Economics
宏观经济学史 豆瓣
作者: [比]米歇尔·德弗洛埃 译者: 房誉 / 李雨纱 出版社: 北京大学出版社 2019 - 10
【内容简介】
本书系统介绍了从凯恩斯 《通论》到“卢卡斯革命”再到当今宏观经济学的思想发展历程,作者以简练且具有批判性的方式依次介绍了各个时期的重要模型——包括凯恩斯主义模型、货币主义模型、非瓦尔拉斯均衡模型、新兴古典宏观经济学模型、第一代新凯恩斯主义模型、RBC模型、第二代新凯恩斯主义模型等。作者注重剖析各个学派之间的异同和联系,强调方法论和思想性,辅之以经济学家自身的学术经历和当时的社会经济背景,并对宏观经济学的演化规律和未来发展方向提出了独到的见解,具有极高的学术价值。
本书对宏观经济学思想的评述系统、深刻,具有启发性,有助于经济学相关专业的教师、学生及相关领域的研究者增进对宏观经济学的理解。
【推荐语】
非常高兴看到《宏观经济学史》这部重要著作中文版的问世。它填补了目前中文世界因缺乏高水平专题经济学史而造成的空白。此书追根溯源,从凯恩斯、凯恩斯主义、新凯恩斯主义和DSGE模型入手,把现代主流宏观经济学缘起、嬗变和学术演化八十余年的历史脉络梳理得既清晰又专业,可读性很强。凡事,要知其然,更要知其所以然,宏观经济学的学习与研究自然也不例外。作者自述“我写该书的目的是为研究生和青年研究人员在‘技术型’学术训练之外提供必要的补充”,我认为,这个目的已经完全达到了。
——罗卫东,浙江大学副校长、经济学院教授
作为一门只有八十余年历史的年轻学科,宏观经济学见证了20世纪最深刻的萧条和最持久的繁荣,它是塑造现代国家治理体系的基础方法论之一,引领无数中外学者为之奉献一生。然而正所谓“凡是过往,皆为序章”,在全球宏观经济不确定性加剧的今天,如何审视当代宏观经济学的学术意义和实践意义,如何扬长避短、去粗取精,是当代宏观经济学者的历史责任。本书恰恰给我们提供了一个“穿透历史尘埃”的机会,让我们站在学术逻辑的源头一览群峰。
——陈彦斌,中国人民大学“杰出学者”特聘教授
随着现实经济的飞速发展,过去三十年宏观经济学关注的问题、分析的工具甚至思维方式都发生了翻天覆地的变化。本书对宏观经济学的发展历程和最新突破做了系统梳理,能够帮助读者厘清理论脉络、把握学术方向,是一本不可多得的理解宏观经济学来龙去脉和最新前沿的佳作。
——颜色,北京大学光华管理学院副教授
对经济工作者来说,读经济学史的意义并不在于以博古的心情来观察博物馆中的陈列,而在于体味经济学发展过程中蕴含的生命力,把握塑造了现代经济学的关键问题和重要思想,从而让我们对经济学理论为什么会是现在这样,以及以后可能会走向什么方向有更深的理解。就这一点来说,本书是一部优秀的宏观经济学史著作。通过这本宏观经济学的“族谱”,我们可以回到关键思想的历史源头处,跟随历史发展的脚步来读懂当代宏观经济学。
——徐高,中银国际证券总裁助理、首席经济学家
米歇尔·德弗洛埃教授在本书中并非简单地将理论罗列出来,而是对宏观经济学提出了独到的见解,或许这是他为撰写本书而在多年的学术研究中逐渐发展起来的。他对经济学抱有很高的期许,强调我们这些宏观经济学家在学术史上具有重要地位,并且对我们目前所取得的理论成就赞赏有加。但他也没有掩饰自己对这门学科的遗憾之情,他坚信虽然没有回头路可走,但长路漫漫,仍需求索。
——罗伯特·卢卡斯,芝加哥大学约翰·杜威杰出贡献教授
宏观经济学以八十年前凯恩斯的《通论》为起点,其经历的理论“革命”和“反革命”之多是其他经济学分支都没有经历过的。米歇尔·德弗洛埃教授的这本著作为这一时期宏观经济学主流理论的发展提供了一个既综合全面而又可读性颇高的概述。本书充分反映了每一种新理论范式出现时给学界带来的激动和欣喜,同时也指出了当下宏观经济学家们正面临的纯理论领域、实证领域以及政策建议领域愈发紧张的关系。
——乔迪·加利,庞培法布拉大学国家经济研究中心、巴塞罗那经济学研究生院教授
宏观经济学理论基本上是经由“革命”而发展起来的。诚然我们希望这门学科有一个更具线性或演进式的发展过程,希望大多数的新理论能够自然地契合,从而使宏观经济学的内核逐渐变得****。但鉴于现代经济学巨大的复杂性以及在方法选择上的重重困难,“革命”持续发生,这催使现有理论不断被破坏、陷入混沌并最终进行重建。理解这些革命的本质对于理解我们今天的处境是至关重要的,这恰恰是米歇尔·德弗洛埃教授在本书中取得的重要成果。阅读本书极具启发,充满乐趣。
——奥利维尔·J.布兰查德,麻省理工学院罗伯特·M索洛经济学教授
宏观经济学是一个复杂的思想演进体系。米歇尔·德弗洛埃教授的最新著作深入探讨了理论演进的复杂性,并通过区分马歇尔主义和瓦尔拉斯主义宏观经济学而使宏观经济学史更易于理解。遗憾的是许多经济学家并未作出类似的辨析。
——戴维·科兰德,明德学院杰出教授
德弗洛埃教授的作品读起来像一部游记,记述了他作为一名宏观经济学家的人生历程,以及他对沿途遇到的关键思想所作出的思辨性回应。他始终用深思熟虑和精辟透彻的笔触来激励读者重新思考我们如何到达今天的位置以及未来可能去向何方。
——佩里·梅林,波士顿大学帕迪全球研究学院教授
Narrative Economics 豆瓣 Goodreads
作者: Robert J. Shiller 出版社: Princeton University Press 2019 - 10
From Nobel Prizeâ€"winning economist and New York Times bestselling author Robert Shiller, a new way to think about how popular stories help drive economic events
In a world in which internet troll farms attempt to influence foreign elections, can we afford to ignore the power of viral stories to affect economies? In this groundbreaking book, Nobel Prizeâ€"winning economist and New York Times bestselling author Robert Shiller offers a new way to think about the economy and economic change. Using a rich array of historical examples and data, Shiller argues that studying popular stories that affect individual and collective economic behaviorâ€"what he calls "narrative economics"â€"has the potential to vastly improve our ability to predict, prepare for, and lessen the damage of financial crises, recessions, depressions, and other major economic events.
Spread through the public in the form of popular stories, ideas can go viral and move marketsâ€"whether it's the belief that tech stocks can only go up, that housing prices never fall, or that some firms are too big to fail. Whether true or false, stories like theseâ€"transmitted by word of mouth, by the news media, and increasingly by social mediaâ€"drive the economy by driving our decisions about how and where to invest, how much to spend and save, and more. But despite the obvious importance of such stories, most economists have paid little attention to them. Narrative Economics sets out to change that by laying the foundation for a way of understanding how stories help propel economic events that have had led to war, mass unemployment, and increased inequality.
The stories people tellâ€"about economic confidence or panic, housing booms, the American dream, or Bitcoinâ€"affect economic outcomes. Narrative Economics explains how we can begin to take these stories seriously. The result may be Robert Shiller's most important book to date.
Tea War 豆瓣 谷歌图书 Goodreads
作者: Andrew B. Liu 出版社: Yale University Press 2020 - 6
A history of capitalism in nineteenth- and twentieth-century China and India exploring the competition between their tea industries
Tea remains the world's most popular commercial drink today, and at the turn of the twentieth century, it represented the largest export industry of both China and colonial India. In analyzing the global competition between Chinese and Indian tea, Andrew B. Liu challenges past economic histories premised on the technical "divergence" between the West and the Rest, arguing instead that seemingly traditional technologies and practices were central to modern capital accumulation across Asia. He shows how competitive pressures compelled Chinese merchants to adopt abstract, industrial conceptions of time, while colonial planters in India pushed for labor indenture laws to support factory-style tea plantations. Further, characterizations of China and India as premodern backwaters, he explains, were themselves the historical result of new notions of political economy adopted by Chinese and Indian nationalists, who discovered that these abstract ideas corresponded to concrete social changes in their local surroundings. Together, these stories point toward a more flexible and globally oriented conceptualization of the history of capitalism in China and India.
The Size of Nations 豆瓣
作者: Alberto Alesina / Enrico Spolaore 出版社: MIT Press 2005 - 2
The authors of this timely and provocative book use the tools of economic analysis to examine the formation and change of political borders. They argue that while these issues have always been at the core of historical analysis, international economists have tended to regard the size of a country as "exogenous," or no more subject to explanation than the location of a mountain range or the course of a river. Alesina and Spolaore consider a country's borders to be subject to the same analysis as any other man-made institution. In The Size of Nations, they argue that the optimal size of a country is determined by a cost-benefit trade-off between the benefits of size and the costs of heterogeneity. In a large country, per capita costs may be low, but the heterogeneous preferences of a large population make it hard to deliver services and formulate policy. Smaller countries may find it easier to respond to citizen preferences in a democratic way.<br /> <br /> Alesina and Spolaore substantiate their analysis with simple analytical models that show how the patterns of globalization, international conflict, and democratization of the last two hundred years can explain patterns of state formation. Their aim is not only "normative" but also "positive" -- that is, not only to compute the optimal size of a state in theory but also to explain the phenomenon of country size in reality. They argue that the complexity of real world conditions does not preclude a systematic analysis, and that such an analysis, synthesizing economics, political science, and history, can help us understand real world events.
梁方仲遗稿(全8册) 豆瓣
作者: 梁方仲 出版社: 广东人民出版社 2018
本书由梁承邺研究员、李龙潜教授、黄启臣教授、刘志伟教授整理,系统收集整理著名经济史学家、中国社会经济史研究奠基者梁方仲先生的遗著,包括中英文读书笔记、听课笔记、明代督抚表列、明代地方志综录、统计表格、案头日历记事、与师友亲朋和相关机构的来往书信,以及与之有交游者题赠的扇面、部分遗墨等等。此次整理出版,对于保存珍稀学术遗产、推动相关领域学术研究具有重要意义。
The Dutch and English East India Companies 豆瓣
作者: Adam Clulow (ed.) / Tristan Mostert (ed.) 出版社: Amsterdam University Press 2018 - 8
The Dutch and English East India Companies were formidable organizations that were gifted with expansive powers that allowed them to conduct diplomacy, wage war and seize territorial possessions. But they did not move into an empty arena in which they were free to deploy these powers without resistance. Early modern Asia stood at the center of the global economy and was home to powerful states and sprawling commercial networks. The companies may have been global enterprises, but they operated in a globalized region in which they encountered a range of formidable competitors. This groundbreaking collection of essays explores the place of the Dutch and English East India Companies in Asia and the nature of their engagement with Asian rulers, officials, merchants, soldiers, and brokers. With contributions from some of the most innovative historians in the field, The Dutch and English East India Companies: Diplomacy, Trade and Violence in Early Modern Asia presents new ways to understand these organizations by focusing on their diplomatic, commercial, and military interactions with Asia.
Social and Economic Networks 豆瓣 Goodreads
Social and Economic Networks
作者: Matthew O. Jackson 出版社: Princeton University Press 2008 - 9
Review
Lucid and comprehensive, Jackson's book elegantly synthesizes several important strands of network science from sociology, physics, mathematics, computer science, and economics. It will be an immensely useful reference for researchers and students alike.
(Duncan Watts, Columbia University )
Product Description
Networks of relationships help determine the careers that people choose, the jobs they obtain, the products they buy, and how they vote. The many aspects of our lives that are governed by social networks make it critical to understand how they impact behavior, which network structures are likely to emerge in a society, and why we organize ourselves as we do. In Social and Economic Networks, Matthew Jackson offers a comprehensive introduction to social and economic networks, drawing on the latest findings in economics, sociology, computer science, physics, and mathematics. He provides empirical background on networks and the regularities that they exhibit, and discusses random graph-based models and strategic models of network formation. He helps readers to understand behavior in networked societies, with a detailed analysis of learning and diffusion in networks, decision making by individuals who are influenced by their social neighbors, game theory and markets on networks, and a host of related subjects. Jackson also describes the varied statistical and modeling techniques used to analyze social networks. Each chapter includes exercises to aid students in their analysis of how networks function.
This book is an indispensable resource for students and researchers in economics, mathematics, physics, sociology, and business.
行为经济学新进展 豆瓣
作者: 科林·F·凯莫勒 编 译者: 贺京同 出版社: 中国人民大学出版社 2010 - 1
《行为经济学新进展》内容简介:行为经济学又称为“心理学的经济学”,就是在心理学的基础上研究经济行为和经济现象的经济学分支学科。经济学的祖师爷亚当·斯密早就对此有深入的讨论,但直到20世纪70年代,心理学家卡尼曼和特维斯基才开始通过吸收认知心理学等领域的最新研究成果和方法,通过改造新古典经济学中的效用函数,建立起全新的个体选择模型,并激发后来的经济学家把相关研究领域拓展到经济学的各主要分支,从而形成了比较系统的“行为经济学”。《行为经济学新进展》就是行为经济学家在这方面得出的最具代表性的成果。
《行为经济学新进展》是一本论文集,书中作者均是行为经济学领域的最杰出者。全书总共26章,每一章都是独立的学术论文,并都在重要的学术期刊上正式发表过。这些论文分为两大类:一类讨论经济学的基本问题——偏好和选择;一类则讨论一些具体的经济现象,属于行为经济学思想和理论模型的应用部分。《行为经济学新进展》第一部分(第1章)全面地综述了行为经济学的来龙去脉、主要思想、存在的问题以及未来的发展趋势。第二部分(第2至13章)讨论了经济活动中参与人的偏好和选择问题,主要涉及四个方面的内容:一是禀赋效应和心智账户;二是不确定下的决策和前景理论;三是跨期决策和时间偏好;四是公平和社会偏好。《行为经济学新进展》的第三部分(第14至24章)展示了行为经济学家对三个主要经济领域的看法:一是宏观经济领域,主要涉及心智账户和自我控制对储蓄的影响;双曲线贴现和货币幻觉等对宏观经济政策的影响;以及社会偏好对就业的影响。二是劳动经济学方面,主要涉及公平和互惠等社会偏好对劳动供给以及经济参与人激励的影响。三是金融领域,也就是现在流行的行为金融学。该领域的三篇代表性论文分别展示了短视损失厌恶等心理因素对于股权溢价之谜、投资者行为以及房地产市场价格波动的作用。该书的最后一部分(第25章和第26章)则专门收入两篇论文,探讨个体决策的本质和过程,以期构建行为经济学的未来基石。
环境史学的起源和发展 豆瓣
作者: 包茂红 出版社: 北京大学出版社 2012 - 3
环境史研究方兴未艾。本书第一次以国家和地区分章分析世界环境史学的兴起原因、发展历程、主要学术观点、存在的问题和未来发展趋势;第一次采用口述史学的方法发掘了世界著名环境史学家对国际环境史学的历史和发展的认识。这两者相得益彰,共同构建出世界环境史学的完整图景。对环境史学的发展而言,本书有助于推动环境史学在新起点上再出发。对重构世界史而言,本书会提供新的思路和坚实的基础资料。对推动和谐社会和和谐世界建设而言,本书能提供一定的历史借鉴和启示。
经济理论的回顾 豆瓣
Economic Theory in Retrospect(5th Edition)
作者: 马克•布劳格 译者: 姚开建 出版社: 中国人民大学出版社 2009 - 1
本书描述了从亚当•斯密到凯恩斯,确切地说是从大卫•休谟到米尔顿•弗里德曼的经济学思想的历史,但这是一个不同的历史。
首先,这是关于经济学理论而不是关于经济学教条的历史,换句话说,它只注重理论分析。其次,它包括了具体的读者导读(Reader’s Guide),其内容涵盖经济学史上的九大重要著作,作者分别是亚当•斯密,李嘉图,穆勒,马克思,马歇尔,威克斯蒂德,威克塞尔,瓦尔拉斯和凯恩斯。这也是为了鼓励学生从一开始就对伟大经济学家的作品更加熟悉。
这本书该怎么读?答案是从头到尾。但是,这答案从来不能满足那些喜爱钻进书里,仔细一页一页浏览的读者。对那些读者,必须强调的是,书中的论点是逐渐建立起来的,另外后面的章节要用到前面几章介绍过的知识:书中有大量关于以前所介绍的内容的小结,没有一章是完全自给自足的。简而言之,这是本书用来学习经济学,学习“昨天的”和“今天的” 经济学。
第五版在原来7篇关于经济学著作的读者导读的基础上,添加了新的关于瓦尔拉斯的Elements of Pure Economics 和凯恩斯的General Theory of Employment,Interest and Money 的读者导读。另外对关于斯密,李嘉图和马克思的章节有少量但十分重要的附加内容,主要的附加内容都是关于边际生产力理论,一般均衡理论以及福利经济学的章节。关于现代宏观经济学的论述被大量修改,进一步阅读提示(Notes on Further Readings)也得到了修整和更新。
“据说只有一个马克•布劳格,经济思想史的老前辈。不过事实上有五位,而且每一个都比他前任更优秀。这本他巨著(magnum opus)的最新版——严谨而又充满智慧,虔诚而又打破常规,其不变的核心是充满着新的洞察力——是最好的一版。我不能想象一个学者的阅读文献中——或说一个学生的文献——没有它会是什么样。”
——Robert Heilbroner
“当说到经济思想和理论史的研究时,马克•布劳格的《经济理论的回顾》是在过去30年的同类文献中分析最透彻,最具深度、广度,最具有学术意义的优秀的作品。从这种意义上来说,本书的新的,修订过的第五版的出现是特别有价值的。尽管该学科面临的来自数学分析方法的威胁有所消退,但危险可能来自其他新兴的经济学科。不过最令人放心的是,马克•布劳格的著作,作为经济思想史研究的支柱之一,会继续产生新的版本直至下个世纪甚至下个千年。” ——Terence Hutchison
The Making of an Economist, Redux 豆瓣
作者: David Colander 出版社: Princeton University Press 2007 - 4
Economists seem to be everywhere in the media these days. But what exactly do today's economists do? What and how are they taught? Updating David Colander and Arjo Klamer's classic The Making of an Economist, this book shows what is happening in elite U.S. economics Ph.D. programs. By examining these programs, Colander gives a view of cutting-edge economics--and a glimpse at its likely future. And by comparing economics education today to the findings of the original book, the new book shows how much--and in what ways--the field has changed over the past two decades. The original book led to a reexamination of graduate education by the profession, and has been essential reading for prospective graduate students. Like its predecessor, The Making of an Economist, Redux is likely to provoke discussion within economics and beyond.
The book includes new interviews with students at Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, MIT, Chicago, and Columbia. In these conversations, the students--the next generation of elite economists--colorfully and frankly describe what they think of their field and what graduate economics education is really like. The book concludes with reflections by Colander, Klamer, and Robert Solow.
This inside look at the making of economists will interest anyone who wants to better understand the economics profession. An indispensible tool for anyone thinking about graduate education in economics, this edition is complete with colorful interviews and predictions about the future of cutting-edge economics.
Foundations of Measurement Volume I 豆瓣
作者: David H Krantz / Patrick Suppes 出版社: Dover Publications Inc. 2007 - 1
A classic series in the field of quantitative measurement, Volume I introduces the distinct mathematical results that serve to formulate numerical representations of qualitative structures. Volume II extends the subject in the direction of geometrical, threshold, and probabilistic representations, and Volume III examines representation as expressed in axiomatization and invariance. 1971 edition.
国际经济学 豆瓣 Goodreads
作者: [美]保罗·R·克鲁格曼等 译者: 海闻 出版社: 人民大学 2006 - 9
《国际经济学:理论与政策(第6版)(上册)(国际贸易部分)》(经济科学译丛)深刻洞悉了国际贸易和国际金融领域的变化和争议。著名经济学家保罗•克鲁格曼与茅瑞斯•奥伯斯法尔德所提供的分析方法与全球经济大事密切相连。本书核心章节主要关注理论,而随后的章节则把理论应用于分析过去和现在的主要政策问题。
第六版新增内容概览:
第9章,贸易政策中的政治经济学:分析了特殊利益集团的捐助在贸易政策制定中的影响作用,并对涉及世界贸易组织的内容进行了更新。
第11章,贸易政策中的争议:分析了战略性贸易政策理论以及为什么政府可以通过促进特定产业而获利。探索了当今关于全球化的争论。
第19章,宏观经济政策和浮动汇率制下的国际协调:简单、直观地讨论了汇率制度对国际政策的主要影响。
第20章,最优货币区和欧洲的经验:提供了关于欧洲单一货币体系的最新观点。
第22章,发展中国家:增长、危机和改革:详尽地阐述了2002年阿根廷货币的崩溃。
新增及更新的案例分析和专栏提供了对本书要点的实例说明,可以帮助读者更好地掌握本书的内容。
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International Economics: Theory and Policy
Louis Bachelier's Theory of Speculation 豆瓣
作者: Louis Bachelier 译者: Alison Etheridge 出版社: Princeton University Press 2006 - 9
March 29, 1900, is considered by many to be the day mathematical finance was born. On that day a French doctoral student, Louis Bachelier, successfully defended his thesis Thorie de la Spculation at the Sorbonne. The jury, while noting that the topic was "far away from those usually considered by our candidates," appreciated its high degree of originality. This book provides a new translation, with commentary and background, of Bachelier's seminal work. Bachelier's thesis is a remarkable document on two counts. In mathematical terms Bachelier's achievement was to introduce many of the concepts of what is now known as stochastic analysis. His purpose, however, was to give a theory for the valuation of financial options. He came up with a formula that is both correct on its own terms and surprisingly close to the Nobel Prize-winning solution to the option pricing problem by Fischer Black, Myron Scholes, and Robert Merton in 1973, the first decisive advance since 1900. Aside from providing an accurate and accessible translation, this book traces the twin-track intellectual history of stochastic analysis and financial economics, starting with Bachelier in 1900 and ending in the 1980s when the theory of option pricing was substantially complete. The story is a curious one. The economic side of Bachelier's work was ignored until its rediscovery by financial economists more than fifty years later. The results were spectacular: within twenty-five years the whole theory was worked out, and a multibillion-dollar global industry of option trading had emerged.
Order without Law 豆瓣
作者: Robert C. Ellickson 出版社: Harvard University Press 1994 - 3
Robert Ellickson shows that law is far less important than is generally thought. He demonstrates that people largely govern themselves by means of informal rules - social norms - without the aid of a state or other central coordinator. Integrating the latest scholarship in law, economics, sociology, game theory and anthropology, Ellickson investigates the uncharted world within which order is successfully achieved without law.
The Evolution of Cooperation 豆瓣 Goodreads
The Evaluation of Coorperation
作者: Robert Axelrod 出版社: Basic Books 2006 - 12
Updated for the first time, the classic book on why cooperation is not only natural but also the best survival strategy The Evolution of Cooperation addresses a simple yet age-old question: If living things evolve through competition, how can cooperation ever emerge? Despite the abundant evidence of cooperation all around us, there existed no purely naturalistic answer to this question until 1979, when Robert Axelrod famously ran a computer tournament featuring a standard game-theory exercise called The Prisoner's Dilemma. To everyone's surprise, the program that won the tournament, named Tit for Tat, was not only the simplest but the most "cooperative" entrant. This unexpected victory proved that cooperation--one might even say altruism--is mathematically possible and therefore needs no hidden hand or divine agent to create and sustain it. A great roadblock to the understanding of all sorts of behavior was at last removed. The updated edition includes an extensive new chapter on cooperation in cancer cells and among terrorist organizations. "This book, if read, grasped and applied, could have a profound effect." ( Wall Street Journal ) "A fascinating, provocative, and important book." (Douglas R. Hofstadter, author of Godel, Escher, Bach )
The Rational Optimist 豆瓣 Goodreads
作者: Matt Ridley 出版社: Harper 2010 - 5
Life is getting better—and at an accelerating rate. Food availability, income, and life span are up; disease, child mortality, and violence are down — all across the globe. Though the world is far from perfect, necessities and luxuries alike are getting cheaper; population growth is slowing; Africa is following Asia out of poverty; the Internet, the mobile phone, and container shipping are enriching people’s lives as never before. The pessimists who dominate public discourse insist that we will soon reach a turning point and things will start to get worse. But they have been saying this for two hundred years. Yet Matt Ridley does more than describe how things are getting better. He explains why. Prosperity comes from everybody working for everybody else. The habit of exchange and specialization—which started more than 100,000 years ago—has created a collective brain that sets human living standards on a rising trend. The mutual dependence, trust, and sharing that result are causes for hope, not despair. This bold book covers the entire sweep of human history, from the Stone Age to the Internet, from the stagnation of the Ming empire to the invention of the steam engine, from the population explosion to the likely consequences of climate change. It ends with a confident assertion that thanks to the ceaseless capacity of the human race for innovative change, and despite inevitable disasters along the way, the twenty-first century will see both human prosperity and natural biodiversity enhanced. Acute, refreshing, and revelatory, The Rational Optimist will change your way of thinking about the world for the better.