An Economic History of the Twentieth Century
J. Bradford DeLong
简介
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.
contents
Introduction: My Grand Narrative / 1
1. Globalizing the World / 27
2. Revving Up the Engine of Technology-Driven Growth / 59
3. Democratizing the Global North / 85
4. Global Empires / 115
5. World War I / 141
6. Roaring Twenties / 165
7. The Great Depression / 205
8. Really-Existing Socialism / 235
9. Fascism and Nazism / 259
10. World War II / 283
11. The Cold War of Hostile Yet Coexisting Systems / 311
12. False (and True) Starts to Economic Development in the Global South / 339
13. Inclusion / 373
14. Thirty Glorious Years of Social Democracy / 395
15. The Neoliberal Turn / 427
16. Reglobalization, Information Technology, and Hyperglobalization / 461
17. Great Recession and Anemic Recovery / 485
Conclusion: Are We Still Slouching Towards Utopia / 519
Acknowledgments / 537
Notes / 539
Index / 579