From the legendary former Fed Chairman and the acclaimed Economist writer and historian the
full epic story of America's evolution from a small patchwork of threadbare colonies to the
most powerful engine of wealth and innovation the world has ever seen.Shortlisted for the 2018
Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award From even the start of his fabled
career Alan Greenspan was duly famous for his deep understanding of even the most arcane
corners of the American economy and his restless curiosity to know even more. To the extent
possible he has made a science of understanding how the US economy works almost as a living
organism--how it grows and changes surges and stalls. He has made a particular study of the
question of productivity growth at the heart of which is the riddle of innovation. Where does
innovation come from and how does it spread through a society? And why do some eras see the
fruits of innovation spread more democratically and others including our own see the
opposite? In Capitalism in America Greenspan distills a lifetime of grappling with these
questions into a thrilling and profound master reckoning with the decisive drivers of the US
economy over the course of its history. In partnership with the celebrated Economist journalist
and historian Adrian Wooldridge he unfolds a tale involving vast landscapes titanic figures
triumphant breakthroughs enlightenment ideals as well as terrible moral failings. Every
crucial debate is here--from the role of slavery in the antebellum Southern economy to the real
impact of FDR's New Deal to America's violent mood swings in its openness to global trade and
its impact. But to read Capitalism in America is above all to be stirred deeply by the
extraordinary productive energies unleashed by millions of ordinary Americans that have driven
this country to unprecedented heights of power and prosperity. At heart the authors argue
America's genius has been its unique tolerance for the effects of creative destruction the
ceaseless churn of the old giving way to the new driven by new people and new ideas. Often
messy and painful creative destruction has also lifted almost all Americans to standards of
living unimaginable to even the wealthiest citizens of the world a few generations past. A
sense of justice and human decency demands that those who bear the brunt of the pain of change
be protected but America has always accepted more pain for more gain and its vaunted rise
cannot otherwise be understood or its challenges faced without recognizing this legacy. For
now in our time productivity growth has stalled again stirring up the populist furies.
There's no better moment to apply the lessons of history to the most pressing question we face
that of whether the United States will preserve its preeminence or see its leadership pass to
other inevitably less democratic powers.
