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Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy

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Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy

By: Tim Harford
Narrated by: Roger Davis
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A lively history seen through the 50 inventions that shaped it most profoundly, by the best-selling author of The Undercover Economist and Messy.

Who thought up paper money? What was the secret element that made the Gutenberg printing press possible? And what is the connection between The Da Vinci Code and the collapse of Lehman Brothers?

Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy paints an epic picture of change in an intimate way by telling the stories of the tools, people, and ideas that had far-reaching consequences for all of us. From the plough to artificial intelligence, from Gillette's disposable razor to IKEA's Billy bookcase, best-selling author and Financial Times columnist Tim Harford recounts each invention's own curious, surprising, and memorable story.

Invention by invention, Harford reflects on how we got here and where we might go next. He lays bare often unexpected connections: how the bar code undermined family corner stores and why the gramophone widened inequality. In the process, he introduces characters who developed some of these inventions, profited from them, and were ruined by them, as he traces the principles that helped explain their transformative effects. The result is a wise and witty book of history, economics, and biography.

©2017 Tim Harford (P)2017 Penguin Audio Economics History & Culture Innovations World Technology Artificial Intelligence Capitalism Computer Science Thought-Provoking

Critic reviews

"One of the joys of Tim Harford’s Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy is that it presents this perspective on economic growth so that the most casual reader can grasp it... It's great fun to dip into individual chapters of Fifty Inventions. Mr. Harford succeeds in teaching about productivity, economic growth, monopoly, regulation and other essential topics without resorting to technical terminology and intimidating charts and tables. Such a feat requires a kind of inventiveness in itself.” (Wall Street Journal)

“Tim Harford is a master at picking out the perfect little story that explains some huge economic principle... He’s been my go-to guy for learning about the economics and math behind the world at large... perfectly crafted to light up the pleasure centers of my nerd brain.” (Roman Mars, 99% Invisible)
Fascinating Inventions • Educational Content • Technically Strong Narration • Interesting Stories • Historical Perspective
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The content is an extremely interesting group of summaries tracking the author's estimation of history's most important inventions, some obvious and many not so much. I am sure we can all quibble with his choices to one extent or another, but it is as good of a list as any other I have read.
But, the narrator's choice of accent when reading quotations is distracting in its lack of any apparent authenticity. It is not enough to ruin the experience or anything; it's just very noticeable. At first I thought he was just ridiculing the particular speaker, but the accent seems applied to everyone quoted. It is like an odd amalgamation of an old time radio voice, Jimmy Stewart and a foreigners' impression of a southern American. Please just... Stop. To be fair though, when he is not suffering from this quirk, the reading was very well performed.

Great book - odd narration

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There are some wonderful stories and throughlines in this book. I found it thought-provoking and worth sharing with friends. However, this is one example of a book where I believe the author would have been a better narrator, which goes against my usual opinion on that matter. The American accent of the narrator was quite distracting because it was so bad. And, although his narration was precise and technically strong, it lacked spark.

Thought-provoking but lags a bit

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Cannot Not recommend it highly. Super informative with insightful commentary. I learnt a lot from this book. I can see myself listening to it again many times.

Blindly listen to this book

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This is a great idea: lots of short and interesting discussions about inventions throughout history, but with a common thread to compare and contrast against - in this case, Tim Harford uses the economy as his foil for discussion. Definitely worth a read.

Fun and Interesting

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Very interesting to hear about innovations from an economist’s perspective. This shows some important ways to improve
Innovation and make it more effective.

Incredibly insightful.

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Great book on content. Harford is always informative and this was a very educational journey. I was a little disappointed that he didn’t narrate it himself (especially given that he’s done it for other books and many podcasts) but I was pleased with the narrator, who’s got a good “book reading” voice. That is, until he decided to try to use an American accent for American voices. It’s just bizarre. It’s like something from a sitcom where a foreigner tries to pass as American but it just comes off hilariously bad. It’s not enough to downgrade the book as a whole, and it’s not even a knock on the narrator, who I otherwise liked. But I was embarrassed for the guy for much of the book.

Great book, narrator needs to stick to his own accent

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I rarely read/listen to nonfiction, but I loved this one. I first found Tim Hartford's "Cautionary Tales" podcast, but loved this book even more than the podcast. I have to say, I'd prefer it if Tim Hartford had read this audiobook himself. I'm back on Audible browsing for more of his books.

Enjoyable book

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This book contains many interesting stories, but also some that I'd heard before or seemed stretched out too much, filler. Some of the choices for 50 inventions seemed like they wouldn't have a place even on a top 100 list. Others were more ideas than inventions. solid but not perfect, 4 stars.

mildly interesting

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An interesting perspective of how even the simplest of inventions can change the world and fundamentally change economies.

Great listen

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Each chapter takes up an invention as old as the plough or as new as the iPhone. The material is easily digested in an audio format and the reader’s slight English accent is pleasant and clear, amusingly interspersed with an imitation American one when appropriate. Highly recommended!

Entertaining as it is instructive

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