Joel Mokyr is one of our finest economic historians, and his latest book on the Industrial Revolution in Britain, The Enlightened Economy, lives up to the adjective 'magisterial'. I reviewed it here recently. One of our finest economists, Ed Glaeser, has written a wise review of a wise book in The New Republic:

“Mokyr belongs to a group of economists who emphasize the importance
of political institutions that encourage investment by protecting
private property, but he again shows restraint: “Effective property
rights are rightly considered crucial for economic development, but they
were not the entire story.” He also emphasizes the human capital—the
skills and talents—of eighteenth-century Britain,… and …  the technical skills:
clock-making, mining, shipbuilding.

While the reader craves a simple explanation, there is none to be
had. The entire question of why the industrial revolution started in
England will never be definitively answered. The event was sui generis—a
one-off, as the English say—a bolt of lightning; and there are a myriad
of possible explanations for it. Some of those theories can be
rejected, but many of them remain reasonable.”

I commend both the review and the book. Deirdre McCloskey, always worth reading, has also reviewed it.