Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century

In Slouching Towards Utopia, economist James DeLong provides a sweeping new history of the 20th century, exploring how technological advancements have led to increased wealth and inequality, global warming, and dissatisfaction with the status quo. He questions how the long twentieth century failed to deliver the utopia that our ancestors believed would be the result of material well-being and suggests what we can learn from the past in pursuit of a better world.

Format: Hardback
Length: 624 pages
Publication date: 15 September 2022
Publisher: John Murray Press

A New York Times and Wall Street Journal Bestseller
Longlisted for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year
A Financial Times Best Economics Book of the Year
The Economist Book of the Year




From one of the world's leading economists, a sweeping new history of the twentieth century - a century that left us vastly richer, yet still profoundly dissatisfied.

Before 1870, most people lived in dire poverty, the benefits of the slow crawl of invention continually offset by a growing population. Then came a great shift: invention sprinted forward, doubling our technological capabilities each generation, and creatively destroying the economy again and again.

Slouching Towards Utopia tells the story of the major economic and technological shifts of the 20th century in a bold and ambitious, grand narrative. In vivid and compelling detail, DeLong charts the unprecedented explosion of material wealth after 1870, which transformed living standards around the world, freeing humanity from centuries of poverty, but paradoxically has left us now with unprecedented inequality, global warming, and widespread dissatisfaction with the status quo.

How did the long twentieth century fail to deliver the utopia our ancestors believed would be the inevitable result of such material wellbeing?

How did humanity end up less on a march to progress than a slouch in the right direction?

And what can we learn from the past in pursuit of a better world?

Weight: 886g
Dimension: 168 x 240 x 53 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781399803410