Slouching Towards Utopia
An Economic History of the Twentieth Century
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 have used such powers to build utopia. But it was not so. When 1870–2010 ended, the world instead saw global warming; economic depression, uncertainty, and inequality; and broad rejection of the status quo.
Economist Brad DeLong's Slouching Towards Utopia tells the 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 the last century to have been less a march of progress than a slouch in the right direction.
Basic Books; 1st edition (September 6, 2022)
Excerpt
Our Ancestors Thought We'd Build an Economic Paradise. Instead We Got 2022 — TIME
Review
The Professional Utopians — Los Angeles Review of Books
Interview
Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Wealthy and Miserable 20th Century — LIT HUB
