Epigraph
Prologue: When Ideas have Sex
Chapter One - A better today: the unprecedented present
Chapter Two - The collective brain: exchange and specialisation after 200,000 years ago
Chapter Three - The manufacture of virtue: barter, trust and rules after 50,000 years ago
Chapter Four - The feeding of the nine billion: farming after 10,000 years ago
Chapter Five - The triumph of cities: trade after 5,000 years ago
Chapter Six - Escaping Malthus’s trap: population after 1200
Chapter Seven - The release of slaves: energy after 1700
Chapter Eight - The invention of invention: increasing returns after 1800
Chapter Nine - Turning points: pessimism after 1900
Chapter Ten - The two great pessimisms of today: Africa and climate after 2010
Chapter Eleven - The catallaxy: rational optimism about 2100
Notes and references
Index
Acknowledgements
Also by Matt Ridley
Copyright
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