Why am I passionate about this?

I have been studying, writing, and teaching economic history for nearly four decades. I was drawn to the field because it let me combine my passion for understanding how the past and present are connected with my fascination with the insights derived from the natural sciences. When I started studying economic history, the discipline was still relatively new, having grown out of pioneering research in the 1950s and 1960s by a small band of innovative scholars. During my career, I have met many of these intellectual giants personally, and I have watched the discipline of economic history mature and grow in both its methods and intellectual scope.


I wrote

Quantitative Economic History: The Good of Counting

By Joshua L. Rosenbloom,

Book cover of Quantitative Economic History: The Good of Counting

What is my book about?

How do you blend the historian’s eye for detail and attention to facts with the economist’s concern for quantitative evidence…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Slavery and American Economic Development

Joshua L. Rosenbloom Why did I love this book?

If you read one book about the history of slavery, this should be it. This brief volume sums up decades of Wright’s scholarship about how the institution of slavery shaped virtually every aspect of American economic development and left a lasting imprint long after Emancipation. It is concise, eye-opening, and insightful. It also offers a broader lesson in the ways in which economic institutions affect aspects of behavior in unanticipated ways.

By Gavin Wright,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Slavery and American Economic Development as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Through an analysis of slavery as an economic institution, Gavin Wright presents an innovative look at the economic divergence between North and South in the antebellum era. He draws a distinction between slavery as a form of work organisation, the aspect that has dominated historical debates, and slavery as a set of property rights. Slave-based commerce remained central to the eighteenth-century rise of the Atlantic economy, not because slave plantations were superior as a method of organizing production, but because slaves could be put to work on sugar plantations that could not have attracted free labor on economically viable terms.


Book cover of A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World

Joshua L. Rosenbloom Why did I love this book?

The British Industrial Revolution is the single most important event in shaping the modern world. Since 1800 the standard of living in Western Industrial nations has increased nearly 40-fold, and in the last half-century, this prosperity has spread more widely. Writing in an engaging style, Clark offers a unique and provocative account of these changes and their causes.

By Gregory Clark,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked A Farewell to Alms as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Why are some parts of the world so rich and others so poor? Why did the Industrial Revolution - and the unprecedented economic growth that came with it - occur in eighteenth-century England, and not at some other time, or in some other place? Why didn't industrialization make the whole world rich - and why did it make large parts of the world even poorer? In "A Farewell to Alms", Gregory Clark tackles these profound questions and suggests a new and provocative way in which culture - not exploitation, geography, or resources - explains the wealth, and the poverty, of…


Book cover of Collapse

Joshua L. Rosenbloom Why did I love this book?

Diamond is not an economist, but he thinks like one. In this book, he looks at civilizations that failed, drawing illuminating and important insights about the ways in which population pressures on resources can result in the collapse and disappearance of civilizations. The tales he tells offer a chilling warning about the need to attend to humankind’s impact on the world around us.

By Jared Diamond,

Why should I read it?

6 authors picked Collapse as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From the author of Guns, Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond's Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive is a visionary study of the mysterious downfall of past civilizations.

Now in a revised edition with a new afterword, Jared Diamond's Collapse uncovers the secret behind why some societies flourish, while others founder - and what this means for our future.

What happened to the people who made the forlorn long-abandoned statues of Easter Island?
What happened to the architects of the crumbling Maya pyramids?
Will we go the same way, our skyscrapers one day standing derelict and overgrown like the…


Book cover of Violence and Social Orders: A Conceptual Framework for Interpreting Recorded Human History

Joshua L. Rosenbloom Why did I love this book?

As the subtitle suggests the authors of this book do not have modest ambitions. And for the most part, they deliver. Modern economics focuses mainly on market interactions. But those markets are embedded in institutional and personal networks that are undergirded by the use or threat of use of force. This book provides a framework for understanding how the ability to use force undergirds modern political systems and why that matters.

By Douglass C. North, John Joseph Wallis, Barry R. Weingast

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Violence and Social Orders as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

All societies must deal with the possibility of violence, and they do so in different ways. This book integrates the problem of violence into a larger social science and historical framework, showing how economic and political behavior are closely linked. Most societies, which we call natural states, limit violence by political manipulation of the economy to create privileged interests. These privileges limit the use of violence by powerful individuals, but doing so hinders both economic and political development. In contrast, modern societies create open access to economic and political organizations, fostering political and economic competition. The book provides a framework…


Book cover of The Nature of Technology: What It Is and How It Evolves

Joshua L. Rosenbloom Why did I love this book?

The modern world is defined by the relentless pace of technological change. But what is technology and how in the world does progress occur? Economists often treat the process of innovation as a “black box” out of which new products and processes emerge. Arthur opens the lid of this box and provides an eye-opening set of insights about how things work inside the box, and how that affects the rate and direction of innovation.

By W. Brian Arthur,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Nature of Technology as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

“More than anything else technology creates our world. It creates our wealth, our economy, our very way of being,” says W. Brian Arthur. Yet despite technology’s irrefutable importance in our daily lives, until now its major questions have gone unanswered. Where do new technologies come from? What constitutes innovation, and how is it achieved? Does technology, like biological life, evolve? In this groundbreaking work, pioneering technology thinker and economist W. Brian Arthur answers these questions and more, setting forth a boldly original way of thinking about technology.

The Nature of Technology is an elegant and powerful theory of technology’s origins…


Explore my book 😀

Quantitative Economic History: The Good of Counting

By Joshua L. Rosenbloom,

Book cover of Quantitative Economic History: The Good of Counting

What is my book about?

How do you blend the historian’s eye for detail and attention to facts with the economist’s concern for quantitative evidence and theory to understand the world? The essays collected in this volume illustrate the insightful and creative ways in which scholars working at the juncture between these two disciplines are able to combine their approaches to yield new insights and advance our understanding of the world. The topics addressed range from bastardy in England and Wales, to the effects of refrigeration on the prices of corn and pork. What unifies them is a commitment to blending deep historical understanding with innovative use of quantitative and statistical information. 

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Uniting the States of America: A Self-Care Plan for a Wounded Nation

By Lyle Greenfield,

Book cover of Uniting the States of America: A Self-Care Plan for a Wounded Nation

Lyle Greenfield Author Of Uniting the States of America: A Self-Care Plan for a Wounded Nation

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve always been fascinated by group dynamics, large and small. Why things functioned well, why they didn’t. It’s possible my ability to empathize and use humor as a consensus-builder is the reason I was elected president of a homeowners association, a music production association, and even an agricultural group. Books were not particularly involved in this fascination! But in recent years, experiencing the breakdown of civility and trust in our political and cultural discourse, I’ve taken a more analytical view of the dynamics. These books, in their very different ways, have taught me lessons about life, understanding those with different beliefs, and finding ways to connect and move forward. 

Lyle's book list on restoring your belief in human possibility

What is my book about?

We’ve all experienced the overwhelming level of political and social divisiveness in our country. This invisible “virus” of negativity is, in part, the result of the name-calling and heated rhetoric that has become commonplace among commentators and elected leaders alike. 

My book provides a clear perspective on the historical and modern-day causes of our nation's divisive state. It then proposes easy-to-understand solutions—an action plan for our elected leaders and citizens as well. Rather than a scholarly treatment of a complex topic, the book challenges us to take the obvious steps required of those living in a free democracy. And it…

Uniting the States of America: A Self-Care Plan for a Wounded Nation

By Lyle Greenfield,

What is this book about?

Lyle Greenfield's "Uniting the States of America―A Self-Care Plan for a Wounded Nation" is a work of nonfiction and opinion. Incorporating the lessons of history and the ideas and wisdom of many, it is intended as both an educational resource and a call-to-action for citizens concerned about the politically and culturally divided state of our Union. A situation that has raised alarm for the very future of our democracy.

First, the book clearly identifies the causes of what has become a national crisis of belief in and love for our country. How the divisiveness and hostility rampant in our political…


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Interested in economics, technology, and violence?

Economics 409 books
Technology 127 books
Violence 100 books