Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century

Description

From one of the world's leading economists, a grand narrative of the century that made us richer than ever, yet left us unsatisfied. Before 1870, humanity lived in dire poverty, with a slow crawl of invention offset by a growing population. Then came a great shift: invention sprinted forward, doubling our technological capabilities each generation and utterly transforming the economy again and again. Our ancestors would have presumed we would use such powers to build utopia, but it was not so. When 1870-2010 ended, the world instead saw global warming, economic depression, uncertainty, inequality, and broad rejection of the status quo. Slouching Towards Utopia tells the sweeping story of how this unprecedented explosion?of material wealth?occurred,?how it transformed the globe, and?why?it?failed to deliver us to utopia.?Of remarkable breadth and ambition,?it?reveals how the last century was much less?a march of progress?than?a slouch?in the right direction.

J. Bradford DeLong is a professor of economics at UC Berkeley and was a research associate at the NBER, 1990-2018. He was Deputy Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury, 1993-1995. Throughout his career and in his blog Grasping for Reality he has tried to straddle the fields of economics, history, and public education. Previous books include The End of Influence (Basic US, 2010) and Concrete Economics (Harvard Business School, 2016).

Brad DeLong learnedly and grippingly tells the story of how all the economic growth since 1870 has created a global economy that today satisfies no one's ideas of fairness. The long journey toward economic justice and more equal rights and opportunities for all shall and will continue -- Thomas Piketty, #1 New York Times bestselling author of 'Capital in the Twenty-First Century' This is a brilliant and important book. It offers an original and penetrating analysis of what its author calls "the long 20th century", the period of unprecedented economic advance that began roughly in 1870 and ended, he asserts, in 2010. Material abundance poured upon humanity. Previous generations would have thought such wealth to be a guarantee of utopia. Yet the age of material progress has ended not in a utopia, but in recrimination and discord. No book has explained the successes and failures of this extraordinary period with comparable insight -- Martin Wolf The period 1870-2010 - what DeLong calls the "long twentieth century" - saw the world break decisively free of its Malthusian chains, with levels of per capita economic growth without any parallel in human history. This wonderfully researched and written book explains the roots of this vertiginous ascent towards utopia, while also exposing the causes of the subsequent flat-lining in our economic fortunes and what action is now needed to ensure the long century is viewed by future historians as the historical rule, not the exception -- Andrew G. Haldane, Chief Executive of the RSA and former Chief Economist at the Bank of England History provides the only data we have for charting a course forward in these turbulent times. I have not seen a more revealing and illuminating book about economics and what it means in a very long time. Slouching Towards Utopia should be required reading for anybody who cares about the future of the global system, and that should be everyone -- Lawrence H. Summers, Harvard University What a joy to finally have Brad DeLong's masterful interpretation of twentieth-century economic history down on paper. Slouching Towards Utopia is engaging, important, and awe-inspiring in its breadth and creativity -- Christina Romer, University of California, Berkeley An intellectually exciting and entertaining gallop along the arc of twentieth century economic history. DeLong puts together the puzzle of the past to tell a story of remarkable achievements as well as setbacks. A great way to understand the forces that have shaped the world today -- Minouche Shafik, Director, London School of Economics and Political Science Brad DeLong manages brilliantly to combine detailed analysis of a huge sweep of global history with an accessible and engaging narrative. The result is a book full of well founded and penetrating insights that will appeal to anyone interested in the causes and consequences of modern economic growth -- Robert C Allen, Distinguished Professor of Economic History at New York University, Abu Dhabi, and a Senior Research Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford Impressed . . . eloquent and clear . . . makes one sad for the utopian possibilities that might have been realized -- Emanuel Derman, author of 'My Life as a Quant' and 'The Volatility Smile' Like many people, I've been eagerly anticipating Brad Delong's Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the 20th Century, and it doesn't disappoint . . . it (is) an unmissable book . . . The strength of the book - as well as its immense scope and depth . . . is that it's a work of political economy, braiding the different strands of ideas, Hayek, Polanyi and Keynes . . . In addition, there are plenty of pleasing asides and details. Definitely one to read. -- Diane Coyle A magisterial history . . . asks the right questions and teaches us a lot of crucial history along the way -- Paul Krugman A masterfully sweeping account . . . a joy to read. Few economic historians have as fluent a grasp of political or military history or, more important, write as lucidly and with such great flair about these subjects -- Liaquat Ahamed, Foreign Affairs