How Britain transformed from poverty to progress (the series)

And paved the way for the rest of the world to do the same.

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A core theme of this Substack and my book series is explaining how individual nations have been able to suddenly transform from millennia of widespread poverty to self-sustaining long-term economic growth that increased the material standard of living for the masses. Often this transformation took only one generation.

Perhaps the most important nation in this global transformation has been pre-industrial England and Industrial Britain. This nation bridges the gap between Commercial societies that created material progress and Industrial nations that pushed that prosperity to an entirely new level.

I try to make each article self-standing, but I would recommend reading the articles in the displayed order.

Enjoy reading!

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Table of Contents for the “English/British history” series:

1. Commercial England:

   1. Historians have misunderstood pre-Industrial England

   2. From Fleece to Factory: How the Wool Trade Made England a Commercial Society

   3. Did the British Industrial Revolution occur in the 17th century?

2. Industrial Britain:

   1. What the British Industrial Revolution Actually Was: Clearing Up the Biggest Debates

   2. Explaining Britain’s Industrial Revolution: The Major Theories

   3. Why Scholars Still Can’t Agree on the causes of Britain’s Industrial Revolution

   4. What Actually Triggered Britain’s Industrial Revolution

   5. Why did the Industrial Revolution happen in Britain?

   6. How the Railroad Transformed Britain and Enabled Global Economic Growth

   7. The Industries that Built British Railroads

   8. The Industrial Revolution Came from the Least Profitable Industries

   9. Why Pre-Industrial England Expanded Coal and Iron Industries Long Before They Were Profitable

   10. The historical significance of the Industrial Revolution in Britain

3. British settlers in North America and Oceania:

   1. How European settlers spread progress

   2. Why European settlers in New England and Middle Colonies did so well

   3. More articles coming soon!
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If you enjoyed reading this series of articles, you might also be interested in reading my “From Poverty to Progress” book series: