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Slouching Towards Utopia

An Economic History of the Twentieth Century

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Slouching Towards Utopia

By: Brad de Long
Narrated by: Allan Aquino
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About this listen

 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?

(P) 2022 Hachette Audio©2022 Brad DeLong 20th Century Economic History Economics Modern Politics & Government Socialism Taxation Capitalism Economic Inequality

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Critic reviews

Brad DeLong learnedly and grippingly tells the story of how all the economic growth since 1870 has created a global economy that today satisfies no one's ideas of fairness. The long journey toward economic justice and more equal rights and opportunities for all shall and will continue (Thomas Piketty, #1 New York Times bestselling author of 'Capital in the Twenty-First Century')
This is a brilliant and important book. It offers an original and penetrating analysis of what its author calls "the long 20th century", the period of unprecedented economic advance that began roughly in 1870 and ended, he asserts, in 2010. Material abundance poured upon humanity. Previous generations would have thought such wealth to be a guarantee of utopia. Yet the age of material progress has ended not in a utopia, but in recrimination and discord. No book has explained the successes and failures of this extraordinary period with comparable insight (Martin Wolf)
The period 1870-2010 - what DeLong calls the "long twentieth century" - saw the world break decisively free of its Malthusian chains, with levels of per capita economic growth without any parallel in human history. This wonderfully researched and written book explains the roots of this vertiginous ascent towards utopia, while also exposing the causes of the subsequent flat-lining in our economic fortunes and what action is now needed to ensure the long century is viewed by future historians as the historical rule, not the exception (Andrew G. Haldane, Chief Executive of the RSA and former Chief Economist at the Bank of England)
History provides the only data we have for charting a course forward in these turbulent times. I have not seen a more revealing and illuminating book about economics and what it means in a very long time. Slouching Towards Utopia should be required reading for anybody who cares about the future of the global system, and that should be everyone (Lawrence H. Summers, Harvard University)
What a joy to finally have Brad DeLong's masterful interpretation of twentieth-century economic history down on paper. Slouching Towards Utopia is engaging, important, and awe-inspiring in its breadth and creativity (Christina Romer, University of California, Berkeley)
An intellectually exciting and entertaining gallop along the arc of twentieth century economic history. DeLong puts together the puzzle of the past to tell a story of remarkable achievements as well as setbacks. A great way to understand the forces that have shaped the world today (Minouche Shafik, Director, London School of Economics and Political Science)
All stars
Most relevant
The author is clearly very smart, knowledgeable, and can write. The story is interesting and worth listening to. I found the book via an interview with the author by Tyler Cohen.

The book is weakest when it strawmans the conservative position, embraces the silliest forms of wokeism (hard to believe the author believes everything they seemed to have to write there, it's downright anti-intellectual in its worst places) and pretends China's politicians are doing a good job by directing their economy towards building labor camps. Also the uncritical praise of FDR rubbed me the wrong way - has DeLong not read Steinbeck?

Still, the good parts overcome these weaknesses. The book tells a story that overall makes sense or is at least fun to entertain. It has a lot of good metaphors and historical anecdotes. Recommended.

A lefty view of the "long 20th century"

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Worth a listen although somehow already out of date. The conceptualisation of a Hayak-Polanyi axis around the proper basis for human rights which informs a lot of the argument knocks some of the wind out of current political polarisation and the evidence for judging Hayek both a genius and insane is convincing. The thinking that needs to be done to critique the basis of the modern discipline in the pursuit of growth, development, continued expansion of the human realm is out there but hasn’t really made it into this account

More enjoyable than your average economic history - yet

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This book could’ve been about a quarter of the length, or in my opinion should’ve been. It’s spent far too long going over much discussed old histories that should’ve been condensed into a handful of chapters. It gets interesting towards the end when, ironically, I would’ve liked more detail on the current state of affairs after the long 20th century. It would also be interesting to explore the psychological aspects of the repeating themes. I’m glad I listened, but it was a slog and was in need of a much more thorough edit before publishing.

Interesting but far too long

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Is there such a thing as an un-biased political commentator? Sadly, economics is not a science, it involves people who do not operate scientifically. And seeing your interpretations as facts only to fit your narrative is disappointing.

A liberal view point

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I will caveat my “review” by saying I only got three chapters in. The book is self-indulgently long-winded. “Get on with it” was my dominant feeling throughout; and I am a keen and patient reader of this sort of book. Also, I really couldn’t stand the voice of the guy reading it.

Dreadful

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