Agriculture

Why It Took Humanity 300,000 Years to Make Real Progress

How the struggle for food delayed innovation—and why one breakthrough finally unleashed modern progress.

Dec 8, 2025 • Michael Magoon

How Commercial Farming Spread—and Why It Transformed 19th-Century Europe

The hidden agricultural origins of Europe’s Industrial Revolution

Dec 1, 2025 • Michael Magoon

How the Green Revolution Made the Asian Economic Miracle Possible

The story of how new seeds, fertilizers, and irrigation ended famine—and launched the greatest economic boom in history.

Oct 14, 2025 • Michael Magoon

The Agricultural Foundations of the Renaissance in Northern Italy

Wheat, Wine, and Water in a flourishing Commercial Society

Sep 25, 2025 • Michael Magoon

How the steel plow transformed the Great Plains

More proof of the importance of subsistence technologies in human history

Sep 11, 2025 • Michael Magoon

The fundamental constraints on human history

Human history is about trends and constraints, not names, dates and events.

Jan 27, 2025 • Michael Magoon

Agricultural innovation is vital to human progress (the series)

Human history has been dominated by the size and distribution of the food surplus.

Jan 4, 2025 • Michael Magoon

How the Ancient Egyptians tamed the Nile

And built the foundation for the world's longest civilization.

Nov 6, 2024 • Michael Magoon

How Slash-and-Burn Farming works

And why it was a critical first step in human material progress

Oct 29, 2024 • Michael Magoon

How American farmers mechanized agriculture in the 19th Century

and drastically increased the food surplus

May 28, 2024 • Michael Magoon

We need a Green Revolution 2.0 for Africa

And why Greens are trying to stop it from happening

Feb 21, 2024 • Michael Magoon

How agriculture made Commercial societies flourish

And it happened long before the Industrial Revolution

Feb 6, 2024 • Michael Magoon

#nojs-banner { position: fixed; bottom: 0; left: 0; padding: 16px 16px 16px 32px; width: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; background: red; color: white; font-family: -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 13px; line-height: 13px; } #nojs-banner a { color: inherit; text-decoration: underline; } This site requires JavaScript to run correctly. Please turn on JavaScript or unblock scripts