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...

Preface -- 1. Innovation Beyond Technology – Introduction -- 2. Reimagining Innovation -- 3. 'Innovation’ as an adaptation of ‘Progress’: Revisiting the epistemological and historical contexts of these terms -- 4. The Light and Shadow of the Fourth Industrial Revolution -- 5. How...