Why Did So Many Inventions Come from Europe? ~ Joel Mokyr

About this episode

Joel Mokyr discusses the cultural factors that led to Europe's prominence in technological inventions and its economic implications.

Several inventions mark the progress towards modernity - the Gutenberg printing press, the Galileo telescope, the Watt steam engine. But why was Europe the birthplace of so many of these? Joel Mokyr, winner of the 2025 Nobel Prize in economics, thinks the cause was culture. For decades he has asked economists to take intellectual history more seriously. Economies are shaped by new inventions, Mokyr argues, and inventions can only be understood when we understand the culture that gives rise to them. But how much did Europe's culture shape its economy? And how to square early modern Europe's progressive culture with it's colonial legacy? Mokyr answers these and other questions in this episodes, finishing with his reflections on the future of technological progress. Enjoy! LINKS AND REFERENCES Do you prefer reading to listening? You can find ⁠ a summarised essay ⁠ of this conversation, with a bibliography, at our series page: ⁠https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/research/centres/cage/news/podcasts/ GREAT DIVERGENCE: THE MAKING OF THE MODERN WORLD This episode is part of a series produced by Warwick University’s ⁠⁠ ⁠ CAGE Research Centre ⁠⁠⁠ in collaboration with ⁠⁠ ⁠ On Humans…

People in this episode

Host: Ilari Mäkelä

Guest: Joel Mokyr

Topics covered

• inventions
• European culture
• economic history
• technological progress
• colonial legacy

Keywords

• inventions
• Europe
• culture
• economics
• technological progress
• colonialism
• history

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: CAGE Research Centre, Warwick University

Books & works: GREAT DIVERGENCE: THE MAKING OF THE MODERN WORLD

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