The Dawn of Innovation
The First American Industrial Revolution

Morris's task in this book is to set out the advances in industry and technology that lead to the United States surpassing Great Britain in economic superiority. On the whole he does a good job, jumping from industry to industry, comparing and contrasting the cultural and ideological differences tha......more

[URL not allowed] Some quick notes and Factoids to remind myself what I learned. (Work in Process) 3 stupendous and strongly reinforcing innovations in Politics, in the economy and in social relations occurred in the US between 1820-30. 1)Universal white male suffrage came into e......more

This book is an effort at a popular focused economic history of the US in the 19th century. Morris has a particular case to make – that the surge in US economic performance from the late 19th century and well into the current one was based on fundamental developments that promoted scale and scope ec......more

I was surprised how much I loved this book! I was basically looking for something to fill in my gaps in knowledge of 19th Century history, and was expecting this to be informative but dry. Instead, I couldn't put it down. We get histories of the major players in the American industrial revolution, w......more

History, Economics, Invention Manual, Confused? Do books need to fit into neat little categories for a store's shelf? Morris doesn't think so. This genre defying volume is filled to the brink with the innovations of 19th century America. Is the focus of the book explaining the innovations themselves,......more