Taking a longer view than most literature on economic development, Richard A. Easterlin stresses the enormous contrast between the collective experience of the last half century in both developed and developing countries and what has gone before. An economic historian and demographer, the author writes in the tradition of the "new economic history," drawing on economic theory and quantitative evidence to interpret the historical experience of economic theory and population growth. He reaches beyond the usual disciplinary limits to draw, as appropriate, on sociology, political science, psychology, anthropology, and the history of science. The book will be of interest not only to social scientists but to all readers concerned with where we have been and where we are going. ". . . Easterlin is both an economic historian and a demographer, and it is the combination of these two disciplines and the fine balance between theory and experience that make this well-written, refreshingly optimistic book excellent reading." --Population and Development Review "In this masterful synthesis, Richard Easterlin draws on the disciplines of economic history, demography, sociology, political science, psychology, and the history of science to present an integrated explation of the origins of modern economic growth and of the mortality revolution. . . . His book should be easily accessible to non-specialists and will give them a sense of why economic history can inform our understanding of the future." --Dora L. Costa, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, EH.Net and H-Net "Growth Triumphant is, simply, a fascinating book. Easterlin has woven together a history of economic growth, economic development, human mortality and morbidity, the connections each has with the others, and the implications of this nexus of forces on the future. . . . This book deserves a wide audience." --Choice "In what must surely be the most fair-minded, well-balanced, and scrupulously reasoned and researched book on the sensational subjects implied in its title--the Industrial Revolution, the mortality and fertility revolutions, and the prospects for future happiness for the human race--Professor Easterlin has set in place the capstone of his research career." --Journal of Economic History Richard A. Easterlin is Professor of Economics, University of Southern California.

Best remembered today for his fierce opposition to labor, especially during the Homestead Strike of 1892, Henry Clay Frick was also one of the most powerful and innovative industrialists of the nineteenth century.After consolidating the vital bituminous coke fields of the Connellsville region in western Pennsylvania, Frick became the most important of Andrew Carnegie's partners and the manager of Carnegie's steel interests. Later, his bitter oppositon to Carnegie was one factor in the events leading to the 1901 purchase of the Carnegie Steel Company by J. P. Morgan and the formation of the Unites States Steel Corporation.Kenneth Warren is the first historian to be given unrestricted access to the extensive Frick archives in Pittsburgh. Drawing on Frick's personal and business papers, as well as the records of the H. C. Frick Coal & Coke Company, the Carnegie Steel Company, and the U.S. Steel Corporation, Warren provides a wealth of new insights into Frick's relationship with such contemporaries as Carnegie, J. P. Morgan, Charles Schwab, and Elbert Gary. He describes and analyzes the key decisions that formed labor and industrial policy in the iron and steel industry during a period of growth that remains unparalled in American business history.Not only an industrial biography of a driving force in American industry and the organization of American business, Triumphant Capitolism, now available in paperback, makes a major contribution to our understanding of the history of the basic industries, the shaping of society, locality, and region - and thereby of laying the foundations for the value systems and landscapes of present-day America.

Martin (history, formerly Harvard and Bradley) details the expansion of the US from a coast-hugging nation to its current population distribution along the rails. He is confident that environmental pressures and the efficiency of trains will return railroads to their deserved place at the top of land transport. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The progress of life during growth is surprisingly uneven. This paper reaches this conclusion with a panel dataset of 95 indicators covering up to 4 time periods (1960, 1970, 1980, and 1990). The indicators cover 7 subjects: (1) individual rights and democracy, (2) political instability and war, (3) education, (4) health, (5) transport and communications, (6) inequality across class and gender, and (7) "bads". Virtually all of these indicators show quality of life across nations to be positively associated with per capita income. However, when country effects are removed using either fixed effects or an estimator in first differences, I find that the effects of growth on "life" are uneven and often nonexistent. Moreover, exogenous time shifts are more important than growth effects in the majority of indicators. With the fixed effects estimator, growth has an impact on the quality of life that is significant, positive, and more important than exogenous shifts for 12 out of 95 indicators. With a first-differences IV estimator, growth has a causal impact on the quality of life that is significant, positive, and more important than exogenous shifts for 7 out of 79 quality of life. The conclusion speculates about such explanations for the uneven results as (1) the long and variable lags that may come between growth and changes in the quality of life, and (2) the possibility that world growth is more important than home country growth for many quality of life indicators.

“This brilliant book is a virtual Voyage of the Beagle! Carl Zimmer shows, with the benefit of a hundred and fifty years of hindsight, how right Darwin was.” —Steve Jones, author of Darwin’s Ghost Darwin’s The Origin of Species was breathtaking—beautifully written, staunchly defended, defiantly radical. Yet it emerged long before modern genetics, molecular biology, and contemporary findings in paleontology. In this remarkable book, a rich and up-to-date view of evolution is presented that explores the far-reaching implications of Darwin’s theory. At a time when controversies surrounding creationism and education are bursting into public consciousness, this book’s emphasis on the power, significance, and relevance of evolution will make it a catalyst for public debate. Evolution marks a turning point in the 150-year debate and will be an indispensable asset to any serious reader with an interest in the life sciences, a passion for truth in education, or a concern for the future of the planet. “The evolution of life over four billion years is a grand narrative, full of plots, intrigues, surprises and deaths. Carl Zimmer tells the tale with zest and style.” —Matt Ridley, New York Times–bestselling author “Proceeding from the flurry of preparations for Darwin’s famous voyage, Carl Zimmer leads us off on a journey of our own, tracking the development—and the implications—of one of the most powerful ideas in the biological sciences.” —Scientific American “Science writer Zimmer does a superb job of providing a sweeping overview of most of the topics critical to understanding evolution, presenting his material from both a historical and a topical perspective.” —Publishers Weekly “Popular science that will truly be popular.” —Booklist

Despite significant gains in promoting economic growth and living conditions (or "human progress") globally over the last twenty-five years, much of the developing world remains plagued by poverty and its attendant problems, including high rates of child mortality, illiteracy, environmental degradation, and war. In Growth and Empowerment, Nicholas Stern, Jean-Jacques Dethier, and F. Halsey Rogers propose a new strategy for development. Drawing on many years of work in development economics—in academia, in the field, and at international institutions such as the World Bank—the authors base their strategy on two interrelated approaches: building a climate that encourages investment and growth and at the same time empowering poor people to participate in that growth. This plan differs from other models for development, including the dogmatic approach of market fundamentalism popular in the 1980s and 1990s. Stern, Dethier, and Rogers see economic development as a dynamic process of continuous change in which entrepreneurship, innovation, flexibility, and mobility are crucial components and the idea of empowerment, as both a goal and a driver of development, is central. The book points to the unique opportunity today—after 50 years of successes and failures, and with a growing body of analytical work to draw on—to pursue new development strategies in both research and action.

This is a splendid book. It sits at the interface of economics and economic history, and provides both a textbook-style introduction to the key themes of macroeconomics and personal insights into the central debates gleaned from interviews with leading economists. David Greasley, Australian Economic History Review It should be in every library. A hundred years from now, it will be an important guide to what leading economists thought they knew, and what they knew they didn't know as of A.D. 2002. Christopher Hanes, EH.Net Conversations on Growth, Stability and Trade is a wonderful survey of the development of macroeconomic thinking over the past decades. Brian Snowdon has a knack for combining insightful essays on a subject with interviews of interesting, relevant, and diverse economists. The interviews give one an excellent sense of how economists approach policy issues. David Colander, Middlebury College, US Conversations on Growth, Stability and Trade has all the lucidity of A Modern Guide to Macroeconomics by Snowdon, Vane and Wynarczyk, combined with the fascination of Conversations with Leading Economists by Snowdon and Vane. Students will love it and their teachers will devour it the night before the big lecture. If only I had learned macroeconomics this way. Mark Blaug, University of London and University of Buckingham, UK These well informed and highly readable interviews provide a great introduction to some of the big issues in modern economics. Roger E. Backhouse, University of Birmingham, UK This unique volume provides a comprehensive survey of the major economic issues that have helped shape the modern world. It includes discussions of the latest research findings in macroeconomics and scrutinises some of the most important debates in economic history. The author examines the many controversies relating to the role of government in a modern economy, long-run growth and development, the spread of the Industrial Revolution, the causes and consequences of the Great Depression , the Great Peacetime Inflation , the conduct of stabilisation policy, international economic integration and globalisation. To shed light on these major issues the volume contains interviews with ten leading economists who have each contributed extensively to the literature on macroeconomics, economic growth and development, international economics and economic history. A major theme which runs throughout the book is the conviction that economists can gain valuable insights concerning important contemporary policy issues from a knowledge of history, especially economic history. The distinguished economists featured in this book are: Ben Bernanke, Jagdish Bhagwati, Alan Blinder, Nick Crafts, Bradford DeLong, Barry Eichengreen, Kevin Hoover, Charles Jones, Christina Romer and Joseph Stiglitz. Containing an extensive and up-to-date list of references, the book provides a comprehensive guide to the modern literature on macroeconomics and related fields. It will be an essential reference for all scholars and students of economics, especially those with an interest in economic growth, business cycles, inflation, unemployment, trade and globalisation. It will also be of considerable value to students of economic history and the history of economic thought.