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Books by Thomas Piketty
Thomas Piketty is a French economist whose work focuses on wealth and income inequality. He is a professor at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences and at the Paris School of Economics. He is the author of the best-selling book Capital in the Twenty-First Century.
“Piketty’s doorstopper books have been bestsellers but his latest, A Brief History of Equality, is short and so a nice introduction to his approach. As some commentators have pointed out, it’s also a little more optimistic, which we probably all need right now” Read more...
Notable Nonfiction of Spring 2022
Sophie Roell, Journalist
Capital and Ideology
by Thomas Piketty
"I find the study of belief systems to be a lot more fun than calculating ratios between deciles of income." —Thomas Piketty.
Following on from his bestselling (and often recommended on Five Books) Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Thomas Piketty turns his attention in his latest book to the grand forces of history and politics and how they underpin the global economy. Piketty argues for a new "participatory" socialism.
We interviewed French economist Thomas Piketty on the books that inspired Capital and Ideology.
“When Piketty gets into the data, you really see that the metaphor is peeling an onion: the top 10% has done better than the other 90% but the top 10% of them, the 1%, has done much better again. The professional classes have held their own but not really gained much, and within that 1%, the top 0.1% has done really well and so on and so forth until you get to the 26 people who own more than the bottom three billion.” Read more...
The best books on Learning Economics
John Quiggin, Economist
“Some very interesting things have been going on in the top 10%, and especially the top 1%. Atkinson, Piketty and Saez have really been pioneers in this and this article is an overview of much of their research…Occupy Wall Street has brought the 1% to the attention of the wider public, but it was Atkinson, Piketty and Saez who brought it to the attention of the academic community” Read more...
Daron Acemoglu, Economist
Interviews with Thomas Piketty
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1
The Great Demarcation: The French Revolution and the Invention of Modern Property
by Rafe Blaufarb -
2
Gold and Freedom: The Political Economy of Reconstruction
by Nicolas Barreyre -
3
Citizenship between Empire and Nation: Remaking France and French Africa, 1945-1960
by Frederick Cooper -
4
Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India
by Nicholas B. Dirks -
5
The Emergence of Globalism: Visions of World Order in Britain and the United States, 1939–1950
by Or Rosenboim
The best books on Historical Change and Economic Ideology, recommended by Thomas Piketty
The best books on Historical Change and Economic Ideology, recommended by Thomas Piketty
Throughout history, social and economic inequalities have been fueled and justified by different ideologies. French economist Thomas Piketty’s latest book, Capital and Ideology, looks at the advent and fall of these ideologies, and how they could evolve in the future. He recommends five great books to better understand these complex and always-evolving ideas, and their consequences for the world.
Interviews where books by Thomas Piketty were recommended
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1
The Race between Education and Technology
by Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F Katz -
2
Top Incomes in the Long Run of History
by Emmanuel Saez, Thomas Piketty & Tony Atkinson -
3
Why Nations Fail
by Daron Acemoglu & James Robinson -
4
Unequal Democracy
by Larry M Bartels -
5
13 Bankers
by James Kwak & Simon Johnson
The best books on Inequality, recommended by Daron Acemoglu
The best books on Inequality, recommended by Daron Acemoglu
The US, the UK and many other countries around the globe have become far less equal over the past 30 years. It’s important we understand how and why this happened, and what it means for our societies, says Daron Acemoglu, a professor of economics at MIT. He recommends the best books to get a better understanding of inequality.
The best books on Learning Economics, recommended by John Quiggin
We live in a society where it’s vital to have a good grasp of economics, but that doesn’t mean you need an economics degree to understand what it’s all about. Australian economist John Quiggin, author of Economics in Two Lessons, recommends books for learning about economics, all accessible to the general reader, and tries to dispel some of the myths about what it is professional economists do.
Peter Temin on An Economic Historian’s Favourite Books
Distinguished economic historian, Peter Temin, talks us through some of his favourite books. His own latest book, The Vanishing Middle Class, charts America’s regression towards a pre-industrial society: with many poor, a few rich, and not much in between.
George Monbiot — with An Essential Reading List
Writer and investigative journalist George Monbiot recommends books that have shaped him, and that are crucial reading for those wishing to navigate the current economic and environmental crises.
Notable Nonfiction of Spring 2022, recommended by Sophie Roell
In the past few months, lots of history books about the past as well as excellent insights into the present have hit the shelves. Some are gripping reads offering a few hours of escapism, others contributions to our human quest to make the world a better place. Some manage both. Five Books editor Sophie Roell offers a roundup of the most notable new books of nonfiction published in March, April and May 2022.
