The Great Enrichment: How Western Europe Became Global Economic Leader in the 18th and 19th Centuries

08 September 2020

The process of modern economic growth, or as it is also called, the Great Enrichment, has begun in Western Europe in the 18th century. However, it was not an inevitable part of European history. How did an open market for ideas and political fragmentation lead Europe to wealth? And what was the role of culture, artisans, and practical science in this process?

Joel Mokyr
Joel Mokyr | Lecturer
Professor Mokyr has a PhD from Yale University. His current research is concerned with the understanding of the economic and intellectual roots of technological progress and the growth of useful knowledge in European societies, as well as the impact that industrialization and economic progress have had on economic welfare. A former President of the Economic History Association, he served as the editor-in-chief of the Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a number of comparable institutions in Europe. He was the 2006 winner of the biennial Heineken Award for History offered by the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences and the winner of the 2015 Balzan International Prize for economic history. His latest book A Culture of Growth: Origins of the Modern Economy was published in 2016.
Moderator
Andrei Markevich
Full Professor
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