In this book, Nobel laureate Robert Lucas collected his works on economic growth - from the key article "On the Mechanics of Economic Development" to previously unpublished lectures in honor of Simon Kuznets in 1997. Lucas goes from a general theory of how economic growth can be supported and why growth rates in different countries can vary, to explaining the unexpected growth spurt with the onset of the industrial revolution and predicting growth patterns in the 21st century. Lucas emphasizes the importance of accumulating both physical and human capital, showing such positive externalities of human capital as the dissemination of new knowledge or workplace training. Lectures in honor of Simon Kuznets are devoted to the interaction between the growth of human capital and the demographic transition in the initial stages of industrialization. In the last chapter, Lucas uses the diffusion model to illustrate the possibility that the significant income inequality created during the industrial revolution has reached its highest point and that the income gap will gradually narrow in the 21st century.