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	Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century by J. Bradford DeLong Price $35.00 Hardcover Special Order

J. Bradford DeLong at Harvard Book Store

presenting

Slouching Towards Utopia:
An Economic History of the Twentieth Century

in conversation with LAWRENCE H. SUMMERS

Date

Sep

Thursday
September 8, 2022
7:00 PM ET

Location

Harvard Book Store
1256 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138

Tickets

This event is free; no tickets are required.

Harvard Book Store welcomes J. BRADFORD DELONG—economic historian and professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley—for a discussion of his new book Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century. He will be joined in conversation by LAWRENCE H. SUMMERS, Charles W. Eliot University Professor and President Emeritus of Harvard University.

A Return to In-Person Events

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About Slouching Towards Utopia

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 have used such powers to build utopia. But it was not so. When 1870–2010 ended, the world instead saw global warming; economic depression, uncertainty, and inequality; and broad rejection of the status quo.

Economist Brad DeLong's Slouching Towards Utopia tells the 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 the last century to have been less a march of progress than a slouch in the right direction.

Praise for Slouching Towards Utopia

“A magisterial history…asks the right questions and teaches us a lot of crucial history along the way.” ―Paul Krugman

“I’ve been waiting for Brad [DeLong]’s big economic history opus for a long time now.” ―Ezra Klein

“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

J. Bradford DeLong

J. Bradford DeLong, an economic historian, is a professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley. He was a deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury during the Clinton administration. He writes a widely read economics blog, now at braddelong.substack.com. He lives in Berkeley, California.

Photo Credit: Genevieve Schiffrar

Lawrence H. Summers

Lawrence H. Summers is the Charles W. Eliot University Professor and President Emeritus of Harvard University. During the past two decades, he has served in a series of senior policy positions in Washington, D.C., including the 71st Secretary of the Treasury for President Clinton, Director of the National Economic Council for President Obama, and Vice President of Development Economics and Chief Economist of the World Bank.

Walking from the Harvard Square T station: 2 minutes

As you exit the station, reverse your direction and walk east along Mass. Ave. in front of the Cambridge Savings Bank. Cross Dunster St. and proceed along Mass. Ave for three more blocks. You will pass Au Bon Pain, JP Licks, and TD Bank. Harvard Book Store is located at the corner of Mass. Ave. and Plympton St.

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