Episode · Conversations with Tyler · 2026-07-08
Books mentioned on Joel Mokyr on Clans, Corporations, and a Culture of Growth
Joel Mokyr co-won the 2025 economics Nobel for exploring the question that traces back to the beginning of economics: how did sustained economic growth suddenly become normal? For nearly all of human history, cleverness didn't compound.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Trust
Trust by Francis Fukuyama is a seminal sociological and economic exploration of how social capital and foundational cultural trust create the bedrock for national prosperity, institutional stability, and complex corporate structures.
Discussed“I recall, in the 1990s, reading Francis Fukuyama’s book Trust.”
Where to get it
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Science and Civilisation in China
Science and Civilisation in China by Joseph Needham, Ling Wang, and Gwei-Djen Lu is a monumental multi-volume scholarly work documenting the vast history of science, technology, and innovation in Chinese civilization.
Discussed“Somebody actually went out and looked at Joseph Needham’s many volumes on Chinese technology and science, or Science and Civilisation [in China], as he called it”
Where to get it
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The WEIRDest People in the World
The WEIRDest People in the World by Joseph Patrick Henrich explores how Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic societies developed distinct psychological profiles shaped by historical shifts in family structures and religious institutions.
Discussed“That’s essentially the tenor of Joe Henrich’s book called The WEIRDest People, in which he points this out.”
Where to get it
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The Condition of the Working-Class in England
Discussed“The most famous book about that was, of course, Friedrich Engels’ Condition of the Working-Class in England, which was largely plagiarized from a whole bunch of doctors living in the Midlands”
Where to get it
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Two Paths to Prosperity
Discussed“Again, I’m a big fan of your new book with Greif and Tabellini, Two Paths to Prosperity, comparing Europe and China.”
Where to get it
