Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century

“What Brad argues is that between 1870 and 2010 we had an extraordinary period in human history in which, particularly in the Western world—but now spread globally—there were sustained high rates of growth of productivity and real incomes…He makes the provocative remark—which I think is actually true—that if we told our great great grandparents, in 1850, that by 2010 this is how many of us would live, they would have thought, ‘this is utopia!’…But he argues that in the last 13 years, the great productivity growth machine has stopped. It’s a very controversial view, but it seems we’re going back to the stagnant economies our great great grandparents—and everyone else going back for thousands of years—took for granted.” Read more...

The best books on Challenges Facing the World Economy

Martin Wolf, Economist

“It’s a book of titanic scope, covering not just the economic axis, which he emphasizes, but also the effects of the wrenching social changes of the period on North Atlantic political economy and the rise of neoliberalism. He’s tying together this great economic transformation with the dynamics of this period’s most important political movements, including the rise and fall of fascism and socialism. Particularly important to Brad is the three-sided intellectual debate between the two Austrians, Friedrich von Hayek and Karl Polanyi, and the British economist John Maynard Keynes…Our mistake was abandoning the postwar compromise of allying markets with tactical state guidance under the crises of the 1970s.” Read more...

The Best Economic History Books of 2022

Davis Kedrosky, Economist

“Slouching Towards Utopia is a rich, nuanced story of the interplay of politics, economics, and ideas and how they shaped progress…Brad DeLong does not try to develop a single simple, unified theory. Instead, his account emphasizes contingency, periods of progress, periods of regress, and ways in which ideas mattered. He focuses on the battle between Friedrich Hayek’s idea of free markets and Karl Polanyi’s ideas about the need for regulation. Brad believes political leaders do matter. All these factors are important if you want to understand why some economies grew in certain decades, but not others, or why, for instance, the United States became richer than Argentina, and why inequality fell for a while and then rose for a while. It portrays progress as halting, non-linear and not necessarily destined to continue.” Read more...

The Best Economics Books of 2022

Jason Furman, Economist

“A book that’s received a lot of coverage—including from Paul Krugman in the New York Times, who called it “magisterial”—is Slouching Towards Utopia by Brad DeLong. ‘Slouching’ is one of my favourite words, so I was happy to see it in a book title, though I don’t think it does justice to what’s been achieved in economic terms over the long 20^th century he covers. It’s been more of an exciting hurdle race with frequent and sometimes catastrophic crashes. DeLong is a macroeconomist at UC Berkeley who is also very interested in history (he first came to my attention for his ‘Liveblogging’ of World War II), and this book is valuable because it’s a global history of the 20^th century told by someone who understands economics. Over more than 500 pages, you’ll get historical details (eg why the Nazis were called the Nazis) but also his analysis of why, for example, China was economically behind Japan in the early 20^th century or Argentina has not been able to join the ranks of the wealthiest nations. After reading this book, you’ll want to read some Hayek and Polanyi, if you haven’t already.” Read more...

Nonfiction of 2022: Fall Roundup

Sophie Roell, Journalist