Slouching Towards Utopia
An Economic History of the Twentieth Century
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Slouching Towards Utopia
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Narrated by:
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Allan Aquino
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?
©2022 Brad DeLong (P)2022 Hachette AudioListeners also enjoyed...
What listeners say about Slouching Towards Utopia
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- E. A. Watson
- 17-01-23
More enjoyable than your average economic history - yet
Worth a listen although somehow already out of date.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
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 29-04-23
A lefty view of the "long 20th century"
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.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- D. BRADY
- 20-05-23
Interesting but far too long
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.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Russ. M
- 13-12-22
A liberal view point
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.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Dr S.F
- 29-04-23
Dreadful
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.
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