[shadowtree]

The Wealth and Poverty of Nations - David S. Landes

Agree or disagree with his findings, but it was the first book I read as a teenager that tried to connect seemingly disparate things into a single narrative - culture, technology, luck.

Jared Diamond had a similar, but more simple premise.

I still think of certain passages of Landes' book to this day. The impact of clockworking, the start of the modern tech industry. The impact of protocol and bureaucracy, especially the Spanish one.