Joël Mokyr, La culture de la croissance. Les origines de l’économie moderne, traduit par Pierre-Emmanuel Dauzat - Coll. Bibliothèque des Histoires, Gallimard, 2020, 576 p

In this book, which brings together the results of the "Joseph Schumpeter" lectures Mokyr gave in Graz in November 2010, Mokyr examines the reasons for Europe's exceptional economic growth, offering an original position by placing the burden of this exemplarity not so much on the institutions or innovations that underpin it, but on the nature of European culture. How does the cultural change that took place in Europe between 1500 and 1700 explain the exceptional economic growth of the modern economy? This was due to cultural entrepreneurs who were influential enough to change the cultural menu and persuade large numbers of people to adopt their cultural variant. In this article, we return to the origins of Mokyr's thesis before highlighting its main arguments. In so doing, we will question Mokyr's definition of the cultural entrepreneur and draw parallels with the literature on entrepreneurship and cultural entrepreneurship in particular, while putting Mokyr's thesis into perspective.