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MODERN WORLD

This is all about ideas, about the conflict about ideas, the individuals who held these ideas and the change in the world that resulted from the victory of new ideas. It is also about the ideas NOW about those ideas and the continuing intellectual and political ideological conflict over assessing the same ideas.
The writers and proponents of ideas form a distinct group generally termed 'intellectuals' or 'intelligencia' Therefore authors (who are themselves of the intelligencia) pay attention in their analysis to the individuals themselves, their origins and their thought processes. The social and political role of the 'intelligencia' then and today is also controversial.
This is a brief discussion of the change often described as the 'industrial revolution' or more generally as the huge expansion of wealth and increase in the standard of living of people throughout the world that began in Northwestern Europe sometime after 1600, gained volume and velocity after 1700 and 'took off' even more dramatically after 1800. The subject has been studied and written about by dozens, at least, of economists, historians, political theorists, and general authors. It has become a highly controversial and politicized topic for which the literature includes highly polemical attacks. That the event occurred is not disputed. But both its causes and its results are disputed vociferously. Claims about the causes range from that it can be traced back to unique developments in the "West" from ancient times - to that is was a pure and recent accident or that it was the result of various material conditions such as climate or geography or that it was caused by the extremely violent nature of Europeans, or indeed of ideas. Claims about the results are even more politicized - that it caused all manner of destruction of non-European societies to that its spread through out the world has been responsible for dramatic improvements in human welfare.
This discussion will focus on comments about a selected list of significant books in which the major theme is the causes and effects of this "industrial revolution". The broad topic is discussed in its historical context in general histories that are not included here. It is also treated as part of the history of money, for which I have a separate list, but several of these are included since they are very relevant.
The authors of these books held different opinions about both the ideas themselves and their influence on social and cultural change. I attempt here to 'cross reference' the discussion of the same ideas as held by the various authors.

 
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Weaver, Richard M. Ideas Have Consequences, Univ. of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1947, 187 pgs., footnotes, paperback.
Dr. Weaver had in mind some specific 'ideas' that he believed were seriously detrimental to society. But I include it first here because this whole subject and all the references here are about the consequences of Ideas.
My theory: individuals develop ideas on the basis of influences from study and others plus their own experiences and ideas are expressed in language: ideas become beliefs: beliefs are then the basis on which decisions and choices are made: decisions and choices are then the basis for actions.

 
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Polanyi, Karl, The Great Transformation, Subtitle: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time, Beacon Press, Boston, 1944, 313 pgs., index, footnotes, paperback
The author was a sociologist as well as philosopher. He wrote this book on the basis of his analysis of the disastrous history of the 20th century full of world wars and depression. The book contains much interesting information about pre-capitalist societies. The author believes that capitalism as connected (both as cause and effect) with the industrialization of the world - the creation of a totally new social order dependent on the 'machine'. And it is this phenomena that has divorced society from its 'natural' that is 'pre-capitalist' basis.

 
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Graeber, David, Debt, The First 5,000 Years, Melville House, Brooklyn, 2011, 534 pgs., index, bibliography, notes
The author is an archeologist, turned also anthropologist and sociologist - and then an anarchist. The contents is devoted through the first 150 pages mostly to archeological and anthropological discussion on primitive societies. But this section is very important in showing that the popular concept of barter in such societies is a myth. Another important theme is that currency is only one form of 'money' and that 'credit' has been even more significant in many times and places.

 
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McCloskey, Deirdre, Bourgeois Virtues: Subtitle: Ethics for an Age of Commerce, Univ. of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2007, 616 pgs., index, works cited, notes, paperback

 
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McCloskey, Deirdre, Bourgeois Dignity: Subtitle: Why Economics Can't Explain the Modern World, Univ. of Chicago, Chicago, 2010, 571 pgs., index, notes, bibliography, paperback

 
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McCloskey, Deirdre, Bourgeois Equality: Subtitle: How Ideas, not Capital or Institutions, Enriched the World - Univ. of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2016, 787 pgs., index, bibliography, notes

 
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Trentmann, Frank, Empire of Things: Subtitle: How We Became a World of Consumers, from the 15th Century to the 21st. Harper Collins, NY., 2016, notes, paperback
A remarkable book in which the author has compiled an extensive record of the flood of material 'things' that took place as a result of this 'revolution' and continues today. The book provides the physical evidence of the transformation whose intellectual basis Dr. McCloskey describes.

 
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Bury, J. B. The Idea of Progress: Subtitle: An Inquiry into its Growth and Origin, Dover Publications, N.Y. 1955, 357 pgs. , index, notes

 
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Piketty, Thomas, Capital in the Twenty-First Century: Translated by Arthur Goldhammer: Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, 1014, 685 pgs., index, end notes, tables, illustrations
This very interesting book contains much more about the cultural and social aspects of 'capitalism' than appears in the extensive reviews of it in the popular press. It is the epitomy of econometrics, full of graphs and tables and statistical data. It has been generally appraised - both pro and con - on the validity of its model of economic development, but their is much more to it.

 
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Morris, Ian, Why the West Rules - For Now: Subtitle: The Patterns of History, and What They Reveal About the Future. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, NY., 2010, 750 pgs., index, bibliography, end notes

 
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Stark, Rodney, How the West Won: Subtitle: The Neglected Story of the Triumph of Modernity, ISI Books, Wilmington DE., 2014, 455 pgs., index, bibliography, end notes

 
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Stark, Rodney, The Victory of Reason: Subtitle: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success, Random House, N.Y., 2005, 281 pgs., index, notes, bibliography, paperback

 
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White, Lawrence H., The Clash of Economic Ideas: Subtitle: The Great Policy Debates and Experiments of the Last Hundred Years. Cambridge Univ. Press, 428 pgs., 2012, index, figures, paperback
Dr. White writes a very non-judgmental account of the conflict over economic theories waged mostly in the professional academic world by individuals seeking not only to promote their opinions on economic issues but also to establish themselves and the 'profession' of economist as the most significant intellectual influence on the public action of politicians. The reader can relate these heated struggles over theories to the similar conflicts of 13th century scholastics - Dominicans and Franscicians - conflicts about theory but also for influence. The economists today and medieval monks are both members of this 'intelligencia'.

 
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Muller, Jerry, The Mind and the Market, Subtitle: Capitalism in Western Thought, Random House, NY., 2002, 487 pgs., index, notes, paperback.
An excellent analysis of the thought of some important 'makers of modern opinion' on the cultural and social interrelationships of capitalism in social development. All these 'thinkers' are also of the 'intelligencia'. Dr. Muller writes that it was they who first appeared in and created this social category. But it seems to me that their role and influence can be traced back as far as Egyptian, Mesopotamian and Chinese priests and court officials. The main difference is what contemporary issues were critical and therefor worth controlling.
He describes their published thoughts on economic issues - specifically on capitalism as an economic theory and in practice. But he focuses more on their contentiona about what the impact of this new 'capitalism' is and will be on culture and society as a whole. By this approach he describes the specific contributions to the intellectual conflict over the developing 'capitalist' form of society that Dr. McCloskey descries in her books about the role of Bourgeois ideas.
He begins with Adam Smith and devotes each chapter to influential authors. These are presented in generally chronological order - or at least in such order that Dr. Muller is able to trace explicit influences by some on others as history unfolded.
His description of Lord Keynes is the most devastating appraisal that I have read, exactly because he focuses on Keynes' a priory views on culture and social class. And Keynes was a strong advocate for the role of the 'intelligencia' specifically economists in government.

 
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Plender, John, Capitalism: Subtitle: Money, Morals and Markets, BiteBack Books, London, 2015, 344 pgs., index, notes

 
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Howe, Neil and William Strauss, The Fourth Turning, Broadway Books, NY. `997, 382 pgs., index, references, notes, paperback
The authors promote a theory of cyclical history based on a division of society into geneological - chronological divisions (generations) of about 25 years each. Each generation forms a collective set of beliefs influenced by the speific traumatic 'big events' that take place during their formative years. The generations cycle in four recurring order. This is intellectual history in which ideas determine decisions and actions form the content of historical periods.

 
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Hubbard, Glenn and Tim Kane, Balance: The Economics of Great Powers from Ancient Rome to Modern America. Simon & Schuster, N. Y., 2013, 315 pgs., index, end notes, references, tables

 
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Acemoglu, Daron & James A. Robinson, Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty, Crown Business, N.Y., 2012, 529 pgs., index, references, end notes, bibliographic essay

 
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Landes, David, The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Subtitle: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor, W. W. Norton, N. Y., 1998, 650 pgs., index, bibliography, end notes, map

 
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Gilder, George, Wealth and Poverty, Basic Books, NY., 1981, 306 pgs., index, bibliography, notes

 
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Landes, David, Joel Mokyr & William Baumol, The Invention of Enterprise, Subtitle: Entrepreneurship from Ancient Mesopotamia to Modern Times, Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, 2010, index, notes, tables, paperback

 
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Frankopan, Peter, The Silk Roads, Subtitle: A new History of the World, Alfred A. Knopf, N.Y., 2016, 645 pgs., index, notes, map, illustrations

 
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Andrade, Tonio, The Gunpowder Age: Subtitle: China, Military Innovation, and the Rise of the West in World History, Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, 2016, 432 pgs., index, bibliography, notes
The book is based on exceptionally inclusive research particularly in Chinese sources. The author disputes the standard theories about the causes for European domination over Asia in the 18th and 19th centuries.

 
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Ferguson, Niall, Civilization: The West and the Rest, Penguin Press, N. Y., 2011, index, 402 pgs., index, end notes, bibliography, illustrations, figures, maps

 
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Ferguson, Niall, The Ascent of Money: Subtitle: A Financial History of the World, Penguin Press, N. Y., 2008, 442 pgs., index, illustrations, end notes.
The book is more fully a part of the corpus of literature on the concept of money. But, since money - that is finance - played a role in the development of the 'industrial revolution' and in the expansion of European dominance we include it here.

 
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Boot, Max, War made New: Subtitle: Technology, Warfare & the Course of History 1500 - today, Gotham Books, 2006, 624 pgs., index, bibliography, end notes, maps
This book should be read along with those of Andrade and Ferguson.

 
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Spufford, Peter, Power and Profit: The Merchant in Medieval Europe, Thames & Hudson, London, 2002, 432 pgs., index, bibliography, notes, maps, illustrations
The author performed detailed 'on the spot' research in European cities. He can date the first appearance of specific 'things' - such as linen, silverware, spices, wool trade, glassware - in specific places. This is a vividly described account of both the expansion of material wealth and the thinking about it in medieval Europe. This expansion took place earlier than some other historians believe.

 
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