I wrote a book five years ago called The Most Important Book in Human History. The title was not facetious. I call attention to the unique series of accidents that made America the powerhouse that created the modern commercial world. The congruence of the weak national government, the even weaker hereditary elite, the vast and abundant Great West with the egalitarian values of an immigrant populace brought about this unique historic miracle.
I wrote the book out of the fear that the centrality of our history to modern life is not understood by most Americans and can be lost in the wave of Luddite wokieism that has reared its ugly head in our wonderful country.
I am slowly finding good history books that fill in some of the details. The best so far is The Dawn of Innovation: The First American Industrial Revolution by Charles R. Morris.
Morris understands the geometric growth of modern commerce in America in the pre-Civil War era and the decline of Britain in the half- century afterwards. He does a superb job of finding visitors to America who comment on the egalitarian drive of middle- class Americans and their natural commercial orientation. He does an especially good job of showing the role of the Ohio Valley in generating nationally oriented businesses. He identifies many specific industries and businesses that played important roles in innovation and in creating national and global markets.
At this point I would add what neither he nor I have mentioned, that the Masonic Order provided a national society that brought innovators and financing together on the vast continent. The details of that remain to be written.