Hello, my name is Michael Magoon. I am the author of the From Poverty to Progress book series. I have been studying human material progress for 10 years and writing about it for over 5 years.
In addition to my books, my Substack column includes over 500 articles on human material progress. Almost all of them are free!
Praise for my book series:
Steven Pinker: “Magoon has made a valuable contribution in adding to our understanding of the facts and causes of the most important development in human history.”
Tyler Cowen: “Michael Magoon’s new book… will change your thinking about progress and its relevance to your life.”
Joel Mokyr (Nobel Prize in Economics 2025): “In an Age of Despondency, this book’s deep faith in progress is like a breath of fresh and hopeful air. May Magoon be right.”
See more praise for my From Poverty to Progress book series.
About me
Before I became an author, I was a:
Life-long history buff (reading books has been my favorite past-time for almost my entire life)
Professor in Political Science and Public Policy, and then
I worked for 20+ years in the Digital Technology sector before
Retiring in 2020 and going full-time writing in Progress Studies.
A great place to start
Here is a great article to start with. It sums up my thinking on progress and contains many links for my most important article:
My goals for this Substack
My goals for the Substack column and book series are to:
Promote an awareness of material progress, which I believe is humanity’s greatest achievement.
Study history to understand:
How individual nations transformed from poverty to progress
How engineers, scientists and financiers organized themselves to solve problems
Other theories of material progress (series coming soon!)
Develop policies and practices to:
Keep progress going in wealthy nations
Enable developing nations to experience material progress.
Promote Upward Mobility for the poor and working class
Stress the importance of geography, food, energy, evolution (both biological and cultural), and technological innovation to understanding why human material progress exists.
Stress the dangers of ideologies undermining the foundations of progress.
By progress, I mean “the sustained improvement in the material standard of living for a large group of people over a long period of time.”
My book series
For a deeper dive on my thoughts, I suggest you read my From Poverty to Progress book series:
Other resources
In addition to my Substack column and book series, I have plenty of other resources for those interested in human material progress.
My books are for sale:
at discounted prices at my website: frompovertytoprogress.com
at full price on Amazon.
You can also:
watch my YouTube channel.
read my library of online book summaries on the topics of progress, history, economic growth, and technology.
My Commenting rules
The vast majority of my posts are open to comment by all. Within the constraints of my writing schedule, I enjoy having conversations with people with differing opinions as long as commenters follow these rules:
Demonstrate that you read the article.
Comments must clearly reference a specific argument, concept, or section from the post. Comments responding only to the headline, theme, or a perceived ideological position will be deleted.Stay within the scope of this article.
This comment section is for discussion of this post’s arguments, not adjacent debates, culture-war topics, or broader political disputes.
If you want to discuss a related topic, write your own post or Note, but do not include link to my article in a Note.Engage with the argument as presented.
Criticism is welcome, but it must address what I actually argued—not a strawman, a generalized ideology, or someone else’s position.Maintain a serious, respectful tone.
No snark, slogans, moral posturing, or name-calling.
I will respond in good faith and expect the same.Moderation is discretionary and final.
Comments or Notes that violate these rules may be deleted or blocked without warning. Moderation decisions are not themselves open for debate.
My Edit policy
All my articles are living documents. Life is a learning experience, and I embrace it!
I am constantly editing my published articles to improve them. On many occasions, the edits are in response to a reader's comment. Sometimes the most confrontational reader comments lead to the best edits.
To keep the text flowing smoothly, I do not add in “EDIT” in the text flow as a typical newspaper would. This is not an attempt to prove that I got it right the first time.
Full-size covers for my books
