The invention of enterprise : entrepreneurship from ancient Mesopotamia to modern times / edited by David S. Landes, Joel Mokyr, and William J. Baumol.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Foreword / Carl J. Schramm -- Preface: the entrepreneur in history / William J. Baumol -- Acknowledgments / William J. Baumol and Robert J. Strom -- Introduction: global enterprise and industrial performance : an overview / David S. Landes -- Entrepreneurs : from the Near Eastern takeoff to the Roman collapse / Michael Hudson -- Neo-Babylonian entrepreneurs / Cornelia Wunsch -- The scale of entrepreneurship in Middle Eastern history : inhibitive roles of Islamic institutions / Timur Kuran -- Entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship in medieval Europe / James M. Murray -- Tawney's century, 1540-1640 : the roots of modern capitalist entrepreneurship / John Munro -- The golden age of the Dutch Republic / Oscar Gelderblom -- Entrepreneurship and the industrial revolution in Britain / Joel Mokyr -- Entrepreneurship in Britain, 1830-1900 / Mark Casson and Andrew Godley -- History of entrepreneurship : Britain, 1900-2000 / Andrew Godley and Mark Casson -- History of entrepreneurship : Germany after 1815 / Ulrich Wengenroth -- Entrepreneurship in France / Michel Hau -- Entrepreneurship in the antebellum United States / Louis P. Cain -- Entrepreneurship in the United States, 1865-1920 / Naomi R. Lamoreaux -- Entrepreneurship in the United States, 1920-2000 / Margaret B.W. Graham -- An examination of the supply of financial credit to entrepreneurs in colonial India / Susan Wolcott -- Chinese entrepreneurship since its late imperial period / Wellington K.K. Chan -- Entrepreneurship in pre-World War II Japan : the role and logic of the Zaibatsu / Seiichiro Yonekura and Hiroshi Shimizu -- "Useful knowledge" of entrepreneurship : some implications of the history / William J. Baumol and Robert J. Strom.

This work provides a sweeping history of enterprise in Mesopotamia and Neo-Babylon; carries the reader through the Islamic Middle East; offers insights into the entrepreneurial history of China, Japan, and colonial India; and describes the crucial role of the entrepreneur in innovation activity in the Western world.