From one of the world's leading economists a grand narrative of the century that made us
richer than ever yet left us unsatisfied. Before 1870 humanity lived in dire poverty with a
slow crawl of invention offset by a growing population. Then came a great shift: invention
sprinted forward doubling our technological capabilities each generation and utterly
transforming the economy again and again. Our ancestors would have presumed we would use such
powers to build utopia but it was not so. When 1870-2010 ended the world instead saw global
warming economic depression uncertainty inequality and broad rejection of the status quo.
Slouching Towards Utopia tells the sweeping story of how this unprecedented explosion?of
material wealth?occurred ?how it transformed the globe and?why?it?failed to deliver us to
utopia.?Of remarkable breadth and ambition ?it?reveals how the last century was much less?a
march of progress?than?a slouch?in the right direction.
