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The Invention of Enterprise: Entrepreneurship from Ancient Mesopotamia to Modern

The Invention of Enterprise: Entrepreneurship from Ancient Mesopotamia to Modern Times Paperback / softback - 2012

by David S. Landes

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Paperback / softback. New. Whether hailed as heroes or cast as threats to social order, entrepreneurs - and their innovations - have had an enormous influence on the growth and prosperity of nations. This title gathers together economic historians to explore the entrepreneur's role in society from antiquity to the present.
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From the publisher

A sweeping global history of entrepreneurial innovation

Whether hailed as heroes or cast as threats to social order, entrepreneurs--and their innovations--have had an enormous influence on the growth and prosperity of nations. The Invention of Enterprise gathers together, for the first time, leading economic historians to explore the entrepreneur's role in society from antiquity to the present. Addressing social and institutional influences from a historical context, each chapter examines entrepreneurship during a particular period and in an important geographic location.

The book chronicles the sweeping history of enterprise in Mesopotamia and Neo-Babylon; carries the reader through the Islamic Middle East; offers insights into the entrepreneurial history of China, Japan, and Colonial India; and describes the crucial role of the entrepreneur in innovative activity in Europe and the United States, from the medieval period to today. In considering the critical contributions of entrepreneurship, the authors discuss why entrepreneurial activities are not always productive and may even sabotage prosperity. They examine the institutions and restrictions that have enabled or impeded innovation, and the incentives for the adoption and dissemination of inventions. They also describe the wide variations in global entrepreneurial activity during different historical periods and the similarities in development, as well as entrepreneurship's role in economic growth. The book is filled with past examples and events that provide lessons for promoting and successfully pursuing contemporary entrepreneurship as a means of contributing to the welfare of society.

The Invention of Enterprise lays out a definitive picture for all who seek an understanding of innovation's central place in our world.

From the rear cover

"While entrepreneurship is as old as civilization itself, its history is little known and widely scattered. This book sheds a fascinating light on the prevalence and importance of entrepreneurship across the continents and the millennia. The Invention of Enterprise is sure to lead to a deeper appreciation of this phenomenon."--Josh Lerner, Harvard Business School

"The modern world became wealthy by shifting toward productive entrepreneurship. How did this happen? How might it continue to happen? Read this book--the first comprehensive history of entrepreneurship--and find out. It's a remarkable work of scholarship."--Richard Sylla, New York University

"There are other books on the history of entrepreneurship, but The Invention of Enterprise offers a substantial and fresh approach. These top-notch economic historians cover a vast geographic span and broad period of time."--William J. Hausman, College of William and Mary

"The Invention of Enterprise addresses a topic that has been sorely neglected--the role of the entrepreneur in historical context. The breadth of historical contexts contained in this volume provides compelling evidence that entrepreneurship is important for economic growth and that institutions shape entrepreneurship. This well-researched and well-written book is a pleasure to read."--David Audretsch, Indiana University

About the author

David S. Landes is the Coolidge Professor of History and professor emeritus of economics at Harvard University. Joel Mokyr is the Robert Strotz Professor of Arts and Sciences and professor of economics and history at Northwestern University. William J. Baumol is the Harold Price Professor of Entrepreneurship at New York University's Stern School of Business.

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