Slouching Towards Utopia

Starred review from August 1, 2022
Spectacular economic growth in the long 20th century fueled visionary hopes, but never quite fulfilled them, according to this sweeping study. UC Berkeley economic historian DeLong (coauthor, Concrete Economics) surveys the period from 1870 to 2010, an era when, he argues, advances in global shipping, vertically integrated corporations, and new technologies hatched in industrial research labs created an unprecedented rise in productivity that for the first time raised humanity out of poverty. It was also a period when economic theories and crises drove history, from the pursuit of a communist utopia in the Soviet Union to the Great Depression that propelled Hitler to power in Germany. Beneath the century’s upheavals, DeLong sees a perennial tension between economic theorists Friedrich von Hayek, who anathematized state interference in free markets, and Karl Polanyi, who insisted that state intervention is needed to protect society from the disruptions of profit-maximizing market economies. (DeLong blames Hayekian market fundamentalism for dissuading the U.S. government from undertaking enough deficit spending to spur recovery from the Great Recession of 2008.) The author conveys a wealth of information in elegant, accessible prose, combining grand, epochal perspectives with fascinating discursions on everything from alternating-current electricity to the gender wage gap. The result is a cogent interpretation of economic modernity that illuminates both its nigh-miraculous achievements and its seething discontents.

August 1, 2022
A survey of the monumental transformations--and failed promises--brought about by an extraordinary rise in prosperity. DeLong, a Berkeley professor of economics, offers a sweeping account of economic history over the "long twentieth century"--1870 to 2010. Those years, he argues, were "the most consequential years of all humanity's centuries," in which "the most important historical thread was what anyone would call the economic one, for it was the century that saw us end our near-universal dire material poverty." The book's "grand narrative" charts how, in response to increased globalization and the development of modern research facilities and corporate business structures, wealth increased remarkably for a large proportion of the world's population, prompting radical changes to long-standing social and political configurations. As the author's mix of close economic analyses and illustrative "vignettes" demonstrates, this upsurge in prosperity incited utopian dreams but repeatedly failed--sometimes spectacularly--to realize them. At the end of the period in question, DeLong concludes, optimism about progress in eliminating extreme poverty and more equitably distributing wealth was at a low ebb, and faith in America as a leader in such efforts is in marked decline. This is a lengthy text, and some of the chapters meander unnecessarily, but overall, the author ably anatomizes his subject with admirable clarity, offering accessible and illuminating explanations of key historical shifts and the socio-economic forces driving them. Among the most gripping and persuasive chapters are those that explain the acceleration of globalization in the late 19th century, the causes of the Great Depression (and what might have mitigated it), and the origins and implications of the rise of neoliberalism at the end of the 20th century. A sprawling but carefully argued, edifying account of modern economic history and its impact on global well-being.

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Starred review from September 9, 2022

DeLong (economics, Univ. of California, Berkeley; Macroeconomics) believes the 140 years from 1870 to 2010 were the most progressive in human history. Delong asserts changes began in 1870 when industrial research laboratories, advanced technology, and the modern corporation were created, becoming the foundations for organizations and research to progress to full globalization. This book shows that the history of the 20th century is made up of several things: technologically fueled growth and globalization, which progressive Americans had the confidence would also help governments with their political and economic problems. VERDICT This volume, partly an economic history but mostly a thorough record of the global economy's connection with politics, is destined to become a classic in its category. Social sciences and history collections would benefit the most from this book.--Claude Ury

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