Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century

Book overview Description Editorial Reviews 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.