Lever of Riches: Technological Creativity and Economic Progress

Rating:
Summary: Ill-founded Deductions
Review: To be useful a book on the creativity of societies and peoples which makes deductions based on what was invented, where and when, has to get the underlying facts approximately right. This book fails that test. For example it states that the water wheel was invented in the medieval period, clearly the author is not aware the famous Roman multiple water-wheel system in southern France so much visited by archaeological tourists. In the field of invention it is always to check the facts carefully as false claims are very often made. Thus many people still believe Edison's spurious claim to have invented the filament electric light despite the established fact that Swan preceded him.

Rating:
Summary: Understanding the history of wealth
Review: Understanding topics of human achievement often means understanding their history. Such is the case when we investigate the creation of unprecedented wealth during the last centuries of our existence. The result is as we see it, but it could have been very different. An indeed, many examples of similar initial conditions exist, which did not translate into an industrial revolution, and hence a "lever of riches".

And so, this is a book of history. Indeed, the creation of wealth is more than the economic decision to put so many people with so many tools at work, in order to produce so much output. After history went its course, it turns out that some people can produce many, many times over what other people can do during a similar period of time.

The question is why, and that answer is easy: technology. Having, and being able to use it, technology is the difference between eking out a living at the margin of subsistence, or breaking through age-old Malthusian constraints. The hard question is why some people do, and others do not, have the use of this technology.

The history part shows in a very clear way, and into some modest detail, how many societies of the past at some point stagnated, while a few, including medieval Europe did not. But apart from learning history, we also learn to think *about* history. What influence have factors like, say, climate? Or religion? Can we learn something by borrowing models from evolutionary theory?

Apart from theoretical considerations, there is also a good deal of more practical history. How does Roman Europe compare with medieval Europe? Why did Europe see progress at an age and a stage where China did not, or at least much less? And why did England take off in a way that turned the rest of Europe into a bunch of followers?

The picture that emerges is one where a multitude of necessary conditions have to combine into a long story of increasing capability and efficiency. Only if and when those conditions are met, societies make the kind of progress that allows them to follow the road to improving material life. And though the book thereby confirms this road is not necessarily an easy one for those who didn't find it yet, it also yields some thoughts about how to hand over our own lever of riches to those who still need it so much.

As I would reserve 5 stars for those truly outstanding books you should read as a masterpiece of art, even if you couldn't care less about the topic, I will quote this book four stars. Highly recommended if you're interested in this subject.