Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century

An instant New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller from one of the world's leading economists: this "magisterial history" offers a grand narrative of the century that made us richer than ever, but left us unsatisfied (Paul Krugman)

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.

Named a Best Book of 2022 by Financial Times * Economist * Fast Company

Author: J. Bradford DeLong
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: 11/07/2023
Pages: 624
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.20lbs
Size: 8.10h x 5.40w x 1.90d
ISBN13: 9781541604247
ISBN10: 1541604245
BISAC Categories:
- Business & Economics | Economic History
- History | Modern | 20th Century | General
- History | United States | 20th Century

About the Author
J. Bradford DeLong, an economic historian, is a professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley. He was a deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury during the Clinton administration. He writes a widely read economics blog, now at braddelong.substack.com. He lives in Berkeley, California.