In 1903 the Wright brothers’ airplane travelled a couple of hundred yards. Today fleets of streamlined jets transport millions of people each day to cities worldwide. Between discovery and application, between invention and widespread use, there is a world of innovation, of tinkering, improvement and adaptation. This is the world David Mowery and Nathan Rosenberg map out in Paths of Innovation, a tour of the intersecting routes of technological change. Throughout their book, Mowery and Rosenberg demonstrate that the simultaneous emergence of new engineering and applied science disciplines in the universities, in tandem with growth in the Research and Development industry and scientific research, has been a primary factor in the rapid rate of technological change. Innovation and incentives to develop new, viable processes have led to the creation of new economic resources - which will determine the future of technological innovation and economic growth.
• Co-author Rosenberg has done three other extremely successful titles for the Press, including one with co-author Mowery • Completely accessible, smooth-reading history of industrial innovation in the US; no math, easy-to-understand tables and figures • Best placed in economic history of technology sections; could also go in business or economics sections
Contents
1. Introduction; 2. The organization and institutionalization of innovation, 1900–1940; 3. The internal combustion engine; 4. Chemicals; 5. Electric power; 6 The electronics revolution, 1947–1990; 8. Concluding observations.
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