The Ratchet of Technology, a site by Michael Magoon

A Library of 280+ Book Summaries on Technology, History, Economic Growth & Progress

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Month: May 2020

May 21, 2020December 2, 2021 Michael Magoon

Book Summary: “Where Good Ideas Come From” by Steven Johnson

May 20, 2020December 2, 2021 Michael Magoon

Book Summary: “Emergence: the Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities and Software” by Steven Johnson

May 19, 2020April 11, 2021 Michael Magoon

Second Top Ten Books to Read

May 19, 2020December 2, 2021 Michael Magoon

Book Summary: “Bourgeois Equality: How Ideas, not Capital or Institutions, Enriched the World” by Deirdre McCloskey

May 18, 2020December 2, 2021 Michael Magoon

Book Summary: “Bourgeois Dignity: Why Economics Can’t Explain the Modern World” by Deirdre McCloskey

May 18, 2020December 8, 2021 Michael Magoon

Top Authors to Read

May 15, 2020December 2, 2021 Michael Magoon

Book Summary: “The Gap: Science of What Separates Us from Animals” by Thomas Suddendorf

May 14, 2020December 2, 2021 Michael Magoon

Book Summary: “The Story of the Human Body” by Daniel E. Lieberman

May 12, 2020December 2, 2021 Michael Magoon

Book Summary: “Atlas of Economic Complexity: Mapping Paths to Prosperity” by Hausmann, Hidalgo et al

May 12, 2020November 21, 2021 Michael Magoon

Book Summary: “People, Plants and Genes: the Story of Crops and Humanity” by Denis Murphy

May 11, 2020December 2, 2021 Michael Magoon

Book Summary: “Alchemy of Air: … the Scientific Discovery that Fed the World” by Thomas Hager

May 10, 2020July 1, 2021 Michael Magoon

Summaries of Top Ten Books

May 9, 2020December 2, 2021 Michael Magoon

Book Summary: “The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution” by Cochran and Harpending

May 8, 2020November 21, 2021 Michael Magoon

Book Summary: “Ingenium: Five Machines that Changed the World” by Mark Denny

May 8, 2020November 21, 2021 Michael Magoon

Book Summary: “End of the Old Order in Rural Europe” by Jerome Blum

May 7, 2020November 21, 2021 Michael Magoon

Book Summary: “Power to the People: Energy in Europe over the Last Five Centuries” by Kander et al

May 7, 2020December 2, 2021 Michael Magoon

Book Summary: “Human Accomplishment: The Pursuit of Excellence…” by Charles Murray

May 6, 2020December 2, 2021 Michael Magoon

Book Summary: “Energy Transitions” by Vaclav Smil

May 5, 2020November 21, 2021 Michael Magoon

Book Summary: “Prime Movers of Globalization: The History of Diesel Engines and Gas Turbines” by Vaclav Smil

May 5, 2020December 7, 2021 Michael Magoon

Book Summary: “The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves” by Matt Ridley

May 4, 2020April 19, 2021 Michael Magoon

Book Summary: “The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil…” by Daniel Yergin

May 3, 2020December 2, 2021 Michael Magoon

Book Summary: “Power over Peoples: Technology, Environments and Western Imperialism…” by Daniel Headrick

May 3, 2020December 2, 2021 Michael Magoon

Book Summary: “Technology: A World History” by Daniel Headrick

May 2, 2020November 21, 2021 Michael Magoon

Book Summary: “Transforming the Twentieth Century” by Vaclav Smil

May 2, 2020December 2, 2021 Michael Magoon

Book Summary: “When Information Came of Age: … Age or Reason 1700-1850” by Daniel Headrick

May 1, 2020December 2, 2021 Michael Magoon

Book Summary: “Tools for the Job: A Short History of Machine Tools” by LTC Rolt

May 1, 2020March 18, 2021 Michael Magoon

Book Summary: “Reading in the Brain: The New Science of How We Read” by Stanilaus Dehaene

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Top Posts & Pages

  • Book Summary: “Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise” by Anders Ericsson
  • Book Summary: “Ten Global Trends Every Smart Person Should Know” by Bailey and Tupy
  • Book Summary: “Poor Economics” by Banerjee and Duflo
  • Book Summary: “The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers” by Paul Kennedy
  • Book Summary: “The Virtue of Nationalism” by Yoram Hazony

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