovery to why it was the West that industrialised ~1800, rather than other places and times, has occupied a great many writers. Karl Polnyi's The Great Transformation, a whole set of economic history texts edited by Joel Mokyr (the Princeton Economic History of the World), notably Pomeranz, The Great Divergence, Clark's A Farewell to Alms, and Mokyr's on (not part of the series) Gifts of Athena, A Culture of Growth, The British Industrial Revolution, and Lever of Riches. The question of "why Europe and not China?" is literally The Needham Question, which occupied British sinologist Joseph Needham for his entire life (and beyond -- his Science and Civilisation in China is still being written, approaching 70 years since it began, and two decades after Needham's own death.

Much of the criticism of Diamond's work smells far more to me of academic jealousy over not respecting borders. Several of the broad-brush elements you describe simply aren't valid. Others are details of larger theory which may require revisiting, but don't invalidate the whole.

Again: I'd asked for specific criticisms, preferably references to the best specific critiques available. Most I've seen are, as yours, vague, broad, and themselves grossly flawed.

Or for another view, Barbara King at NPR:

https://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2013/01/14/169374400/why-d...

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