The Unbound Prometheus: Technological Change and Industrial Development in Western Europe from 1750 to the Present

WORKING

Landes, David S. The Unbound Prometheus: Technological Change and Industrial Development in Western Europe from 1750 to the Present. Cambridge University Press, 1969.

Important book on the history and sociology of the Industrial Revolution in England and Western Europe. Cited by June Hee Chung in Henry James and the Media Arts of Modernity.

Table of Contents Frontmatter Preface   page vii 1: Introduction   page 1 2: The Industrial Revolution in Britain   page 41 3. Continental Emulation   page 124 4: Closing the Gap   page 193 5: Short Breath and Second Wind   page 231 6: The Interwar Years   page 359 7. Reconstruction and Growth Since 1945   page 486 8: Conclusion   page 538 Index   page 556

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From "Good Old Economic History," the review by R. M. Hartwell and Robert Higgs, The American Historical Review Vol. 76, No. 2 (Apr., 1971): pp. 467-474: "The two big problems Lances takes are the explanation of technological change and the influence of technological change on growth," in the sense of economic growth in a strict economic sense (opening paragraph).

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From "Economic History’s Greatest Story, Never Told Better," review by Paul M. Hohenberg, Department of Economics, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, EH.net, ca. 2000. For Landes, development as experienced in Europe owed its principal thrust to the development and adoption of new technology, a view that puts him pretty squarely with the New Growth Theorists and their emphasis on knowledge and human capital. Landes did not neglect natural resources, but put entrepreneurs at the heart of the analysis, whether looking at Britain’s initial industrialization, at emulation in continental countries, or at the later comparative performance of the various national economies. Rationality may well have prevailed everywhere, but some rational styles of enterprise, notably bets on new technology, worked better than others most of the time.

[Earlier in the review:] When one gets to the interwar and postwar chapters of the book, the emphasis changes. It is not quite clear why Landes undertook to cover broader issues of development, macroeconomic stability, and policy here. Perhaps a part of the reason is that the technological story became less compelling, indeed often depressing, especially in the interwar years. There were some high spots to be sure, such as radio and motor cars, but most industries saw only limited progress. Whereas productivity grew in the nineteenth century largely through the addition of more productive capacity to the existing stock, after the Great War overall efficiency was more often boosted when excess capacity forced the closing of the most obsolete plants. Even postwar recovery and growth up to the mid-60s mainly called for renewing the damaged or worn-out capital stock and catching up with American best practice. As we now know, the impact of microelectronics and other Third (?) Industrial Revolution technologies would take a long time to make themselves felt in the productivity statistics. ____________________________

From Philip, commenting on the GoodReads site: "Landes places scientific discovery and its application at the very centre of his exploration of the history of the Industrial Revolution. It is one thing, for example, to see tables listing tonnage of steel production by country and by date: it is quite another thing to read the same data alongside detailed descriptions of the innovations that practitioners and researchers alike brought to the processes that manufactured the product."

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RDE, Initial Compiler, 23Dec19