I’ll give a shout out to A Farewell to Alms (2007) by the economist Gregory Clark.
It’s something of a precursor to the more often read The Better Angels of Our Nature, Sapiens and Capital in the 21st Century, and in important respects better than all of them. It really changed my view of the world and history when I was young.
The later sections are speculative at best, but the first two thirds on a long term history of how humanity has gradually escaped poverty are top shelf.
If you want to dig deeper into this topic and especially the under-rated endogenous growth theory I can strongly recommend reading Invisible Wealth: The Hidden Story of How Markets Work by Arnold Kling and Nick Schulz.
I’ll give a shout out to A Farewell to Alms (2007) by the economist Gregory Clark.
It’s something of a precursor to the more often read The Better Angels of Our Nature, Sapiens and Capital in the 21st Century, and in important respects better than all of them. It really changed my view of the world and history when I was young.
The later sections are speculative at best, but the first two thirds on a long term history of how humanity has gradually escaped poverty are top shelf.
If you want to dig deeper into this topic and especially the under-rated endogenous growth theory I can strongly recommend reading Invisible Wealth: The Hidden Story of How Markets Work by Arnold Kling and Nick Schulz.
I should also give a shout out to the book that got me into EA when I was 13: Writings on an Ethical Life by Peter Singer.