"The Mother of All Technological Turning Points: The Industrial Revolution and the Beginnings of Modern Economic Growth"

Wednesday, Mar. 21, 2007 at 7 p.m.
Location: Trout Auditorium

Joel Kokyr
Northwestern University

Professor Joel Mokyr from Northwestern University will give the final lecture in this year’s STS series on the first great technological turning point, the Industrial Revolution of 200 years ago. With the introduction of the steam engine came the first large-scale use of machine power, and, in its wake, tremendous economic, social and cultural changes. As such, it is the mother of all technological turning points.

Professor Mokyr specializes in the economics of technological change and population change, with a focus on the economic causes and consequences of the Industrial Revolution. He is the author of various important works, including The Lever of Riches: Technological Creativity and Economic Progress, The British Industrial Revolution: An Economic Perspective, and his most recent, The Gifts of Athena: Historical Origins of the Knowledge Economy. His books have won a number of important prizes, including the Joseph Schumpeter memorial prize (1990), the Ranki prize for the best book in European Economic history and, most recently, the Donald Price Prize of the American Political Science Association. He is currently working on a new book, The Enlightened Economy, to be published by Penguin in 2007.

Professor Mokyr is the Strotz Professor of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Economics and History at Northwestern University, where he has taught since 1974, and Sackler Professor at the Eitan Berglas School of Economics at the University of Tel Aviv. He received his undergraduate degree from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and his Ph.D. from Yale University.