Bradford DeLong

The subtitle of DeLong's book is "An Economic History of the Twentieth Century."

That's a tiny bit misleading. He writes about what he calls the "long twentieth century," beginning in 1870 not long after the end of the American Civil Warn, and ending in 2010, just after the election of Barack Obama and the 2008 housing crisis that kicked off the Great Recession.

It's ambitious -- that's 140 years on the entire world (with an acknowledged emphasis on the global north, but coverage of other regions as well), spanning what DeLong demonstrates is the greatest period of economic advancement and improvement in the history of humanity. He reaches backward every now and then, for example to the beginning of the industrial revolution in England, but does a very good job of staying on point for 530 or so pages.

There are recurring themes throughout the book -- "Polanyian rights," "really-existing socialism" and others reward an end-to-end read, because they are introduced once, and used over and over. I was struck, though, by the fact that individual chapters were really excellent short histories that could stand alone, on significant events in that long century. Want to understand the rise of the Soviet Union? Chapter 8, Really Existing Socialism, taught me things I never knew. Want to wrap your head around the economic forces and political genius that led to Hitler's rise? Chapter 9, Fascism and Nazism, is a pretty good textbook. Chapter 16, Reglobalization, Information Technology and Hyperglobalization is an outstanding explanation of the period, beginning most noticeably in the 1980s and running to about 2010, that produced so much wealth, and also social media.

The book is greater than the sum of its parts. Its parts are excellent.

You write a history of something when it's over, and DeLong's argument is that the long twentieth century has ended. That's not so much because of the date on the calendar, but because, DeLong says, the advantages and forces that led to such an astonishing climb have come apart at last. The book doesn't end pessimistically, exactly, but it acknowledges the enormous challenges we face right now -- a climate crisis, populism, discrimination and worse of some people, and an absence of thoughtful, principled and kind political leadership equal to the moment.

… (altro)

I really enjoyed this. It's a 500+-page economic history of the years 1870 - 2010. It got really exciting in the WWI chapter, nearly every sentence packing a punch. Here's just one I bookmarked, about how just 80 years separated Croats & Serbs fighting together as blood brothers in WWI and the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 90s: "To fight one set of wars at the start of the twentieth century to unify Serbs and Croats, and another set of wars at the end of that century to 'ethnically cleanse' Serbs of Croats, and Croats of Serbs, seems among the sickest jokes history ever played on humanity, or, more causally accurate, humans ever played on history."

The overall theme of this history is Hayek vs. Polyani. Friedrich Hayek, I was familiar with, but with Michael Polyani I was not. DeLong sums up Hayek (repeatedly - the book is not afraid to repeat its themes): "The market giveth, and the market taketh away; blessed be the name of the market." Polyani, if I can summarize: nothing beats the free market for producing general prosperity, feeding technological progress, and allocating capital efficiently. However, people generally want more. They want some stability, some expectation they can keep their job, some fairness, etc. The market produces none of these things, which isn't a bad thing or a good thing; it's just not what the market does. Since people will persist in wanting these things, they will take action to make them happen, which is entirely reasonable. This struck me as one of those perspectives with a deep sense to it. Like when I turned away from libertarianism all those years ago. Freedom is great and important, but why should it trump other things that are also great and important? Like Haidt's RIGHTEOUS MIND - empathy is great and important, but people have other pillars of morality. So, the market is great and important, but there are other things that maybe it doesn't always trump.

Great food for thought, great history, great read.… (altro)