Author: Tim Graczewski
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The British Industrial Revolution: An Economic Perspective (2019) by Joel Mokyr
Industrial Revolution Studies isn’t a formal program at any major university, so far as I know, but there ought to be. Over the past half century a veritable library of books and scholarly articles have been published on all facets of the subject. Scholars can’t seem to agree on anything. “The British Industrial Revolution: An…
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The Unbound Prometheus: Technological Change and Industrial Development in Western Europe from 1750 to the Present (1969) by David Landes
Harvard University’s David S. Landes was the doyen of modern Industrial Revolution Studies. This book, “The Unbound Prometheus: Technological Change and Industrial Development in Western Europe from 1750 to the Present” (1969) is a landmark in the field. The author’s arguments and theses laid out in “The Unbound Prometheus” framed the scholarly debate about the…
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Hamilton’s Blessing: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Our National Debt (1997) by John Steele Gordon
Non-historians often write the most readable and interesting popular history. What they lack in rigorous scholarship they more than make up for with punchy and highly engaging narratives. Some of my favorite writers in this genre are David McCollough, Candice Millard, Erik Larson, Robert Massie, and Stacy Schiff. After reading “Hamilton’s Blessing: The Extraordinary Life…
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River of the Gods: Genius, Courage, and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile (2022) by Candice Millard
George Orwell’s debut novel, “Burmese Days” (1934), is one of my all-time favorites. Orwell brilliantly captures the class obsessed and condescending superiority of late Imperial Britain. The vain and dashing cavalry officer, Lieutenant Verrall, is surely one of the more execrable characters in twentieth century fiction. He is also a spot-on caricature of the type…
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A World Lit Only By Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance (1992) by William Manchester
William Manchester (1922-2004) had an unusual career. He was seriously wounded in battle on Okinawa and went on to earn a master’s degree in English from the University of Missouri. From there he went to work for the famed journalist H.L. Mencken at the Baltimore Sun in 1947. In 1951 he became an editor and…
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The Industrial Revolution: A Very Short Introduction (2017) by Robert C. Allen
The Oxford University Press did a wonderful thing when it introduced the “Very Short Introduction” series in 1995. As of 2024, there are over 600 volumes in the series covering everything from Accounting to Zionism. Each is just over one hundred pages long and is usually authored by an established authority in the field. The…
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The Italian Renaissance (1961) by J.H. Plumb
I’ve recently learned that there aren’t many stellar and readable general overviews of the Renaissance. This one, “The Italian Renaissance” by J.H. Plumb (1961), was first published over half a century ago. However, the fact that a new edition was printed in 2001 speaks volumes for the book’s quality, accessibility, and enduring relevance. “The Italian…
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Erasmus: A Critical Biography (1993) by Leon-E Halkin
Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466-1536) was a Dutch Renaissance humanist, theologian, scholar, and writer. He is perhaps the most important and influential scholar and philosopher of the entire Renaissance period, yet he remains today more written about than read, and that’s because his writing is quite abstruse. “Erasmus: A Critical Biography” (1993) by Leon-E Halkin…
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The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams (2023) by Stacy Schiff
Today, most Americans think of Samuel Adams (1722-1803) mostly as one of the original best selling craft beers, which first hit American grocery shelves in 1984. Even as an avid reader of early American history, I must confess that my understanding of Adams’s specific role in the American Revolution was limited to his clandestine agitation…
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