This book highlights the contribution of language standardization to the economic rise of the West between 1600 and 1860. Previous studies have been unable to explain why during this period almost all industrial innovation was confined to small areas around the main cultural centers of three...

Is life getting better? Are our societies making progress? Indeed, what does “progress” mean to the world’s citizens? For a good portion of the 20th century there was an implicit assumption that economic growth was synonymous with progress: an assumption that a growing GDP meant life must...

Part I. Poverty is on the run -- Part II. Enrichment didn't come for the reasons you imagine -- Part III. It came because ideas, ethics, rhetoric, and ideology changed -- Part IV. The causes of the causes were not racial or ancient.

Contents: 1. Introduction to innovation and ethics - a collaborative philosophy -- 2. Varieties of innovation - business, grassroots and democratic -- 3. Fair enough? - justice and innovation from a liberal-egalitarian perspective -- 4. Collaborative pluralism - community and capability -- 5....