This website uses cookies.

By clicking the "Accept" button or continuing to browse our site, you agree to first-party and session-only cookies being stored on your device to enhance site navigation and analyze site performance and traffic. For more information on our use of cookies, please see our Privacy Policy.

  1. Home
  2. Journals
  3. Journal of Economic Literature
  4. March 2012
  5. The Enlightened Economy: An Economic History of Britain 1700-1850: Review Essay

Journal of Economic Literature

ISSN 0022-0515 (Print) | ISSN 2328-8175 (Online)

The Enlightened Economy: An Economic History of Britain 1700-1850: Review Essay

  • Gregory Clark
Journal of Economic Literature
vol. 50, no. 1, March 2012
(pp. 85–95)
Download Full Text PDF

Abstract

The British Industrial Revolution is the key break in world history. Yet the timing, location, and cause of this Revolution are unsolved puzzles. Joel Mokyr's book is one of a number of recent attempted solutions. He explains the Industrial Revolution through the arrival of a particular ideology in Britain, associated with the earlier European intellectual movement of the Enlightenment. This review considers how Mokyr's "idealist" approach fares as an account of the Industrial Revolution, compared to the spate of recent proposed "materialist" explanations. ( JEL N13, N63)

Citation

Clark, Gregory. 2012. "The Enlightened Economy: An Economic History of Britain 1700-1850: Review Essay." Journal of Economic Literature, 50 (1): 85–95. DOI: 10.1257/jel.50.1.85

JEL Classification

  • N13 Economic History: Macroeconomics; Growth and Fluctuations: Europe: Pre-1913
  • N63 Economic History: Manufacturing and Construction: Europe: Pre-1913