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A. T. Stewart & Company, 84–86
Accenture consulting firm, 154
Acid rain, 184
Adleman, Leonard, 136
Advanced Market Commitment, 225n, 272
Afghanistan, 227–30
mobile phone networks in, 228–29
sanitation problems in, 252
Sub-Saharan, 100
See also specific nations
Agriculture, 2–3, 5, 166, 174–75, 264, 285n6
antibiotics used in, 222–26
machinery for, 75. See also Plows
nitrogen fertilizer for, 182
Agriculture, U.S. Department of, 22
Aiken, Howard, 162
Air-conditioning, 78–82, 123, 127
legislation to prevent, 219–20
See also Greenhouse gases
Air travel, 10, 27–28, 44, 186, 187, 189–90, 200
Airbnb, 28–29
Airplanes. See Air travel
Algorithms, 43–44, 136, 164, 173, 193
fast-Fourier-transform, 168, 169, 170
Google search, 10, 32, 34–35, 166
Alpha Centauri, 275
Amazon (company), 41, 157, 189
Ambrosia Labs, 59
America. See United States of America
American Society of Civil Engineers, 264n
American Tobacco Company, 76
Angola, 278
Angry Birds, 73
agricultural use of, 222–26
Appert, Nicolas, 62
Arabic numerals, 153–54
Árbenz, Jacobo, 107–8
Argentina, 108–9
Aristotle, 65
Arneil, Barbara, 23
ARPANET, 168
Arthur, Brian, 174
Artificial intelligence (AI), 43–44
Ashmolean Museum (Oxford University), 112, 115
Atlanta, 81
AT&T, 151
Austria, 47
Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator, 160
Automation, 102–5, 271. See also Computers; Robots
Baekeland, Leo, 196–98, 200, 217
Bakelite Corporation, 71, 197–200
Baker, Lorenzo Dow, 108
Bali, 232
Bang mug, 119
Banks, 113, 203–6, 231, 257–59
ancient, 132
mobile phone money transfer services versus, 227–31, 273
nineteenth-century utopian vision excluding, 207
property registers of collateral for loans from, 234–36
as tax havens, 213–14
technologies adopted by, 44, 71, 137, 259, 271
and tradable debt, 113–15, 257–58
Bar codes, 8–9, 102–6, 110, 127, 148, 166, 274
Basset, Fulk, 113
Batteries, 128, 168, 170, 191–95
Baxter (robot), 42
Bazalgette, Joseph, 249–51, 253
Bell, Alexander Graham, 21
Belville family, 179
Benares (ship), 55
Berlin Wall, 39
Berliner, Emile, 17
Bernays, Edward, 76
Berners-Lee, Tim, 168
Bicester Village outlet mall (England), 86
Bill of exchange (IOU), 205. See also jiaozi
Billington, Elizabeth, 15–19
Billy bookcase, 117–20
Birth control pill, 65–69, 202
Bleak House (Dickens), 155, 158
Bloomberg News, 117
Blue Devils gang, 23
Bodrum (Turkey), 37
Boeing Aircraft, 195
Bogle, John, 246–48
Bon Marché, 83
Bonaparte, Napoleon, 107
Boo.com, 91
Book of the Marvels of the World, The (Polo), 255
Bookkeeping, 43
Books, 7, 8. See also Gutenberg, Johannes; Printing press, movable-type
Bosch, Carl, 183
Boston Tea Party, 148
Bostrom, Nick, 43
Botsman, Rachel, 28
Boulton, Matthew, 122, 157, 158
Bowen, Eddie, 188
Bower, Marvin, 152
Brasilia, 261
Brazil, 81
Breast milk
expressed, market for, 59
infant formula substitute for, 56–59
Breslau, University of, 181
Air Ministry, 187
copyrights and patents in, 155–57
department stores in, 83–84, 86–87
Government Communications Headquarters, 136n
immigrants in, 49
industrial revolution in, 13, 122, 157
international trade of, 173–74
limited liability companies in, 146–48
management consultants in, 151
Parliament, 9, 116, 157, 253–54
railways in, 143
Royal Radar Establishment, 169
See also England; United Kingdom
British Empire, 235
British Perforated Paper Company, 161
British Virgin Islands, 214
Brown, Dan, 204
Buchanan, Sharon, 104
Buddha, 265
Budgetary Control (McKinsey), 151–52
Buenos Aires, 109
Buffalo Forge, 79
Buffett, Warren, 244
Bulla (verification device), 131–32
Burke, James, 1
Burma, 270
Butler, Nicholas Murray, 145
Byng, Admiral John, 266
Byron, George Gordon, Lord, 192n
Cadastral mapping, 234–35
Caesar, Julius, 135
Los Angeles, 189
Silicon Valley, 165, 170. See also Apple (company)
Stanford University, 31–32, 35, 134–35, 150, 151
Candy Crush Saga, 73
Caribbean, 214
Carrousel Inn (Cincinnati), 103
Cars
internal combustion engines for, 172, 174, 275
Casanova, Giacomo, 65
Castronova, Edward, 72–73
CDs, 18
Cellular phones. See Mobile phones
Cement, 261, 262, 307n12. See also Concrete
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), 107, 169
CERN (European Council for Nuclear Research), 168–70
Chain, Ernst, 224
“Challenge to Judgment” (Samuelson), 246
Chaplin, Charlie, 17
Chaucer, Geoffrey, 144
guaranteed income, in welfare states, 50–51
Chemical fertilizer, 181–85
Chicago, 83–84, 87, 121, 179, 189
University of, 57
Chile, 96
China, 26, 30, 110, 129, 242, 264
agriculture in, 2, 3, 222–23, 226
air-conditioning in, 81
banks in, 204
contaminated infant formula in, 59
copyrights in, 156
impact of globalization on manufacturing in, 96, 101, 274
movable-type printing press in, 239
paper mills in, 241–42
passports in, 37
property rights in, 233
virtual sweatshops in, 72
Chlorine gas, 182
Chlorofluorocarbon (CFC), 221
Cholera, 249–51
Christians, 185, 203, 204, 240, 241
City Press (London), 249
Clean Air Act (1970), 219
Clement V, Pope, 206
Coahuila (Mexico), 260–61
COBOL, 163
Code Book, The (Singh), 136n
Cold War, 169
Collins, David, 103
Commodore 64 computer, 161
Communist Party, Chinese, 233
Compassion in World Farming, 222
Computers, 10, 36, 70–73, 153, 237, 242–43, 291n3
air conditioners and, 80
bar codes read by, 8, 103, 105
elevators controlled by, 124
games played on. See Video games
in global banking system, 259
programming, 42, 43, 94, 160–64. See also Apple (company); Algorithms
quantum, 138
shipping containers tracked by, 100
See also Mobile phones
Concrete, 260–64, 273, 275, 307n12
reinforced concrete, 90, 123, 263, 273
Conference on Passports, Customs Formalities and Through Tickets, 40
Congo, Democratic Republic of the, 130, 270
Congress, U.S., 46
Connections (BBC TV series), 1
Conservative Party, British, 39
Constitution, U.S., First Amendment to, 134
Container shipping. See Shipping containers
Cook, Tim, 167
Cornell University, 79
Corvin department store (Budapest), 85
Country Gentleman, The, 75
Covent Garden opera house (London), 16
Craigslist, 27
Crete, 280
Croatia, 47
Crystal Palace (London), 36, 251
Culture of Growth, A (Mokyr), 165
Cumming, Alexander, 250–52
Cuneiform, 129–33
Curtis Publishing Company, 75
Da Vinci Code, The (Brown), 204
Darmstadt (Germany), 56
Dartmouth College, 43
Datini, Francesco di Marco, 140–41, 144
Dauphin (Canada), 50
David, Paul, 94
Dawes Act (1887), 22
de Soto, Hernando, 232–36
Declaration of Independence, 148
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), 169, 272
Defense, U.S. Department of, 169
Delaware, University of, 169
Democratic Republic of the Congo, 81
Deng Xiaoping, 233
Department stores, 83–87
Diamond, Jared, 5
Dickens, Charles, 155–56, 158–59
Didi Chuxing (ride service), 30
Diesel engines, 171–75
Diffie, Whitfield, 136
Digital rights management (DRM), 24–25
“Discourse on Inequality” (Rousseau), 24
Disney Studios, 25
Dog-trot house, 80–81
Donelson, Sophie, 120
Dot-com bubble, 91
Double-entry bookkeeping, 139–44, 151
Dow, Charles, 244–245
Dow Jones Industrial Average, 245
Dresden (ship), 171
Drexel Institute, 102
Drury Lane opera house (London), 16
DuPont company, 218
Dynamos (generators), 91–95
DynaTAC 8000x mobile phone, 193
East India Company, 55, 146, 148
Economics (Samuelson), 245
Edison, Thomas, 16–17, 92, 127–28, 242, 280–81
ancient, 65, 129, 177, 240n, 265, 280
Einstein, Albert, 13
Ektorp sofa, 118
Elagabalus, Emperor of Rome, 78
Electric motors, 92–94
Electricity, 19, 71, 80, 91–95, 127, 145, 191–92, 293n3
air-conditioning and demand for, 82
grids for distributing, 94, 147, 194, 195
lighting provided by. See Lightbulbs
rainmaking technique using, 78
Elevators, 85, 90, 121–25, 127, 273, 295n2, 296n9
Elias, John, 169
Elizabeth I, Queen of England, 146
Emerging markets, 30, 42, 81, 223
Empire State Building, 124
Encyclopædia Britannica, 31
Engels, Friedrich, 49
Engines
internal combustion, 172, 174, 275
steam. See Steam engines
England, 36, 83, 86, 110, 115, 145–46, 188, 204, 257
Crown Jewels, 204
See also Britain; London
Enigma code, 135
Enki (Mesopotamian god), 129
Epic of Gilgamesh, The, 130
Epidemics
cholera, 249–51
equine flu, 172
Ethiopia, 96
eToys, 91
EverQuest, 72
Exchequer tallies, 112–13
Exeter (England), 176–78
Explaining Creativity (Sawyer), 165
Eyjafjallajökull volcano (Iceland), 186
Fabriano (Italy), 241
Facebook, 18, 43, 53, 57, 70, 73, 170
Fairchild Semiconductor, 170
Faraday, Michael, 149–51
Farming. See Agriculture
Farmville, 73
Fast Fourier transform, 168, 169, 170
Fatimid Caliphate, 203
Fax machine, 275
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), 190
Field, Marshall, 83
Financial crises, 7, 48, 91, 143, 247, 259, 269, 270
First Index Investment Trust, 246
Fleet Street (London), 203
Fleming, Alexander, 223–24
Florey, Howard, 224
Flushing toilets, 44, 250–51, 252, 253
Forbes, 15
Ford, Henry, 74–77
Ford, Martin, 44
Fossil fuels, 183. See also Coal; Gasoline; Natural gas
Foster, George, 191–92
Founding Fathers (U.S.), 23
France, 24, 62, 130, 173, 234, 266
banks in, 204–6
international trade of, 109–10
music recording in, 16–17
paper manufactured in, 242
passports abolished in, 37
property registers in, 234–35
reinforced concrete developed in, 263
Franciscans, 139
Franklin, Benjamin, 13, 280, 281
Fraser, Mark, 27–28
Fraud, 1, 30, 34, 143, 204, 213
accounting, 157–58
Freinkel, Susan, 197
Friedman, Milton, 148
Frozen dinners, 60–65, 110, 166
FTSE index, 245
Gallup, George, 76
Galvani, Luigi, 192
Galvanism, 192
Gasoline, 123, 172, 173, 217–21, 273
Gates, John Warne “Bet-A-Million,” 20, 25
General Electric, 151
Generators. See Dynamos (generators)
Geneva, 168
Great Council of, 213
Lake Geneva, 192n
Genghis Khan, 255
George IV, King of England, 15
Georgia (U.S. state), 81
Germany, 39, 56, 96, 129, 173, 183, 267
machinery manufactured in, 117, 119
movable-type printing press invented in, 10, 239, 240
Weimar, 258
in World War I, 181–82
Ghana, 236
Ghent, University of, 196
Gillette, King Camp, 208–9, 211
safety razor, 209
Glass-Steagall Act (1933), 153
Glidden, Joseph F., 20–21, 25, 166
Global positioning systems (GPS), 168–69, 179–80, 202
Globalization, 48, 96, 127, 148, 174, 215, 274
Goldin, Claudia, 68
Google, 10, 18, 25, 31–35, 77, 170, 212, 275
Grab (ride service), 30
Graduate, The (film), 198
Gramophone, 15–19, 49, 169, 274, 279
Grand Canyon, 189–90
Great American Desert, 21
Great Exhibition (London), 251
Great Fire of London, 266
Great Plague of London, 266
Great Rift Valley, 186
Great Stink of London, 250
Greenhouse gases, 78, 82, 110, 184, 261
Greenwich Mean Time, 177–79
Griffith, Jim, 28
Grocery Manufacturers of America (GMA), Administrative Systems Committee of, 103
Guranteed income payments, in welfare states, 50–51
Guinness World Records, 31
Guns, Germs, and Steel (Diamond), 5
Gutenberg, Johannes, 10, 141, 239–40, 243, 248
Gyllensvaans Möbler factory (Sweden), 117–19
Haber, Fritz, 182–85
Haber-Bosch process, 182–84
Haiti, 270
Hamilton, Alice, 218–20
Hammer, Carl, 163
Hammurabi, Code of, 265
Hang Seng index, 245
Harrods, 85–86
Harvard Mark I computer, 160–61, 163
Harvard University, 280
Haydn, Joseph, 15
Heal, Geoffrey, 82
Heatley, Norman, 224
Heinz, H. J., 62
Heinz (H. J. Heinz Company), 151
Hellman, Martin, 136–38
Henry III, King of England, 113, 204
Hilton, Matthew, 120
Hitachi company, 41
Hitt, Lorin, 94
Holborn (London), 92
Holyoke, Edward, 280
Homestead Act (1862), 21, 22, 235
Hopper, Grace, 10, 161–64, 271, 299n2
Hornblower, Jonathan, 157
House Beautiful, 120
House of Commons, 116
House of Lords, 116
Houston, 81
Hovsepian, Tina, 240
Howard, Frank, 218
HTML, 168
Hughes, Nick, 228–29
Hunter-gatherers. See Foraging
Huygens, Christiaan, 177–78, 180
Iceland, 186
Illinois, 20, 25. See also Chicago
Inanna (Mesopotamian goddess), 129
Index funds, 244–48
India, 16, 24, 146, 151, 252, 253
air conditioners in, 81
British imperialism in. See East India Company
double-entry bookkeeping in, 140
management consulting in, 150, 153–54
virtual sweatshops in, 72, 291n9
Indonesia, 55, 81, 192n, 232–33, 246
Industrial revolution, 13, 122, 142, 147, 157, 274
gender, 68
welfare states’ limitations on, 48
Infant formula, 55–59
Inman, Admiral Bobby Ray, 135, 137, 138
Inquisition, 206
Insurance, 265–69
Intellectual property, 8–9, 24, 155–59, 202, 212, 272
Internal combustion engines, 172, 174, 275
International Code of Marketing Breast-Milk Substitutes, 59
International Electrotechnical Commission, 90
International Organization for Standardization (ISO), 89
International Symposium on Information Theory, 134
International Telecommunication Union, 90
Internet, 1, 27, 157, 202, 271, 278
air-conditioning requirements of, 80
music streaming on, 19
public-key cryptography and, 135, 137–38
searches on. See Google
See also World Wide Web
IOUs, 256–58
iPhone, 9, 120, 167–70, 202, 272, 273
IQs, 58
immigrant from, in U.S, 84–85
Irish Independent, 114
Ishango bone, 130
Islamic regions, 140
Ive, Jony, 167
Jakarta, 232
Jamaica, 108
birth control pills banned in, 9, 68, 202, 291n5
passports in, 37
robots manufactured in, 41, 119
Java, 55. See also Yogyakarta
Javelinas gang, 23
Jennifer unit, 45
Jeopardy! (TV show), 43
Jersey (island), 214
Jetsons, The (TV show), 42
Jiangsu Province (China), 222
Jiaozi (IOU), 256–58
Jigglypuff (Pokémon), 70
Jobs, Steve, 13, 167, 168, 170, 272
Johannesburg, 228
Johnson, E. A., 169
Johnson, George W., 17
Johnson, Steven, 81, 165, 291n
Jones, Frederick McKinley, 109, 272
Jordan, 261
Justice, U.S. Department of, 153
Kahn, Herman, 271
Kamau, Samson, 186
Kamprad, Ingvar, 118–20
Kansas City (Missouri), 189
Kättilstorp (Sweden), 117
Katz, Lawrence, 68
Kenya, 72, 186, 228–30, 252–53
Khrushchev, Nikita, 262
Kibera (Nairobi), 252–53
Kinshasa, 81
Kiva robots, 41
Knights Templar, 203–4, 206, 229
Kolkata, 24
Kos (island), 37–38
Kublai Khan, 9
Kuert, Willy, 89
Kurdi family, 37–38
Kurds, 38
Kuznets curve, 220
Ladies’ Home Journal, The, 75
Lancaster, University of, 31
Lancet, The, 58
LEGO, 72
Leonardo da Vinci, 139
Lesotho, 268
Levinson, Marc, 98–99
Liberté, La (newspaper), 109
Liebig, Justus von, 56–59, 192n
Limited liability companies (LLCs), 9, 145–49, 202, 232
Lincoln, Abraham, 21
Lineage (video game), 73
Lisbon, 278
Lithium-ion batteries, 168, 170, 193–95
Liverpool, 188
Lloyd, Edward, 266–67
Lloyd’s of London, 267
Locke, John, 23–24
London, 36, 89, 92, 188, 223, 266–67
department stores in, 83–86
electricity-generating station in, 92
insurance companies in, 266–67
newspapers in, 173, 249, 253–54
opera houses in, 16
sewage in, 249–51
timekeeping in, 176–79
Long, Huey, 49
Longitude (Sobel), 178n
Lonie, Susie, 229
Los Angeles, 189
Louis XV, King of France, 122
Lovins, Amory, 124
Lowell (Massachusetts), 70, 72
Luanda, 278
Ludd, Ned, 274
Luxembourg, 215
Lycos, 31–32
Lymbery, Philip, 222
Lyon, fair of (1555), 205
Madison Square Theatre, 80
Mainz, 239
Makassar (Indonesia), 55
Mallorca, 140–41
Malta, 214
Management consultants, 33, 60, 84, 150–54
Manhattan Project, 102
Manila, 81
Manitoba, 50
Manorial system, 4
Mao Zedong, 148
Maoists, 232–33
Market research, 74–77
Marsh supermarkets, 104
Marshall, Alfred, 16–17
Marshall Field department store, 83
Marx, Karl, 49
Massachusetts, 70, 72. See also Boston
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 70–71, 136, 188
McAfee, Andrew, 44
McDonald, Duff, 152
McKinsey, James, 151–53
McKinsey & Company, 33
McLean, Malcom, 98–101, 109, 166, 202
Medicaid, 47
Menlo Park (New Jersey), 127
“Merchandising of Automobiles: An Address to Retailers, The” (Parlin), 74, 75, 77
Merton, Robert K., 76
Mesopotamia, 129–32
Mickey Mouse, 24
Miller, Amalia, 68
Miller, Geoffrey, 77
Miller Brewing Company, 104
Minecraft, 72
Mirror writing, 139
Misogyny, 5
Mobile phones, 193, 252–53, 268, 179
money transfer service on, 227–31, 273
See also iPhone
Model T, 75–77
Mokyr, Joel, 165
Molay, Jacques de, 206
Moldboard plow, 3–4
Money, 8–9, 11, 79, 97, 100–101
foreign, in banana republics, 108
in online marketplaces, 25, 34, 72
penny-pinching to save, 98
in performing industry, 15–18
in sports, 18
in virtual worlds, 72–73
in welfare states, 48
Money: The Unauthorized Biography (Martin), 112
Mongolians, 9
Monier, Joseph, 263
More, Thomas, 50
Mormons, 33
Motorola, 193
Mount Vesuvius, 261
Movable type. See under Printing press
M-Paisa, 227–28, 229. See also M-Pesa
MP3 format, 18–19
Mumbai, 150
Munich, 267
Royal Bavarian Polytechnic of, 172
Musk, Elon, 195
Mussolini, Benito, 49
Myanmar. See Burma
Mycenaeans, 261
MySpace, 275
Nanotechnology, 194
Napoleon. See Bonaparte, Napoleon
Napoleon III, Emperor of France, 37
Nasdaq index, 245
National Association of Food Chains (NAFC), 103
National Science Foundation, 169
National Security Agency (NSA), 135, 137–38
Native Americans, 21–24
Navy, U.S., 162
Nazis, 135, 185, 187–88, 213, 224
Nespresso, 209
Nesta (foundation), 272
Netflix, 25
Nevada, 195
Nevis, 38
New York City, 79, 80, 84–85, 92, 108, 123, 179, 196
World’s Fair (1853), 122
New Yorker, The, 152
Newspapers, 8, 18, 109, 114, 188, 240
copyrights and, 156
coverage of Diesel’s death in, 173, 174
Niemeyer, Oscar, 261
Nikkei index, 245
Nile River, 130
Ningbo (China), 242
Nobel Prize, 9, 145, 183, 188, 224, 245
Norrath, 72–73
Northern Europe, 3–4
Oelgert, Ernest, 217–18
Offshore banking. See Tax havens
Ola (ride service), 30
Oléron (island), 204
Olympics, 18
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 215
Organization for Standardization, International (ISO), 89
Orinoco River, 108
Otis, Elisha, 122
Oxford University, Ashmolean Museum at, 112, 115
Pac-Man, 70
Pakistan, 130
Pantheon (Rome), 262
Paper, 7–10, 79, 115, 161–62, 196, 199, 205, 239–43
Paper money, 90, 113, 132, 255–59
Paperless office, 9
International Exhibition (1867), 263
Park, Jisung, 82
Parlin, Charles Coolidge, 74–77
Parmalat scandal, 143
Patents, 16, 123, 155–58, 212, 250
expiration of, 209–10
for food preservation techniques, 62
for reinforced concrete, 263
Pavlovian reflexes, 70
PDP-1 computer, 71
Pearl Harbor, 162
Peloponnese, 261
Perforated Paper Company, British, 161
Persia, 177
Pew Research, 14
Philadelphia, 102
Philip IV, King of France, 206
Philippines, 235
Phonograph. See Gramophone
Pisa, 140
Pixar, 170
Planes. See Air travel
Plastic, 19, 150, 196–200, 208, 252, 255
PlayStation, 209–10
Plows, 1–5, 7, 9–11, 23, 53, 128, 165, 285n6
types of, 3–4
Pneumococcal Advanced Market Commitment, 225n, 272
Pokémon Go, 73
Pokémon Jigglypuff, 70
Pollution, 1, 80, 174–75, 184, 219–20, 222
Pompeii, 261
Portinari, Benedetto, 139
Portugal, 278
Preemption Act (1841), 235
Premier League, 18
Printing press, 10, 104, 239–40, 243, 248
air-conditioning and, 79
for paper money, 258–59
Prius automobiles, 77
Prometheus, 129
Property registers, 232–36, 253
ProtoCycler, 199–200
Public-key cryptography, 10, 134–38, 202, 273
Puteoli (modern Pozzuoli, Italy), 261
Quantum computing, 138
QWERTY keyboard layout, 275
Railways, 37, 103, 143–44, 147, 151, 171, 263
timetables for, 176–77
Ramey, Valerie, 62
Razac, Olivier, 22
Reagan, Ronald, 81
Réaumur, René-Antoine Ferchault de, 242
Reinforced concrete, 90, 123, 263, 273
Remington Rand, 163
Resin Identification Codes, 199
Reyes, Jessica, 219
Reynolds, Joshua, 15
Rise of the Robots (Ford), 44
Rivest, Ron, 136
Robots, 41–45, 50, 63, 119, 274, 275
Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), 124–25
Roman Empire, 2–3, 49, 112, 277
coins from, 112
concrete construction in, 261–62
cooling method in, 78–79
cryptography in, 135
insurance in, 266
international trade in, 205
precursors of corporations in, 145
water pipes in, 219
Roman numerals, 139
Romania, 119
Roosevelt, Franklin D., 46, 188
Rosen, Sherwin, 17–18
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 24
Rover (dog care service), 27
Royal Academy of Arts (Britain), 15
Royal Bavarian Polytechnic of Munich, 172
RSA encryption, 136–37
Russell, Slug, 71
Sackett & Wilhelms Lithographing & Printing Company, 79
Safaricom, 229
St. John’s Church (Exeter, England), 176
St. Kitts, 38
St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School (London), 223
Samoa, 38
San Antonio, 20
Sanders, Mat, 120
Sanger, Margaret, 65
Saturday Evening Post, The, 75
Sawyer, Keith, 165
S-bend pipe, 250–51, 275. See also Flushing toilets
Schengen zone, 39
Schmandt-Besserat, Denise, 130–31
Scott de Martinville, Édouard-Léon, 16–17
Sears, Roebuck, 209
Sears Tower (now Willis Tower, Chicago), 121
Seattle, 242
Selfridge, Harry Gordon, 83–84, 86–87
Selfridge’s department store, 83–84, 86
Sexual politics, 4
Shamir, Adi, 136
Shea Terra Organics, 7
Shelley, Mary, 192
Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 192
Shining Path, 232
“Shipman’s Tale, The” (Chaucer), 144
Shipping containers, 96–101, 104, 110, 148, 166, 237, 274, 275
freight regulation obstacles to, 202
international standards for, 89
Sichuan Province (China), 256
Silicon Valley, 165, 170. See also Apple (company)
Singh, Simon, 136n
Siri
start-up company, 170
voice/virtual assistant, 168, 169–70
Skilling, Jeff, 153
Skyscrapers, 81, 90, 121–24, 263, 273
Slovenia, 215
Smartphones, 167–69, 179. See also iPhone
Smil, Vaclav, 174
Smith, Adam, 147
Snowden, Edward, 138
Sobel, Dava, 178n
Soluble Food for Babies, 56–58
Somerset (England), 112
Song Dynasty, 2
Sound-recording technology. See Gramophone
South Korea, 87
Southeast Asia, 30
Spinning jenny, 10
Sports broadcasting, 18
Stalin, Joseph, 148
Standard Oil, 217–18
Stanford Research Institute, 169
Stanford University, 31–32, 35, 134–35, 150, 151
Starbucks, 73
Steam engines, 10, 157–58, 275
elevators run by, 122
factory, 92–93
Stephenson, George, 147
Stewart, Alexander Turney, 84–86
Sulawesi (Indonesia), 55
Summa de arithmetica, geometria, proportioni et proportionalita (Pacioli), 141
Sun Belt, 81
Superstar economy, 18
Swanson food-processing company, 61, 166
Sweatshops, virtual, 72
Switzerland, 89, 120, 185, 213–14, 235, 267
Sydney Opera House, 261
Taipei, 199
Taobao (online marketplace), 26
Tax havens, 212–16
Taylor, Timothy, 278, 279, 281
Tebbit, Norman, 39
Telephones, 21, 127, 169, 198, 241. See also Mobile phones
Tellier, Charles, 109
Temple Church (London), 203–4
Tetraethyl lead, 231–32, 234–35
Tetris, 70
Thames River, 112, 249–53, 266
Thatcher, Margaret, 39
Thermo King, 109
Thornton, Denver, 117–18
Thoth (Egyptian god), 129, 133
Time magazine, 107
Timekeeping, 9, 176–80, 225n, 272
Tower of London, 204
Toy Story (film), 170
Tradable debt, 112–16
Trentmann, Frank, 86
Trewman’s Exeter Flying Post (newspaper), 176
Trinidad, 215
Troy (Ohio), 104
Tudor, Frederic, 79
Tukey, John, 169
Tupperware, 198
Twain, Mark, 183
Two-part pricing, 208, 209–11, 212
Tyranny, 5
U-bend pipe, 251
Ubico, General Jorge, 107, 111
Uganda, 110
Unflatpack.com, 117
Unimate robot, 42
United Company (in Gillette book), 207, 211
United Fruit Company, 107–8
United Kingdom, 47–48, 90, 153, 156, 214
Department for International Development (DFID), 228
See also Britain
United People’s Party, 211
United States of America, 16, 37, 59, 80, 90, 168, 264n, 274
agriculture in, 21–23
air-conditioning in, 80–82
airplane crashes in, 189–90
bar codes introduced in, 103–6
computer programming in, 161–63, 169
concrete construction in, 261
department stores in, 83–84, 86
elevators in, 121–24, 295n, 296n9
food preparation and consumption in, 60–64
free-market capitalism in, 148–49
household income in, 60
imports to, 108
index investing in, 245–48
intellectual property in, 155–56
land ownership in, 23–24
leaded gasoline in, 217–20
management consulting in, 151–53
marketing to consumers in, 74–77
mobile phone innovations in, 169
Naval Observatory, 178
paper consumption in, 241, 243
public-key cryptography in, 135–37
recycling in, 199
tax havens for businesses from, 212
in Vietnam War, 100
welfare state in, 46, 47, 49, 51
during World War II, 162, 166, 187–88
See also specific municipalities and states
Universal Product Code (UPC), 103
Uruk (Mesopotamia), 129
U.S. Steel, 151
Utah, 59
UTC (coordinated universal time), 178
Utopia (More), 50
U2, 15
Valencia, 141
Value added tax (VAT), 213
Vancouver (Canada), 38
Vanderbilt, Cornelius, 143
Vanguard, 246
Veblen, Thorstein, 77
Venezuela, 108
Versailles, Palace of, 122
Viagra, 68
Vienna, 83
Vikings, 112
Virgin Islands, 214
Virtual sweatshops, 72
Vitruvius, 219
Vodafone, 228–29
Volta, Alessandro, 192–93, 209
Wall Street Journal, The, 44
War on Want, 58
Warrior (cargo ship), 96–97, 100–101
Washington, George, 280
Washington, D.C., 73, 178, 218
Washington state, 242
Water, polluted or contaminated, 1, 72–73, 183–84, 199, 219, 249–51
Watson (IBM computer), 43–44
Watson Watt, Robert, 187
Wealth of Nations, The (Smith), 147
Webvan, 91
Weimar Germany, 258
Welfare state, 46–51, 202, 268, 275
Westerman, Wayne, 169
Western Eurasia, 2
Westminster, Palace of, 112, 116
Where Good Ideas Come From (Johnson), 165
Wiener, Anthony J., 271
Wilkins, Skip, 187
Willis Tower (ex–Sears Tower, Chicago), 121
Windows software, 160–61
Wisconsin, 75
Woodhead, Lindy, 86–87
Woodland, Joseph, 102–3, 105, 166
World Bank, 150, 151, 154, 236
“Economics of Sanitation Initiative,” 252
World Health Organization, 251
World Summit for Sustainable Development, 228
World War I, 40, 182, 185, 213
World War II, 63, 89, 102, 109, 166, 173, 214
atomic bomb development during, 102
codebreaking during, 135
medical cold chain for injured soldiers during, 109
plastics as alternative to natural resources during, 198
radar in, 188
rations for U.S. troops during, 61
women in U.S. Navy in, 162
World Wide Web, 10, 32, 91, 135, 168, 202. See also Internet
WorldCom scandal, 143
World’s Fairs
New York (1853), 122
Paris (1900), 174
Wozniak, Steve, 167
Wright, Frank Lloyd, 261
Writing, 8–10, 129–33, 237, 239–40, 272
of numbers, 139
Wuxi (China), 222
Xiaogang (China), 233
Year 2000: A Framework for Speculation, The (Kahn and Weiner), 271
Yellen, Janet, 9
Yellow Pages, 33
Yogyakarta, 55
Yonkers (New York), 196
Yoshino, Akira, 193
Ypres, battle of, 182
Zimbabwe, 258
Zuckerberg, Mark, 57
Zucman, Gabriel, 214–15
Zurich, 267