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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Tag: Ideas

December 19, 2021December 19, 2021 Michael Magoon

Article Summary: “The Rise and Fall of Rationality in Language” by many

December 3, 2021 Michael Magoon

Book Summary: “Stubborn Attachments: A Vision for a Society of Free, Prosperous, and Responsible Individuals” by Tyler Cowen

November 17, 2021November 24, 2021 Michael Magoon

Book Summary: “The Ideas That Conquered the World” by Michael Mandelbaum

May 26, 2021 Michael Magoon

Book Summary: “Expert Political Judgement: How Good Is It?” by Philip Tetlock

May 25, 2021November 21, 2021 Michael Magoon

Book Summary: “The Infinite Resource: The Power of Ideas on a Finite Planet” by Ramez Naam

April 27, 2021December 2, 2021 Michael Magoon

Book Summary: “Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything about Race, Gender, and Identity ” by Pluckrose & Lindsay

May 21, 2020December 2, 2021 Michael Magoon

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

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 2, 2020December 2, 2021 Michael Magoon

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

April 30, 2020December 27, 2021 Michael Magoon

Book Summary: “The Enlightened Economy: An Economic History of Britain 1700-1850” by Joel Mokyr

April 29, 2020November 21, 2021 Michael Magoon

Book Summary: “How the Scots Invented the Modern World” by Arthur Herman

April 23, 2020December 2, 2021 Michael Magoon

Book Summary: “Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America” by David Hackett Fisher

April 22, 2020December 2, 2021 Michael Magoon

Book Summary: “Why Europe?: The Rise of the West…” by Jack Goldstone

April 13, 2020April 15, 2021 Michael Magoon

Article Summary: “Needham Puzzle: Why the Industrial Revolution Did not Originate in China” by Justin Lin

February 6, 2020December 2, 2021 Michael Magoon

Book Summary: “Cultural Evolution: People’s Motivations are Changing” by Ronald Inglehart

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Top Posts & Pages

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  • Book Summary: "Special Providence: American Foreign Policy and How It Changed the World" by Walter Russell Mead
  • Book Summary: “Kicking Away the Ladder” by Ha-Joon Chang
  • Book Summary: “The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers” by Paul Kennedy

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