Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century. J. Bradford DeLong

The Story of the Dizzying Ascent to Utopia: The Modern Economic Odyssey from AC Electricity to the Gender Pay Gap

Until 1870, humanity lived in abject poverty, with the slow pace of inventions being compensated for by population growth. Then came the great shift, and for 140 years—the “long 20th century”—inventions surged forward, doubling technological capabilities and radically transforming economies, ending near-universal material poverty. Our ancestors assumed we would use these capabilities to build a utopia, but more than 150 years later, the “long 20th century” is over, and we are faced with global warming, economic depression, uncertainty, inequality, and the worst and bloodiest tyrannies ever known. Why?

Economics professor Bradford DeLong explores how this unprecedented explosion of material wealth came about, how it transformed the world, and why we are still on the way, not at our destination, and at best only slowly moving toward utopia. With astonishing breadth and ambition, The Course to Utopia demonstrates how and why the past century has been less a march of progress than a slouching in the right direction.