The content of Progress Studies for Young Scholars is mostly the history of technology. However, our approach to the subject is different than the one often taken by popular histories of technology. Many popular treatments focus on personalities, such as...
Progress Studies for Young Scholars covers the history of technology. But students who go through the course aren’t just learning history: to fully appreciate the story of progress also requires forays into science, engineering, finance, and economics. Science and engineering form the background for stories...
We're happy to announce that students can now earn a semester of high school credit for successfully completing Progress Studies for Young Scholars. Additionally, for students in California who are interested in applying to UCs and state schools, the course has been approved for A–G purposes, meeting requirement...
Here’s a high-level outline of the six-week course: We start with the big, historical phenomenon that motivates the course: the dramatic rise of global living standards since about 1800. We look at what life was like for our prehistoric, hunter-gatherer ancestors,...
When the concept of “progress studies” was introduced by Patrick Collison and Tyler Cowen in The Atlantic, it was defined as a dedicated field of study for “the combination of economic, technological, scientific, cultural, and organizational advancement that has transformed our lives and raised...
Why study the story of human progress? 50,000 years ago, our ancestors lived at the mercy of nature. They had stone tools, and the use of fire—and not much else. They had no agriculture: they survived by hunting and foraging....
Our guest speakers include experts on the history of science, technology, and industry, as well as those on the frontier. It’s open to all—sign up for our mailing list to get event invitations.