Power and Progress challenges the assumption that technological advancement automatically benefits society, arguing instead that technology's effects depend on who controls it and for what purposes. Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson, economists at MIT, trace a thousand years of technological change to show that innovation often enriches the powerful while leaving workers worse off. From medieval watermills controlled by lords to modern algorithms controlled by tech companies, the authors demonstrate that technology is shaped by social choices, not inevitable progress. They examine the Industrial Revolution, showing how initial mechanization impoverished workers before reforms eventually spread benefits more widely. The lesson for today: artificial intelligence and automation will not automatically create shared prosperity but could instead concentrate wealth further without policy intervention. Acemoglu and Johnson offer prescriptions for redirecting technological development toward human benefit, including stronger worker voice, different tax incentives, and competition policy addressing tech monopolies. For readers concerned about technology's future impacts—and whether AI will create abundance or deepen inequality—this book provides historical perspective and a framework for thinking about choices still to be made.