Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy

By: Tim Harford

Narrated by: Roger Davis

Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

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

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)

Blindly listen to this book

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.

Fun and Interesting

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.

Great listen

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

mildly interesting

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.

Entertaining as it is instructive

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!

Amazing Book

This book is as great as Freakonomics, and possibly better. Tim Harford is one of the best writers and economists of our age and we're lucky to have his books to read. I was always fascinated by the inventions he discussed and I felt as though I finally appreciated so many aspects of our modern life that I had always seen, but never quite understood. Tim Harford unveils the fascinating economics and technological forces behind music, farming, the internet, and so much more. I highly recommend the book to anyone who is interested in freakonomics-type stuff. Also the narration was very good too. I always got excited to get back to listening to the book.

A Very Good Overview of Many Great Inventions

I liked hearing the stories of these 50 important inventions. I particularly like the specific people who are covered as the stories unfold.

I learned some things that I had not known about some of the topics, despite watching or reading quite a bit about some of them in the past. One omission, based, admittedly, on my somewhat limited knowledge of the topic, was that there was no mention of hemp in the section of paper. If you look the topic up, I think you might find it fascinating (and a bit depressing).

Great book - odd narration

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.

Thought-provoking but lags a bit

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.

Great book, narrator needs to stick to his own accent

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.