Customer Reviews

Engines of Enterprise: An Economic History of New England

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Paul Krugman, Margaret Newell, and the volume's other contributors have journeyed back through 300 years of New England history to test how well the historical record comports with modern economic theory, and found more than a few interesting questions and quirks along the way.

The contradictions discovered and the resolutions pursued may well fascinate the reader with an interest in economic theory, but are unlikely to truly engage the reader seeking an understanding of the history of New England. The book, truth be told, is only secondarily about New England. It is first and foremost about economic theories considered in the test lab of history.

That said, this book does grapple with the central challenge facing all historians of New England: Why here? Why, that is, did this rocky, weather-beaten, apparently inhospitable area prove such fertile ground for industrial innovation? The answers range from "intellectual capital" to the profits from the slave trade, and are not uninteresting. All the more shame, then, that the writing sometimes suffers from a lack of lucidity.

The student of economic theory will find this volume highly worthwhile. The general interest reader might more profitably seek out another recent book, Diana Muir's Reflections in Bullough's Pond, for a much more interesting and readable treatment of the Why New England? question.