# How Did the Western World Get Rich?

**URL:** <https://www.libertarianism.org/podcasts/free-thoughts/how-did-the-western-world-get-rich>

**By** Stephen Davies, Aaron Ross Powell, Trevor Burrus

**Published:** June 20, 2019

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Stephen Davies joins us today to discuss how we live in a social and economic world that's fundamentally different from the one of our ancestors.

How did the modern dynamist economy of wealth and opportunity come about? The processes of transformational changes could have started many times in history - but they first became sustained in North-West Europe about 240 years ago. The question of why this happened in that particular place and time is one that has exercised generations of scholars.

What is modernity? What is a 'civilization'? What is considered 'western civilization'? What is the moral economy? How could you make a living before the Enlightenment? Are there different kinds of modernity? What is economic nationalism?

## Further Reading:

[The Wealth Explosion: The Nature and Origins of Modernity](https://www.amazon.com/Wealth-Explosion-Nature-Origins-Modernity/dp/1912224593), written by Stephen Davies

[The Great Realignment: Understanding Politics Today](https://www.cato-unbound.org/2018/12/10/stephen-davies/great-realignment-understanding-politics-today), written by Stephen Davies

[How the World Got Modern](https://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/11/02/stephen-davies/how-world-got-modern), written by Stephen Davies

## Related Content:

David Hume Encyclopedia [entry](https://www.libertarianism.org/encyclopedia/hume-david)

[Hume and the Politics of Enlightenment](https://www.libertarianism.org/podcasts/free-thoughts/hume-and-the-politics-of-enlightenment), Free Thoughts Podcast

[The Politics of Modernism](https://www.libertarianism.org/columns/politics-modernism), written by David S. D'Amato