Political economy Books

Book SynopsisMany on the Left see the European Union as a fundamentally benign project with the potential to underpin ever greater cooperation and progress. If it has drifted rightward, the answer is to fight for reform from within. In this iconoclastic polemic, economist Costas Lapavitsas demolishes this view. He contends that the EU’s response to the Eurozone crisis represents the ultimate transformation of the union into a neoliberal citadel that institutionally embeds austerity, privatization, and wage cuts. Concurrently, the rise of German hegemony has divided the EU into an unstable core and dependent peripheries. These related developments make the EU impervious to meaningful reform. The solution is therefore a direct challenge to the EU project that stresses popular and national sovereignty as preconditions for true internationalist socialism. Lapavitsas’s powerful manifesto for a left opposition to the EU upends the wishful thinking that often characterizes the debate and will be a challenging read for all on the Left interested in the future of Europe.Trade Review"For those wanting a clear and concise summary of the left case against the euro and of the misrepresentation of German European hegemony as the consummation of the 'European idea', there is no way around this book. Nowhere has the political economy of the common currency and of German ascendancy in Europe been more clearly exposed."—Wolfgang Streeck, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies "Costas Lapavitsas is the most important commentator on the EU and its current crises, including Brexit. This is one of the most significant books on modern politics to appear in the last decade, and virtually the only one fully to grasp the nature of our present situation."—Richard Tuck, Harvard University "Important and timely"—E-International Relations "In 2015, a left-wing government in Athens was wrestling with Berlin and Brussels. Two prominent economists took part in the scuffle: one, Yanis Varoufakis, became Minister of Finance; the other, Costas Lapavitsas, was a member of the ruling party, Syriza. The first was a Europhile who viewed the capitulation of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras as an invitation to struggle for 'another Europe'. The second, always the sceptic, saw his views confirmed by the debacle."—Le Monde Diplomatique "Expedient, informed and lucid."—LSE Review of BooksTable of ContentsCh. 1. The European Union and the Left 1.1 Fragmentation and retreat of democracy 1.2 The challenge for the Left Ch. 2. The evolution of the EU since Maastricht 2.1. Neoliberalism and hegemony in the EU – drawing on Hayek 2.2. Neoliberalism and state monopoly over money 2.3. Creating the euro: A lever of neoliberalism and conditional German hegemony 2.4. The “architectural flaws” of the euro 2.5. The broader context of conditional German hegemony Ch. 3. The ascendancy of Germany and the division of Europe 3.1. A distinctive financialised economy 3.2. The defeat of German labour in the 1990s 3.3. The competitive advantage of Germany and the creation of the Southern periphery 3.4. The unstable core of the EMU and the Central European periphery Ch. 4. The Eurozone crisis: Class interests and hegemonic power 4.1. Crisis erupts 4.2. Imposing a neoliberal agenda 4.3. An unstable and fraught equilibrium Ch. 5. Greece in the iron trap of the euro 5.1 The proximate causes of the Greek crisis 5.2 Long-term weaknesses of the Greek economy 5.3. The lenders impose bail-outs and bring disaster 5.4. Class and national interests in the Greek disaster 5.5 The political debacle of SYRIZA Ch. 6. Seeking democracy, sovereignty, and socialism 6.1. Democracy and sovereignty in the EU, once again 6.2 The impossibility of radical reform 6.3. A class-based stance for the Left 6.4. What to do?

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"The book synthesizes research on innovation and sustainability in a way that I've not seen. The authors work through systemic issues that we must consider in order to reach a more sustainable economy."—Glen W. S. Dowell, Cornell University"Lenox and Chatterji make a major contribution by explaining the systematic dynamics of "going green." Their sophisticated analysis of complex challenges will enable the private sector to successfully adopt and implement sustainable innovations."—David Vogel, University of California, Berkeley, and author of The Market for Virtue"This marvelous book unites rigorous research with in-depth examples to show how business really might be able to save the earth. It's the perfect answer to the question my students ask me all the time: How can I make a difference?"—Rebecca M. Henderson, Harvard Business School"Lennox (UVA) and Chatterji (Duke) developed a model that businesses can consider when addressing climate change and environmental sustainability.The authors provide many examples of environmentally friendly efforts from businesses such as Uber, Apple, Apex Clean Energy, TerraCycle, and Home Depot."—G.E. Kaupins, Choice"There is bad news and good news about the state of the earth, and business school professors Michael Lenox and Aaron Chatterji address both with eye-opening accuracy in this compelling, provocative treatise....The authors make an impassioned plea, particularly to businesses, to bring to market the innovative products and services necessary to create value while reducing environmental impacts. While the tenor of Can Business Save the Earth? is generally positive, one cannot miss the real sense of urgency it conveys."—Barry Silverstein, Foreword MagazineTable of Contents1. Business as Savior 2. Innovator as Genius 3. Manager as Hero 4. Investor as Visionary 5. Customer as King 6. System as Catalyst

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Book SynopsisModern political culture features a deep-seated faith in the power of numbers. But quantitative evidence has not always been revered, as William Deringer shows. After the 1688 Revolution, as Britons learned to fight by the numbers, their enthusiasm for figures arose not from efforts to find objective truths but from the turmoil of politics itself.Trade Review[Statistics] are center stage again now for reasons of both political conflict and epistemological uncertainty. Once again, some politicians wield numbers without any great concern about their accuracy or meaningfulness; the victory in debate is all that matters. Once again, given the profound changes in the structure of the economy, we can’t be sure what categories and methods will give us the understanding we would like. This is a terrific book for reflecting on contested and uncertain statistical terrain. -- Diane Coyle * Enlightened Economist *[Deringer] focuses on the early 18th century, with its increasingly vitriolic debates over government expenditure, taxation, and debt as well as the trade balance… Deringer tells these vivid stories with a richness of research that brings to life not only the events surrounding them but also the many famous characters involved. We can learn from the 18th century debate, he says, by promoting new and diverse computational approaches to stimulate public debate and offset what he fears is growing anti-quantitative sentiment. -- Robert Heath * Finance & Development *A thoroughly impressive work…[Deringer] recontextualizes the skepticism about numbers and suspicion of ‘experts’ in our time as something that has existed from the beginning rather than a recent disillusionment… A book this insightful about the past and with such a trenchant analysis of the present is a rare pleasure indeed. -- Chris Dudley * Journal of British Studies *Tells the coming-of-age story of (early) modern public fascination with numbers…A great book that should be on the shelves of everyone who takes history of economic thought seriously. -- Gábor Bíró * History of European Ideas *Highly original in its research, highly intelligent in its analysis, and highly sophisticated in its argumentation, there is much to impress in this book. Calculated Values resonates with our own financial obsessions. -- Theodore Porter, University of California, Los AngelesEngaging, learned, and beautifully written, Calculated Values is a major scholarly work. Deringer builds on his own experiences as a financial calculator to imbue material that otherwise might be a tad dry with a sense of wonder and adventure, not to mention an adroit sentiment of happy-go-lucky deceitfulness. It is a must-read for a wide variety of scholars and interested general readers—truly impressive and timely in the extreme. -- Sophus A. Reinert, Harvard Business SchoolDeringer’s inspired and insightful book shows how mathematics and accounting mixed with politics to create modern finance. The story is so important, and yet, until now, has not been told. There is no way to understand the birth of economics without reading it. -- Jacob Soll, University of Southern CaliforniaShows how numerical calculation has both worked and failed in political life and what we can learn from it to help us use numbers more effectively in the future…A tour de force of intellectual and social history to explain how numerical thinking became the way to understand the world. Original in its approach and sophisticated in its argument. -- Lee Trepanier * VoegelinView *

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Book SynopsisChina has gone from being a marginal to a leading power in Africa in just over two decades. Its striking ascendancy in the continent is commonly thought to have been primarily driven by economic interests, especially resources like oil. This book argues instead that politics defines the ‘new era’ of China–Africa relations, and examines the importance of politics across a range of areas, from foreign policy to debt, development and the Xi Jinping incarnation of the China model. Going beyond superficial depictions of China’s engagement as predatory or benign, this book explores how Africa is – and isn’t – integral to China’s global ambitions, from the Belt and Road Initiative to strategic competition with the United States. It demonstrates how African actors constrain, shape and use China’s engagement for their own purposes. As China seeks to protect its more established interests and Chinese citizens, it also shows how security has become a particularly notable new area of engagement. This innovative book provides a comprehensive and up-to-date guide to contemporary China–Africa relations. It will be essential reading for students and scholars working on global politics, development and international relations.Trade Review‘The China–Africa relationship has generated legends and almost a mythology of use and misuse, often based on biases and misinformation. In this new book Daniel Large takes a hard-headed and extraordinarily perceptive look at the relationship as it has evolved under President Xi. Balanced, but anchored in an unsentimental realism, Large's book offers a significant corrective to strands in the current debate and does so in a timely and prescient manner.’Stephen Chan OBE, SOAS University of London ‘Daniel Large’s well-buttressed argument that politics is the foundation, and security the new leading edge, makes this book an essential guide to the China–Africa relationship at a key moment of transition.’Deborah Bräutigam, Director of the SAIS China Africa Research Initiative, Johns Hopkins UniversityTable of ContentsAcknowledgementsChronologyList of AbbreviationsList of Tables and BoxesIntroduction 1: The New Era in Context 2: Africa in China’s Global Politics 3: New Era Economics 4: Xi’s China Model, African Politics 5: Chinese-African Relations 6: Security: a New ‘Pillar’ ConclusionReferences

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Book SynopsisFrom the international bestselling author of The Post-American World ''An intelligent, learned and judicious guide for a world already in the making'' The New York TimesSince the end of the Cold War, the world has been shaken to its core three times. 11 September 2001, the financial collapse of 2008 and - most of all - Covid-19. Each was an asymmetric threat, set in motion by something seemingly small, and different from anything the world had experienced before. Lenin is supposed to have said, ''There are decades when nothing happens and weeks when decades happen.'' This is one of those times when history has sped up.In this urgent and timely book, Fareed Zakaria, one of the ''top ten global thinkers of the last decade'' (Foreign Policy), foresees the nature of a post-pandemic world: the political, social, technological and economic consequences that may take years to unfold. In ten surprising, hopeful ''lessons'', he writes about the acceleration of natural and biological risks, the obsolescence of the old political categories of right and left, the rise of ''digital life'', the future of globalization and an emerging world order split between the United States and China. He invites us to think about how we are truly social animals with community embedded in our nature, and, above all, the degree to which nothing is written - the future is truly in our own hands.Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World speaks to past, present and future, and will become an enduring reflection on life in the early twenty-first century.Trade ReviewIt is an intelligent, learned and judicious guide for a world already in the making. -- Josef Joffe * New York Times *

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Book SynopsisFrom the aggressive US rhetoric against China, to the escalating trade war with tit for tat responses, and China's 2025 initiative that threatens the US global leadership in advanced technologies, tensions between the US and China (the two dominant forces of today's world) have never been higher. This book provides a timely analysis of the US-China relationship. Each model is deeply rooted in their respective histories and cultures, with both models highly successful in achieving their main goals and highly resilient over time. It explores the core misconceptions on governance, economic, social and military issues, and the root causes of these misconceptions. If China and US could close the gap by each understanding those differences and their implications, the author argues, they could work together to overcome global issues to the benefit of all. This updated paperback edition includes a new introduction covering recent events in US-China relations.

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewA New York Times Bestseller Winner of the 2017 PROSE Award in U.S. History, Association of American Publishers #36 on Bloomberg's "50 Most Influential" List One of Financial Times (FT.com) Best Economics Books of 2016 One of Foreign Affairs' Editors' Picks 2016 One of The Economist's Economics and Business Books of the Year 2016 One of The Wall Street Journal's "The 20 Books That Defined Our Year" 2016 One of the Washington Post's Best Economics Books 2016 One of Bloomberg View's Great History Books of 2016 One of Bloomberg's Best Books of 2016 One of The New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2016 One of Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Books of 2016 in History One of the Strategy+Business Best Business Books 2016 in Economy One of Bloomberg View's "Five Books to Change Conservatives' Minds," chosen by Cass Sunstein Shortlisted for the 2016 Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award One of The NewYorker.com Page-Turner blog's "The Books We Loved in 2016" Longlisted for the 2016 Cundill Prize in Historical Literature, McGill University "The Rise and Fall of American Growth... is the Thomas Piketty-esque economic must read of the year."--Rana Foroohar, Time "This is a book well worth reading--a magisterial combination of deep technological history, vivid portraits of daily life over the past six generations and careful economic analysis... [The Rise and Fall of American Growth] will challenge your views about the future; [and] it will definitely transform how you see the past."--Paul Krugman, New York Times Book Review "[An] authoritative examination of innovation through the ages."--Neil Irwin, New York Times "Robert Gordon has written a magnificent book on the economic history of the United States over the last one and a half centuries... The book is without peer in providing a statistical analysis of the uneven pace of growth and technological change, in describing the technologies that led to the remarkable progress during the special century, and in concluding with a provocative hypothesis that the future is unlikely to bring anything approaching the economic gains of the earlier period... If you want to understand our history and the economic dilemmas faced by the nation today, you can spend many a fruitful hour reading Gordon's landmark study."--William D. Nordhaus, New York Review of Books "Mr. Gordon uses exhaustive historic data to buttress his thesis."--Greg Ip, Wall Street Journal "[The Rise and Fall of American Growth] is full of wonder for the miraculous things that America has accomplished."--Edward Glaeser, Wall Street Journal "A masterful study to be read and reread by anyone interested in today's political economy."--Kirkus "Normally, these kinds of big-think books end with a whimper, as the author totally fails to identify solutions to the problem he is writing about. But Gordon's conclusion offers some admirably definitive policy advice."--Matthew Yglesias, Vox "Magnificent... Gordon presents his case... with great style and panache, supporting his argument with vivid examples as well as econometric data... Even if history changes direction... this book will survive as a superb reconstruction of material life in America in the heyday of industrial capitalism."--Economist "Every presidential candidate should be asked what policies he or she would offer to increase the pace of U.S. productivity growth and to narrow the widening gap between winners and losers in the economy. Bob Gordon's list is a good place to start."--David Wessel, WSJ.com's Think Tank blog "[W]hat may be the year's most important book on economics has already been published... What Gordon has provided is not a rejection of technology but a sobering reminder of its limits."--Robert Samuelson, Washington Post "Robert Gordon's The Rise and Fall of American Growth is an extraordinary work of economic scholarship... Moreover, this is one of the rare economics books that is on the one hand deeply analytical ... And on the other a pleasure to read... [A] landmark work."--Lawrence Summers, Prospect "Ambitious... The hefty tome, minutely detailed yet dauntingly broad in scope, offers a lively portrayal of the evolution of American living standards since the Civil War."--Eduardo Porter, New York Times "Two years ago a huge book on economics took the world by storm. Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century ... became a surprise bestseller... Robert Gordon's tome on American economic growth stretches to 768 pages and its central message is arguably more important."--David Smith, Sunday Times "A landmark new book."--Gavin Kelly, The Guardian "Looking ahead, judging presidents by policies rather than outcomes may be all the more important. In a new book, The Rise and Fall of American Growth, the economist Robert Gordon argues that we are in the midst of an era of meager technological change. Yes, we now have smartphones and Twitter, but previous generations introduced electric lighting, indoor plumbing and the internal combustion engine. In Mr. Gordon's view, technological change is just not what it used to be, and we had better get used to slower growth in productivity and incomes."--N. Gregory Mankiw, New York Times "The Rise and Fall of American Growth is likely to be the most interesting and important economics book of the year. It provides a splendid analytic take on the potency of past economic growth, which transformed the world from the end of the nineteenth century onward... Gordon's book serves as a powerful reminder that the U.S. economy really has gone through a protracted slowdown and that this decline has been caused by the stagnation in technological progress."--Tyler Cowen, Foreign Affairs "[A]n important new book."--Martin Ford, Huffington Post "[A] lightning bolt of a new book."--Harold Meyerson, The American Prospect "So powerful and intriguing are the facts and arguments marshaled by Gordon that even informed critics who think he is wrong recommend that readers plow through his The Rise and Fall of American Growth, with its 60 graphics and 64 tables spread over more than 700 pages. You don't need to be an economist to appreciate or understand the book. His thesis is straightforward."--David Cay Johnston, Al Jazeera America.com "What is novel about Gordon's approach to this problem is that he doesn't try to find political causes for our economic woes... [E]xhaustive and sweeping in scope, and novel in its thinking about growth."--Chris Matthews, Fortune.com "[A] fascinating new book."--Jeffrey Sachs, Boston Globe "One of the most important books of recent years... Powerful and impressive."--Cass R. Sunstein, Bloomberg View "This is a tremendous, sobering piece of research, which does a lot to explain the febrile, nervous state of modern Western democracies."--Marcus Tanner, The Independent "A new book by economist Robert Gordon--The Rise and Fall of American Growth--is causing quite a stir."--City A.M. "If he's right, and one links this with growing income inequality, our would-be leaders will have difficulty in making the case for achieving the American dream through steady incremental progress achieved through collaboration and political compromise."--Michael Hoffmann, Desert Sun "Robert Gordon's new book on productivity in the U.S. economy, The Rise and Fall of American Growth, is masterful... Gordon skillfully lays out myriad information about the history and trends of productivity. One can learn a great deal."--Edward Lotterman, St. Paul Pioneer Press "[I]mpressive."--Peter Martin, Sydney Morning Herald "In his unsettling new book, Gordon, who teaches at Northwestern, weighs in on the role of technology in the U.S. over the past century-and-a-half. He does so forcefully, so forcefully, in fact, as to wipe the smiles off the faces of most techno-optimists, myself included."--Peter A. Coclanis, Charlotte Observer "[A] thoughtful new book."--David D. Haynes, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel "[The Rise and Fall of American Growth] is this year's equivalent to Thomas Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century: an essential read for all economists, who are unanimously floored by its boldness and scope even if they don't agree with its conclusions."--Adam Davidson, New York Times Magazine "Gordon makes a compelling case for why the era of fast growth in America ended around 1970 and will not return in the foreseeable future, if ever."--Dick Meyer, DecodeDC "Gordon argues that we are not going to get another surge soon and that there are several headwinds that are going to work against faster growth, including income inequality, education as a differentiator and not an equalizer, the debt overhang, and demography."--John Mason, TheStreet.com "[The Rise and Fall of American Growth] challenges every political claim, and every pundit's remedy, regarding how to get the lackluster American economy to boom again in the decades ahead, as it once did a half-century or more ago... [The book] represents the culmination of Gordon's many years of investigation into this key economic question of our age, namely: 'Why is it that the American economy has never been able to return to the happy boom years of our grandparents' time?' Why is it that, decade after decade, administration after administration, annualized productivity growth has only been about one-half to one-third that of the age of Truman and Eisenhower?"--Paul Kennedy, Tribune Content Agency "[M]asterful... Gordon skillfully lays out information about the history and trends of productivity. One can learn a great deal... The Rise and Fall of American Growth is a rare example of a work with solid economics that can be understood, and enjoyed, by nearly any lay person."--Ed Lotterman, Idaho Statesman "As an economic historian, Gordon is beyond reproach."--Edward Luce, Financial Times "Provocative."--Associated Press "The Rise and Fall of American Growth, is a deep dive into the past with an eye to the future... [The book] is part of a fascinating debate about future prospects for the American economy."--Knowledge@Wharton "[The Rise and Fall of American Growth] has set the wonky world of economics aflame."--Ryan Craig, TechCrunch "Magisterial."--John Kay, Financial Times "[A] contentious new book."--Margaret Wente, The Globe & Mail "[A] fabulous new book... [I]mpressive."--Dr. Mike Walden, Morganton News Herald "Northwestern Bob Gordon's new book, The Rise and Fall of American Growth, offers a deeper explanation for the underlying mechanics behind slowed economic growth."--Jon Hartley, Forbes.com "So much of what the presidential candidates and the American people want to accomplish over the next four years and beyond depends on the U.S. economy growing faster, and more inclusively, than it has in recent years. This year's hot economics book, The Rise and Fall of American Growth, by one of America's most distinguished macroeconomists, Robert Gordon, casts a pall on whether this is possible, arguing that the U.S. had a golden century of increasing innovation from roughly 1870 to 1970, but this was unique."--Robert Litan, Fortune.com "Gordon's book offers the definitive account of how the many technological innovations between 1870 and 1940 dramatically improved life in the United States."--Richard A. Epstein, Hoover Institution's Defining Ideas blog "[M]agiserial... The Northwestern University professor lays out the case that the productivity miracle underlying the American way of life was largely a one-time deal."--Matt Phillips, Quartz "Robert Gordon's new book The Rise and Fall of American Growth has taken the economics world by storm this winter."--Myles Udland, Business Insider "[M]assive."--Ben Casselman, FiveThirty Eight "[G]roundbreaking."--Zeeshan Aleem, Mic "With a painstaking--and fascinating--historical analysis of American productivity, [Gordon] argues that the innovations of today pale in comparison to earlier in our history and that we might actually be entering a period of prolonged stagnation. He may very well be right."--Greg Satell, Forbes.com "[P]rovocative."--Barrie McKenna, The Globe & Mail "[I]nfluential."--Martin Neil Baily, Fortune.com "[A] stimulating book."--George Will, Washington Post "Compulsive reading."--Andrew Hilton, Financial World "Gordon is not an alarmist, far from it. His is a sober voice of concern, of caution, which needs to be heard by those in the helm in America. And a fascinating lesson for ambitious and growing countries like India."--Dr R Balashankar, Sunday Guardian "[A] fascinating convergence of green and mainstream thought."--Tom Horton, Chesapeake Bay Journal "[T]his panoramic book makes good reading."--Shane Greenstein, Harvard Magazine "The book's great contribution is the tapestry it weaves of all the innovations that changed most Americans' lives beyond recognition in the century from 1870 to 1970."--Martin Sandbu, Financial Times "The Rise and Fall of American Growth is unquestionably an important book that raises fundamental questions about the United States' economy and society."--New Criterion "[A] masterpiece."--Martin Wolf, Financial Times "[An] impressive book... Gordon's book provides sufficient ammunition to show the colossal problems facing capitalism."--Socialism Today "Rich with detailed information, meticulous observations, and even anecdotes and stories ... a fascinating read."--Ricardo F. Levi, Corriere della Sera "The Rise and Fall of American Growth is essential reading for anyone interested in economics."--Choice "In an important new book, economist Robert Gordon makes the case for pessimism. He believes that technologies like smartphones, robots, and artificial intelligence aren't going to have the kind of big impact on the economy that earlier inventions--like the internal combustion engine and electricity--did."--Timothy B. Lee, Vox "Robert Gordon has written an engaging economic-based history of America... Gordon is to be commended for helping to stimulate a national debate on the current low level of economic productivity."--Allan Hauer, Innovation: The Journal of Technology & Commercialization "If you want to see how far we have come and how tough life was a century and a half ago, read Gordon's book."--David R. Henderson, Regulation "A fantastic read."--Bill Gates, GatesNotes "The book is well written, and one can only be in awe of Gordon's mastery of the factual history of the American standard of living."--Robert A. Margo, EH.net "Monumental."--John Cassidy, NewYorker.com "Zeitgeist-defining."--Myles Udland, Business Insider "[A] magisterial treatise."--Nick Gillespie, Reason.com "[A]n essential read for anyone interested not only in US economic history but also American economic prospects ... a tremendous achievement."--Diane Coyle, Enlightened Economist "A comprehensive history of American economic growth."--Eric Rauchway, American Prospect "Professor Robert J. Gordon's The Rise and Fall of American Growth is a magisterial volume that will benefit any serious student of economics, demographics or history."--Wendell Cox, New Geography "A wonderful new book."--Jeff Sachs, Boston Globe "The most important economics book of 2016."--Steve Chapman, Chicago Tribune "This spectacular history traces the rise and the plateau of the American economy since industrialization."--Jay Weiser, Weekly Standard "[A] landmark book... An impressive history of how the American people progressed in their standards of living and productivity in the 'golden century' of 1870-1970."--Stephen M. Millett, Strategy & Leadership "Gordon's encyclopedic The Rise and Fall of American Growth, a new history of modern U.S. economic life, [is] perhaps the best yet written."--Jonathan Levy, Dissent "One of our greatest economic historians... Gordon's exhaustive research program ... has knocked me back on my intellectual heels."--J. Bradford DeLong, Strategy + Business "This is the most important book on economics in many years."--Martin Wolf, Financial Times "Robert Gordon's The Rise and Fall of American Growth set out a thesis of technological diminishing returns that does much to explain an age of economic pessimism."--Lorien Kite, Financial Times "In the course of Gordon's book, a vivid picture of everyday life as our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents lived it emerges... What lingers in my mind, alongside these ideas, is a new, weightier sense of the past, and of what the people who lived in it ate, touched, heard, saw, and did. Reading The Rise and Fall of American Growth, I thought a lot about my grandparents. Gordon's book has made their lives more real to me."--Joshua Rothman, NewYorker.com's Page-Turner blog "Magisterial... While the book has gotten attention because of its bold projection of slow growth in the future, this is actually just one small element of a magnificent and detailed presentation of how our economy has changed since 1870. Most people don't fully appreciate what life was like in the past and Gordon gives a blow-by-blow description of how people lived in America from 1870 on. In addition, he carefully explains how each new innovation was created and how its adoption changed people's lives."--Stephen Rose, Democracy: A Journal of Ideas "Gordon constructs a strong case using conventional economic principles and exacting data measurement."--Don Pittis, CBC News "Gordon's genius is to weave together economic history with the story of the technology, know-how, politic, demographics and medicine that made the astonishing progress of the US perhaps the most remarkable ever."--Sean O'Grady, The Independent

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Book SynopsisToday, the European Union is facing a crisis as serious as anything it has experienced since its origins more than half a century ago. What makes this so serious is that it is not a single crisis but rather multiple crises – the euro crisis, the migration/refugee crisis, Brexit, etc. – that overlap and reinforce one another, creating a cumulative array of challenges that threatens the very survival of the EU. For the first time in its history, there is a real risk that the EU could break up. This volume brings together sociologists, economists and political scientists from around Europe to shed light on how the EU got into this predicament. It argues that the multiple crises that have plagued the European Union in the last decade stem to a large extent from flaws in its construction and that these flaws are consequences of the political processes that led to the formation of the EU – in other words, the decisions that made possible the development of the EU created the conditions for the multiple crises it experiences today. This timely and wide-ranging book on one of the most important issues of our time will be of great interest to students and scholars in the social sciences, to politicians and policy-makers and to anyone concerned with Europe and its future.Trade Review"Castells and his colleagues convincingly show that the multiple crises facing Europe today - from Greece to Brexit - are not problems imposed on it from without but are to a large extent crises of its own creation. Their wide-ranging and insightful account should be read by everyone concerned with Europe and its future - and above all by those politicians and policy-makers who could change the direction of the EU before it's too late." Paul Mason, author of Postcapitalism: A Guide to Our Future"To understand what we Europeans must do to secure a brighter future together, firstly we must understand the multifaceted nature of the challenges that our common project is facing. This insightful book reminds us that constructive self-criticism is an indispensable exercise in today's Europe." Javier Solana, President at ESADE Geo-Center for Global Economy and Geopolitics and Distinguished Fellow at the Brookings Institution"Europe's Crises takes the reader on a journey of relationships and interdependencies, from Maastricht to Brexit [,..] [and] unlike the mainstream media's insistence on hiding the wider context, the reader is constantly reminded of the history, geography and wider geopolitics impacting on the daily lives of Europeans."Morning Star Table of Contents List of Contributors List of Figures Introduction Part I: Economic Crises Chapter 1: The End of European Integration as We Knew It: A Political Economy Analysis Olivier Bouin Chapter 2: Making Sense of the Greek Crisis, 2010-2016 Manos Matsaganis Chapter 3: The Consequences of Crisis on the European Banking System Emilio Ontiveros Chapter 4: The Financial Crisis and the Restructuring of the Italian Banking System Sviatlana Hlebik Chapter 5: European Science and Technology in a Time of Crisis: ERC, EIT and Beyond João Caraça et al. Part II: Social Crises Chapter 6: Austerity and Health: The Impact of the Crisis in the UK and Rest of Europe David Stuckler et al. Chapter 7: Suffering: The Human and Social Costs of Economic Crisis John B. Thompson et al. Chapter 8: Achilles’ Heel: Europe’s Ambivalent Identity Manuel Castells Chapter 9: Europe Facing Evil: Xenophobia, Racism, anti-Semitism and Terrorism Michel Wieviorka Chapter 10: Europe and Refugees: Tragedy Bordering on Farce Paul Collier Part III: Political Crises Chapter 11: The Crisis of Legitimacy of European Institutions Sara B. Hobolt Chapter 12: Narratives of Responsibility: German Politics in the Greek Debt Crisis Claus Offe Chapter 13: The Double Crisis of European Social Democracy Colin Crouch Chapter 14: The Rise of the Radical Right Michel Wieviorka Chapter 15: From Crisis to Social Movement to Political Change: Podemos in Spain Manuel Castells Chapter 16: Italy: Autumn of the Second Republic by Pierfranco Pelizzetti Chapter 17: Brexit: The Causes and Consequences of the UK’s Decision to Leave the EU Geoffrey Evans et al. Chapter 18: Social Movements, Participation and Crisis in Europe Gustavo Cardoso et al. Conclusion

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Book SynopsisGlobalization is taking a step backward. What, then, is the best way to organize a global enterprise? The key, Steven Weber explains, is to prepare for a world increasingly made up of competing regions with distinct rules and standards. This new condition could be more prosperous, but there will also be more friction and therefore more risk.Trade ReviewA spectacular book that engages with the biggest questions in international political economy and economic geography. It’s brimming with new and provocative ideas, conveyed in an easy and open style. -- Janice Stein, University of TorontoAs globalization enters uncharted waters, Bloc by Bloc takes on a fundamental question—how should firms organize? Drawing on insights from economic geography, Weber urges us to leave behind the past and reach for new models and thinking to build the future. Integrating business, politics, and International affairs, Bloc by Bloc is a must-read for all those interested in successfully navigating the global economy over the next decades. -- Abraham Newman, Georgetown University

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Book SynopsisHow the global optimism that characterized the 1990s evolved into pessimism and chaos.Trade Review" A stimulating testimony by one of the most important actors on the global stage at the turn of the millennium. Is it, as Johnson says, a ' true but tragic story?' I am not as pessimistic, but only because I expect his lucid account will help redress a very challenging and demanding global situation." Jean-Claude Trichet, former president of the European Central Bank " Read it and weep! Don Johnston has written what he rightly calls the ' true but tragic story' of how the United States and its allies squandered their chance to build a better world in the 1990s. Published as Donald Trump takes office, this compelling memoir by the former secretary-general of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development will be painful reading. It' s a story of bungled opportunities to draw Russia, Turkey, and other problem nations of the twenty-first century closer to the West. Most of all, Missing the Tide is the sad story of how the United States lost its luster as a true superpower, ' magnanimous and fair.' All the wisdom that Johnston accumulated in his ten years of running the OECD is shared in this book to help leaders catch the tide if it ever returns." David Ignatius, columnist for The Washington Post

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Book SynopsisThere have been many attempts to build a socialist society, from the Soviet Union to Maoist China to Venezuela. All of them have ended in failure. But, according to socialism's adherents, that is only because none of these experiments were real socialism. This book documents the history of this response.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Tim Rogan’s book, The Moral Economists: R. H. Tawney, Karl Polanyi, E. P. Thompson, and the Critique of Capitalism (2017), ably reconstructs the first extensive crisis of liberalism."---Pankaj Mishra, New Yorker"The Moral Economists is part historiographical exegesis, part subtle polemic about the limitations of contemporary critiques of capitalism. . . . Rogan looks to history for help in understanding capitalism, its works and its empty promises."---Katrina Navickas, London Review of Books"A timely, vivid and attractive book, vindicating on every page Rogan’s choice of three musketeers, handing on their flame to their noble heirs."---Fred Inglis, Times Higher Education"Rogan’s captivating work of intellectual history demonstrates that utilitarianism shaped much of the Left, as well as the Right’s thinking on social questions."---Patrick Diamond, Times Literary Supplement"Rogan’s reintroduction of Tawney, Polanyi, and Thompson to modern readers is a valuable endeavor."---Joseph Coletti, Journal of Markets & Morality"Rogan brings the authors and their perspectives closer to the reader not only by presenting their opus and their thoughts but also by contextualizing them . . . thoroughly and deeply researched."---Christian Leitner, Zeitschrift fuer Soziologie"Tim Rogan’s book is a fine example of intellectual history and will appeal to historically inclined humanists and social scientists at large, as well as to political activists, career politicians, and interested readers of all stripes, who, for one reason or another, may wish to ruminate on twentieth-century British experiences in civilising capitalism."---Giorgio Baruchello, European Legacy

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Book SynopsisNo economist has written more incisively and provocatively on financial crisis than Hyman Minsky. Minsky is best known for his claim that "stability is destabilizing" – that the seeds of the bust are sown in the boom. This financial instability hypothesis received renewed attention – and substantial confirmation – in the global financial crisis of 2008. Minsky's insights are not limited to moments of crisis; they grow out of a comprehensive and critical theory of financial capitalism. This book provides a systematic overview of Minsky's thought, covering his entire body of work. It shows how financial crises arise not as exceptions, but out of the normal operation of a financial capitalist system. It explains why Minsky's theories sit uncomfortably with economics and what efforts have been made to integrate them, and shows how Minsky's work can be incorporated into other fields of social thought. This book will be of interest to students and scholars in economics, political economy, finance, politics, and social theory, as well as to anyone with an interest in the financial system and its tendency toward crisis.Trade Review“Capitalism is essentially a financial system, said Minsky fifty years ago, and his thought laid the foundations for understanding how that system works. Reinterpreting Minsky for today, Neilson offers the best available introduction to Minsky’s thought for the modern reader.”Perry Mehrling, Boston University “Daniel H. Neilson’s book manages an extraordinary feat: the reader understands Minsky’s life and his system of thought in one book. You need to understand Minsky’s ideas to understand capitalism in the twenty-first century. This is the best book to help you do that.”Stephen Kinsella, University of LimerickTable of ContentsAcknowledgements 1 Introduction 2 Financial Capitalism 3 A Payments Theory of Finance 4 The Inadequacy of Economics 5 Making the Market 6 Last Resort 7 The Resilience of Economics 8 Minsky for All Moments References

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Book SynopsisThe End of Certainty is a classic study of power, personality and national destiny. From boom to recession, Hawke to Keating, and Labor's victory for the 'true believers' in 1993, Paul Kelly has written the ultimate inside story of how the 1980s changed Australia and its political parties forever. His detailed scrutiny of the inner working of the Hawke-Keating partnership and its slow disintegration, his unravelling of the crippling rivalries for the Liberal Party leadership and his burrowing into cabinet room struggles over the deregulation of Australia's financial system reveal the brutal realities of Australian politics and how it is played at the very top. But above all, he reminds us of the sheer pace of economic and social change the country lived through and the wake of uncertainty it left behind. Joining The Hawke Ascendancy, this second instalment in Paul Kelly's analysis of modern Australian politics, remains as compelling and incisive as when it was first written.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"A masterpiece he has recently updated. . . . Baldwin’s (1985) work laid a solid foundation for subsequent studies related to economic statescraft."---Falin Zhang, China International Strategy Review

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Book SynopsisA LITHUB BOOK OF THE DECADE. The US is one of the largest democracies in the world or is it?America is experiencing an age of profound economic inequality. Employee protections have been decimated, and state welfare is virtually non-existent, while hedge fund billionaires are grossly under-taxed and big businesses make astounding profits at the expense of the environment and of their workers. How did this come about, and who were the driving forces behind it?In this powerful and meticulously researched work of investigative journalism, New Yorker staff writer Jane Mayer exposes the network of billionaires trying to buy the US electoral system and succeeding. Led by libertarian industrialists the Koch brothers, they believe that taxes are a form of tyranny and that government oversight of business is an assault on freedom. Together, they have spent hundreds of millions of dollars influencing politicians and voters, and hijacking American democracy for their own ends. Dark Money brilliantly illuminates a shady corner of US politics. It is essential reading for anybody interested in the future of democracy.

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Book SynopsisAs chairman of the Federal Reserve (1979-1987), Paul Volcker slayed the inflation dragon that was consuming the American economy and restored the world's faith in central bankers. That extraordinary feat was just one pivotal episode in a decades-long career serving six presidents.Told with wit, humour, and down-to-earth erudition, the narrative of Volcker's career illuminates the changes that have taken place in American life, government, and the economy since World War II. He vibrantly illustrates the crises he managed alongside the world's leading politicians, central bankers, and financiers. Yet he first found his model for competent and ethical governance in his father, the town manager of Teaneck, NJ, who instilled Volcker's dedication to absolute integrity and his "three verities" of stable prices, sound finance, and good government.

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Book SynopsisFrom Nobel Prize-winning economist and bestselling author Joseph Stiglitz, this account of the dangers of free market fundamentalism reveals what has gone so wrong, but also shows us a way out.We all have the sense that our economy tilts toward big business, but as Joseph E. Stiglitz explains in People, Power and Profits, a few corporations have come to dominate entire sectors, contributing to skyrocketing inequality and slow growth. This is how the financial industry has managed to write its own regulations, tech companies have accumulated reams of personal data with little oversight, and government has negotiated trade deals that fail to represent the best interests of workers. Too many have made their wealth through exploitation of others rather than through wealth creation. If something isn''t done, new technologies may make matters worse, increasing inequality and unemployment.Stiglitz identifies the true sources of wealth and increases iTrade ReviewThis eminent economist provides an authoritative defence of government intervention using mainstream economics and a justification for how to build a fairer society without sacrificing growth -- Gavin Jacobson * Financial Times *His conclusions are bleak, his prescriptions radical -- Gerard Baker * The Times *People, Power, and Profits builds on Stiglitz's earlier work and adds some pretty big ambitions -- Daniel W. Drezner * The New York Times *Urgent ... Unless rising inequality caused by mismanaged globalization, financial liberalization, and destabilizing technological change is addressed, Stiglitz argues, nostrum-peddling demagoguery will find a receptive audience * New Yorker *

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Book SynopsisDebt as Power is a timely and innovative contribution to our understanding of one of the most prescient issues of our time: the explosion of debt across the global economy and related requirement of political leaders to pursue exponential growth to meet the demands of creditors and investors. The book is distinctive in offering a historically sensitive and comprehensive analysis of debt as an interconnected and global phenomenon.Trade Review'This is economic anthropology at its best - relevant, sophisticated, and readable. The authors brilliantly show how debt has been the essential glue that holds the world economic system together, an instrument that spreads untold misery and modern forms of slavery, to the continuing benefit of creditors. A powerful anthropological answer to Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Debt as Power is a clear-eyed and thoroughly original dissection of capitalism, an essential guide to understanding how today's world works...'Richard Wilks, Distinguished Professor, Indiana University, USA'This book is a crucial introduction to the phenomenon of debt...Debt, argue Di Muzio and Robbins, is more than an economic and social debacle: it is a technique of government for disciplining and managing people and the environment. At the same time, the individuation of the power to make money, by taking on debt, increasingly puts the world economy in the hands of everyday people. The realization of this power...could be the key to a more equitable and ecologically sane future.'James Igoe, Associate Professor at the University of Virginia, USA'Meticulously researched and clearly exposited, Debt as Power makes a most convincing case that modern capitalism must be explained as political economy. An indispensable companion to understanding contemporary world affairs.'Martin Weber, Senior Lecturer in International Relations, University of Queensland, Australia'This radical and wide-ranging book provides an innovative critical analysis of an alarming scourge of our times: debt. Developed as a critique of the categories of money and credit as technical and socially neutral categories in neoclassical economics, ‘Debt as Power’ provides an economic anthropology – at once historical and international - of the origins, intensification and socially deleterious consequences of debt as a technology of power. Derived from the Marxist theoretical framework of differential accumulation and conceiving of capitalism less in terms of a relation between exploiter and exploited and more as a relation between creditor and debtor, the study reads the international history of capitalist debt with strikingly new results. It opens up a new perspective on the origins of debt within the context of England’s 17th Century’s bellicose geopolitical context, emphasising the capitalisation of the English/British state and its indebtedness to private investors. It moves on to explore the transatlantic spread and intensification of debt – private and public – through war, commerce, and colonialism. And concludes with an analysis of the further role of odious debt after WWII in the production of inter-state and domestic inequalities. The book ends with a call to arms: debt strike! ‘Debt as Power’ immeasurably advances our understanding of the international history of debt as a technology of power. It constitutes a fresh and important contribution to critical IR and IPE.'2017 Sussex International Theory Prize - Honourable Mention -- .Table of ContentsIntroduction: Towards a stark utopia1. Origins: war, national debt and the capitalist state2. Intensification: war, debt and colonial power3. Consequences: Exponential growth, magic money and austerity4. What is to be done?BibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisCapitalism, Coronavirus and War investigates the decay of neoliberal financialised capitalism as revealed in the crisis the novel coronavirus triggered but did not cause, a crisis that has been deepened by the conflict over Ukraine and its repercussions across the globe.Leading domestically to economic and political breakdown, the pandemic accelerated the decline of the US-led capitalist world's imperial power, intensifying the tendency to lash out with aggression and militarism, as seen in the US-led West's New Cold War against China and the proxy war against Russia over Ukraine. The geopolitical economy of the decay and crisis of this form of capitalism suggests that the struggle with socialism that has long shaped the fate of capitalism has reached a tipping point. The author argues that mainstream and even many progressive forces take capitalism's longevity for granted, misunderstand its historical dynamics and deny its formative bond with imperialism. Only Trade Review"Through an astute, timely, and expansive analysis of our political and theoretical landscape, Radhika Desai’s latest book clears new ground on which to build a renewed left movement against the geopolitical rule of capital. Returning to Marx’s thought and rescuing it from its myriad distortions provides the conceptual clarity required to understand the structural and historical factors responsible for producing the overwhelming and indisputable failures of capitalism. By critiquing responses by both the right and left to the complex international crises we face—from Modern Monetary Theory and "pseudo-civic neoliberalism" to social democracy and anti-communist leftism—Capitalism, Coronavirus and War offers not only a compelling account of how we ended up in our current situation but, more importantly, an accessible roadmap for eliminating global inequality, oppression, and imperialist war. This provocative, intricately reasoned, and ultimately inspiring treatise is a welcome contribution to the ongoing global struggle for socialism that unequivocally demonstrates the necessity of the communist party, socialist planning, and global solidarity of working and oppressed peoples necessary for finally ridding the world of the scourges of capital. Readers will, wherever they currently stand on these topics, leave the text with a radically transformed understanding of the path that lies ahead."Derek R. Ford, Associate Professor of Education Studies, DePauw University, USA; author of Marxism, Pedagogy and the General Intellect; editor of LiberationSchool.org; and contributing editor to the Hampton Institute"Drawing out the contradictions at the core of contemporary capitalism that precipitate recurring crises—illustrated by the outbreak of and damage inflicted by the Covid-19 pandemic and the descent into debilitating proxy wars across the globe—Radhika Desai’s book challenges the perception that capitalism is here to stay. Backing that argument with serious analysis that takes forward progressive assessments of the nature of contemporary capitalist dynamics and the geopolitical fallout, the book makes a case for transcending the system. That canvas allows for a wide audience. Researchers and students as well as activists and organisers can benefit immensely from reading the book."C. P. Chandrasekhar, Senior Research Fellow, Political Economy Research Institute, UMass, Amherst, USA; and former Professor, Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India"This fascinating, timely, and scintillating book by Professor Radhika Desai, gives us the clear prognosis and total symptom picture of a moribund capitalism laid low by ‘lightning bolts of catastrophe’: Covid, war, and self-cannibalizing neoliberalism.With elegant prose and clarifying, granular exposition, Professor Desai offers a synoptic analysis that unmasks and unpacks ‘the deceits of Empire’, while opening the reader up to the new horizons of hope of a pluripolar world led by new, visionary socialisms.She also gives an astringent antidote to the western intellectual ‘left’ and their poisonous distortions of sovereign socialist accomplishments by the peoples of the Global South.This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the tectonic shifts occurring in the world we live in: how to untangle the contradictions inherent in commodity production; how to challenge the ideological domination of western ‘universalism’ and its propensity to war; how to plan and transform time, space, knowledge and labor; ultimately, how to resist total immiseration and ecological catastrophe.Bracing, bold, and brilliant, Professor Desai gives us a glimpse of the blueprints for a world beyond the predations and violence of Capital and Empire, the foundations of which are being laid in the sovereign socialisms of the Global South, and which all justice-seeking peoples of the world must unite to build and develop."K.J. Noh, journalist, political analyst, writer, and educator specializing in the geopolitics of the Asia-Pacific region; writer for Dissident Voice, Black Agenda Report, Counterpunch, Popular Resistance, Asia Times, MR Online; frequent commentator on the news programs The Critical Hour, By Any Means Necessary, Fault Lines, Political Misfits, Loud & Clear, Breakthrough News, Flashpoints"Radhika Desai’s new book Capitalism, Coronavirus, and War: A Geopolitical Economy is truly a magnum opus. Drawing on a wide range of sources and building on much of her earlier work, she clearly and precisely delineates multiple facets of the current conjuncture, a moment of profound intensification of the contradictions of late capitalism and the possibility of socialist transformation. In eight chapters Desai takes us through a careful exposition of the structural features of finance capital, the long contention between capitalism and socialism, the rise and bankruptcy of neoliberalism, and the ‘unexpected reckoning’ brought on by the crises of the present period, the devastations of the coronavirus pandemic which has killed millions in the capitalist core, and the onset of the NATO-provoked war with Russia that has further destabilized global capital and precipitated crises of livelihood for billions around the planet. She brings this account to a brilliant conclusion with her final chapter, boldly invoking the spirit of Lenin’s What is to be Done? Here she sets out both the failures of bourgeois reformism and the working class turn to populism, and the possibilities for radical political action and revolutionary change.Capitalism, Coronavirus, and War is both a major intervention and call to arms for the present moment, and a critical contribution to the overall theorization of the history of late capitalism. This is a work for our times, and for all times."Ken Hammond, Professor of East Asian and Global History, New Mexico State University, USA, and a member of Pivot to Peace and the Party for Socialism and Liberation"Radhika Desai offers us a brilliant and useful reconstruction of the main theoretical and geostrategic issues that socialist movements face in this era, characterized by neoliberal financialization and the dangerous reaction of US imperialism desperate to maintain its dominance and domination of its currency in the world. The correct understanding of this phase of capitalism allows us to identify some errors in the perspective of some progressive movements, and some lessons for the construction of socialism. The text is very useful to both the scholar and the communist militant."Ascanio Bernardeschi, Rifondazione Comunista; La Città Futura; "Antonio Gramsci" Popular University, Italy"Desai’s timely book does a magnificent job at showing how the capitalist West’s catastrophic management of the Covid-19 pandemic, along with its potentially planet-annihilating New Cold War against Russia and China — carried out through a ‘hot’ proxy war in Ukraine, and potentially in Taiwan — are not isolated and accidental events. These are all interconnected and symptomatic of a moribund capitalism, whose contradictions, and their manifestation in the 1970s crisis, drove it into an era of neoliberal financialization which merely prolonged its death sentence. With the emergence of socialist China and pluripolarity, the spectacle of capitalism’s decay is before us, but with it also is the fact that it prefers an apocalyptic end to the end of its hegemony. The question for us will be: can we take advantage of these objectively ripe conditions to organize for socialism? Or will we continue to be haunted by Fukuyama’s proclaimed end of history so much so that we lose sight of the fact that the end of history is itself coming to an end? Desai definitively shows the putrescent condition of capitalism and the genuine potential this provides for those who can imagine a socialist world beyond our current barbaric one."Carlos L. Garrido, PhD Student and Instructor in Philosophy, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, USA; editor in the Marxist educational project Midwestern Marx, and in the Journal of American Socialist Studies"Radhika Desai’s Capitalism, Coronavirus and War explains why the dream of a neoliberal ‘end of history’ has turned out to be a dead end. Her excellent book provides a clear perspective to frame the internal contradictions of America’s neoliberal policies that are driving Western capitalism into austerity and a chronic health crisis as its New Cold War actually is a class war.What makes Radhika’s book so important is her clear explanation of how the world’s actual history is being created by the socialist Beijing Consensus based on public infrastructure to raise living standards and productivity. This is what the West’s former socialist and labor parties have lost, she explains. Most insightful is her analysis of how the socialist policy of making money and credit a public utility saves economies from the US–British disease of financialization and debt deflation that has left its only hope for prosperity to be what it can exploit from Eurasia, Africa and South America."Michael Hudson, author of The Destiny of Civilization and Super Imperialism, Distinguished Professor of Economics, University of Missouri, Kansas City (UMKC), USA"Radhika Desai has written a masterful modern history of the capitalist-imperialist system, detailing the common threads that link the colonial era to today's financialized neoliberalism. The scope of the work is truly impressive. It explicates the inherent contradictions of capitalism and its propensity for crisis, illustrates the blood on the hands of neoliberal governments in the face of the Covid disaster, and elucidates the imperial machinations driving the proxy war in Ukraine. Capitalism, Coronavirus and War is an invaluable contribution to geopolitics and economics, greatly enriching our understanding of both fields – and effortlessly showing how to unite the disciplines. It is undoubtedly one of the most important books to understand the profound crises we face in the world today."Ben Norton, journalist, writer, and filmmaker based in Latin America; founder and editor of Multipolarista"This book discusses a wide range of theoretical issues germane to the analysis of the nature of the capitalist system at its core, and relates this analysis to the most striking economic and political developments of very recent years, namely pandemic impact, and (so far) localised war. The author writes with a style and elan which engages the reader, while providing very many insights of value. In particular her trenchant critique of what she terms ‘western Marxism’ and its failures, combined with a stout defence of Marx’s vision, will be of special interest to many readers."Utsa Patnaik, Professor Emerita, Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India; author of The Agrarian Question in the Neoliberal Era (2011) and The Republic of Hunger and Other Essays (2007); co-author (with Prabhat Patnaik) of Capital and Imperialism: Theory, History and the Future (2021) and A Theory of Imperialism (2016)"The latest of Dr. Radhika Desai’s many books is a tour de force from a modest Canadian expert. Skillfully linking the pandemic, China as a vivid example of the antidote to capitalism through socialism, and a war is no easy task; moreover, the text is published at a time when all three phenomena are still evolving. What is the secret of this success? First, from the beginning, in the dedication, Dr. Desai shows her colours: she takes a stand for socialism and communism, freeing herself and the readers from any cover that confuses more than clarifies. Thus, when readers arrive at the Conclusion after about 230 pages of factual, rigorous but balanced analysis, her socialist and communist reaffirmation flows naturally. Second, the University of Manitoba professor reveals her own intellectual evolution over several decades. It was not until she was a graduate student at a Canadian university that she began to assimilate Marxism–Leninism. This is a major advantage for readers because, while there are people in the capitalist West who were born into a communist family, some of them exhibit the worst deviations and dogmatic interpretations of Marxist–Leninist thought and action. Thus, a very wide spectrum of society in the capitalist West can identify with her writing, despite their complexity, because Dr. Desai writes with the reader’s background in mind. At the time of writing, there seems to be a backlash in China against China’s coronavirus policy. Does this contradict her analysis? I say no, it will stand the test of time; however, readers and national and international developments are the best judges. The same goes for her views on the NATO/Ukraine war against Russia."Arnold August, author/journalist based in Montreal, Canada; M.A. Political Science; member of the International Manifesto Group"In this powerful new work, one of the world’s leading political analysts and economists takes on some of the most pressing issues of the day: the crisis of neoliberalism, the global pandemic, US-led imperialist wars, and the rise of China. She provides much needed historical perspective within a resolutely internationalist framework of analysis grounded in geopolitical economy. Anyone who wants to understand the world we’re living in would be well-served to follow Desai’s intrepid investigation into the current state of global politics and the essential question: ‘what is to be done?’"Gabriel Rockhill, Founding Director of the Critical Theory Workshop, Professor of Philosophy, Villanova University, USATable of Contents1. Introduction: Resumption of History Return of Choice 2. Capitalism as Contradictory Value Production 3. The Geopolitical Economy of Capitalism and Socialism 4. Neoliberalism and its Financialisations 5. The Unexpected Reckoning 6. Know Your Enemy: Between Pseudo-Civic Neoliberalism and (Neo)Fascism? 7. Capitalism in the Balance of International Power 8. Conclusion: What is to be Done?

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Book SynopsisAn insightful examination of the various communication strategies that Qatar has undertaken in recent times to enhance its brand image and engage in practices of nation-branding. Through analysis of contextual examples, this book explores the role of reputation, identity and image in shaping Qatari domestic politics, along with its foreign policies. The book explains advances in relevant technologies including Artificial Intelligence, as well as best communication practices learned from the private sector. The authors relate in detail how Qatar invented, re-invented, and solidified its image, and the benefits emerging from Qatar's communication strategies on a domestic and global level.

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Book SynopsisThis book investigates the history, political economy and spatiality of Chinese railway projects in Africa. It examines the financial governance of Sino-African railway projects, their socio-cultural, political and economic effects as well as the regional dimension of Africaâs new railway architecture and its function within Chinaâs Belt and Road Initiative. Leading and emerging scholars from Africa, China, Europe and the Americas offer interpretations through politicoeconomic, historical, geographical and post-colonial conceptual lenses. Case studies on projects in Angola, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania and Zambia offer an empirically rich and cross-disciplinary picture of Sino-African railway developments at the micro-, meso- and macro-levels. Regional analyses on West and East Africa expose persistent obstacles to the regional integration of Africaâs railways. The volume outlines opportunities and challenges related to Africaâs railway renaissance in the post-COVID-19 global pol

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Book SynopsisDavid Kennedy and Martti Koskenniemi, two leading critics of law’s role in global life, join together to explore the origins and destiny of efforts to build law into the fabric of global life. Erudite, open-minded, and at times personal, Of Law and the World is a poignant conversation about humanity’s struggle to live together.Trade ReviewOver the last four decades, David Kennedy and Martti Koskenniemi have occupied a unique space that was, simultaneously, at the top of the international law world and on its cutting edge. This book offers an enthralling tour of the intellectual and professional world they inhabited and sought to disrupt. A front-row seat to a fireside chat about how to plot critique. -- Vasuki Nesiah, New York UniversityIn their engrossing exchanges about the deepest problems in their field, David Kennedy and Martti Koskenniemi continue to exemplify international legal theory in the least pretentious and most productive sense. Though entitled to review their accomplishments, they realize they are just at the start of making sense of what international law is and what it does—and generously take the reader with them on a journey that matters to everyone. -- Samuel Moyn, Yale UniversityRich and revealing dialogues between two grand figures of North Atlantic international legal scholarship who have been friends and colleagues for almost four decades. Kennedy and Koskenniemi illuminate their separate trajectories, common projects, and intellectual and personal influences. Their lively conversations are also disarming as a chronicle of a critical generation in international law. -- Hilary Charlesworth, Melbourne Law SchoolAn exhilarating gaze across the world—uniquely insightful, challenging, and provocative. -- Philippe Sands, University College LondonThe conversation you’ve always hoped to overhear. Of Law and the World offers the followers and critics of Martti Koskenniemi and David Kennedy, two of the most influential international legal scholars of our time, the rare experience of being a fly on the wall of their virtual living room. -- Doreen Lustig, Tel Aviv UniversityThis is revelatory stuff, chock-full of insight, inspiration, humanity, and rage. -- Susan Marks, London School of Economics and Political Science

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Book SynopsisThe world is facing dramatic geopolitical, environmental, and technological shifts. Venture Meets Mission argues that if Business, Government, and Society come together, rebuild trust, and collaborate, we have a generational opportunity to address societal challenges—climate change, cybersecurity, disease outbreaks, food insecurity, and education. The book explains, with hope and passion, how our existing entrepreneurial ecosystem, with the ideals of democracy, can be the foundation for a new mission-driven capitalism. The good news is the components of this problem-solving ecosystem already exist. The authors explain what is required to join people, purpose, and profit together for world-changing impact—starting with rebuilding trust among Business, Government, and Society. The authors draw on their leadership experience with Silicon Valley innovation, venture capital, and work at the highest levels of the federal government. The book tells engaging stories of successful entrepreneurs, with diverse perspectives and intersectional experiences, who combine mission and venture to solve critical societal problems. This book seeks to inspire a generation of students, young professionals, and entrepreneurial executives to pursue mission-driven ventures that can make the world a better place. Venture Meets Mission also explains why and how forward-thinking government officials and policymakers can harness private sector entrepreneurship and innovation to solve society's problems.Trade Review"The authors make a compelling case that the biggest challenges we face (climate change, national security, shared prosperity, etc.) will only be solved with a renewed partnership between government and entrepreneurs. Venture Meets Mission is filled with uplifting examples (e.g. NASA and SpaceX joining forces to regain U.S. leadership in space). The book inspires us to make these success stories the norm rather than the exception."—Eric Schmidt, Former CEO, Google"Brilliantly explains why we need to write new recipes to solve the problems of an increasingly complex world—and guides us on a search to find the key ingredients of empathy, innovation, public service, and entrepreneurship."—José Andrés, Chef, Humanitarian, and Founder of World Central Kitchen"Venture Meets Mission provides an aspirational roadmap for young professionals who want to make a meaningful difference in the world by building careers that balance purpose and profit"—Indra Nooyi, Former CEO, PepsiCo"As a former tech entrepreneur, and Governor, I've always believed in the power of venture-driven innovation, (coupled with the scale of government), to drive positive change. Venture Meets Mission is a compelling bipartisan call to action to address the biggest challenges of our time."—Mark Warner, United States Senator and Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee"The book's pragmatic strategies for entrepreneurial collaboration between sectors will drive positive impact and inspire changemakers in low wealth communities."—Della Clark, President of The Enterprise Center, Partner at Innovate Capital Growth Fund"Offers an important, timely road map and engaging examples to empower a generation of creative, mission-driven changemakers."—Adam Grant, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author and Professor at Wharton Business School"As a member of a generation reared on multiple financial crises, political instability, and a pandemic, I notice in myself and my peers a strong desire to reform the status quo. The message in Venture Meets Mission inspired me to pursue a mission-oriented career in the growing ecosystem of government-facing private ventures."—Samsara Durvasula, Software Engineer, Computer Science Major, '20"Gupta, George and Fewer have written a bold, exciting, and surprisingly optimistic book. Steering clear of the usual cliches about how business can either destroy or remake society, they show clearly and realistically that firms and entrepreneurs can work effectively, profitably, and purposefully, with government. The book will rekindle for many a sense of progress, and even of hope."—Deborah Spar,Senior Associate Dean of Harvard Business School, Business in Global Society (BiGS)"Venture Meets Mission highlights one of the key superpowers of democracies: mission-driven entrepreneurship. The authors paint a compelling picture of the future, one in which ventures and government can work together for national security and economic prosperity. This book is a must-read for anyone looking to merge their patriotism and purpose with profit."—Michael McFaul, former US Ambassador to Russia; Director, Freeman Spogli Institute, Stanford"The world is changing fast, and we need leaders who can adapt and innovate. Venture Meets Mission is an inspiring guide for the next generation of government officials and entrepreneurs. We worked across the aisle to bring the best ideas from Silicon Valley to Congress. This book is perfect for anyone who wants to make a difference and solve the most pressing problems of our time."—US Representative Ro Khanna, United States Representative from California's 17th District"The authors of Venture Meets Mission provide an inspiring roadmap for how we can rebuild trust among society, business, and government. It's the only way to address the big critical problems like climate change, food insecurity, and education. As someone who has worked on national security issues for over two decades, inspiring people to work on this generational opportunity is more important to me now than ever."—Will Hurd, Former US Representative from Texas's 23rdDistrict"A wake-up call for early- mid- and late-career professionals to seek purpose of action. As the conflict in Ukraine showed, effective coordination between entrepreneurs and government can greatly contribute to society AND enhance our national security."—Lisa Disbrow,Former US Secretary of the Air Force"I've launched eight Silicon Valley tech companies, but I've never done work more personally rewarding than helping NSF, NIH, DoD, and other government agencies learn how to innovate rapidly. Venture Meets Mission shows you how you can make the biggest difference, and have the most fulfilling years of your career, by serving your country at the intersection of technology, innovation, venture capital, and government."—Steve Blank, Entrepreneur and Author of the Lean Startup"Meeting societal challenges requires massive inflows of capital to improve our collective future. This book details how entrepreneurial ventures funded by private capital can combine profit with purpose. Venture capitalists can collaborate with government and other actors to bring amazing solutions to market in education, climate, agriculture and other critical sectors."—Maya Chorengel, Co-Managing Partner, The Rise Fund, TPG"Venture Meets Mission brings to life two powerful ideas: how to infuse a business with an inspiring mission and how working with the government can businesses profitably achieve their mission. It is a great read for anyone thinking about working with the government to build their business while contributing to the public good."—Charles Rossotti, Co-Founder, CEO American Management Systems and Former Commissioner of IRSTable of Contents1. Idealism and Impact: Transforming with the Optimism of Entrepreneurship and the Scale of Government 2. Shared Values: Rediscovering the Common Ground Between Entrepreneurs, Government, and Society 3. A Different Compact: Innovating Public-Private Partnerships 4. Mission Venturing: How Entrepreneurs Partner with Government to Create Value and Scale Impact 5. A "Venture Meets Mission" Ecosystem: How Government Can Catalyze Innovation 6. Resolve to Act: Making a Bigger Impact with Your Career 7. The Virtuous Cycle: Aligning People, Purpose, and Profit to Create the Future We Want

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Book SynopsisIn this fully revised fourth edition, this book treats globalization from several vantage points, showing how these help grasp the nature of globalization both in the past and today.The revisions include greater attention to the complications of racism (after 1500) and nationalism (after 1850); further analysis of reactions against globalization after World War I and in the 21st century; more discussion of student exchanges; and fuller treatment of developments since 2008, including the role of the Covid-19 pandemic in contemporary globalization.Four major chronological phases are explored: in the centuries after 1000 CE, after 1500, after 1850, and since the mid-20th century. Discussion of each phase includes relevant debates over the nature and extent of the innovations involved, particularly in terms of transportation/communications technologies and trade patterns. The phase approach also facilitates analysis of the range of interactions enmeshed in globalization, bTable of ContentsPart I: Context 1. Globalization and the Challenge to Historical Analysis 2. Emerging Patterns of Contact, 1200 BCE–1000 CE: A Preparatory Phrase Part II: Early Globalization, 1000–1450 CE 3. The Birth of Globalization? 4. Transition: The Mongol Period Part III: Protoglobalization 5. The Main Features of Protoglobalization, 1500–1750 6. A Late-18th-Century Transition Part IV: Modern Globalization, 1850–1945 7. The 1850s as Turning Point: The Birth of Modern Globalization 8. The Great Retreat, 1914–1945, and a New Transition Part V: Contemporary Globalization: The Most Recent Phase and Its Backlash 9. Contemporary Globalization since the 1940s: A New Global History? 10. A New Retreat? The Signs of Disruption in the 21st Century 11. Conclusion: The Historical Perspective

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Book SynopsisAn informed argument for an economic policy based on bridges of preparation and adaptation rather than walls of protection and exclusionTrade Review“Given the tight global labour market, [Hubbard’s] points on training workers—that corporations benefit in the long term by investing in the development of their workers—are timely. The upshot is that to flourish, we all need to build bridges. Government policy must play a central role, while businesses must invest in its people and communities.”—Financial Times“Those who gain from change need to compensate the losers. But ‘compensation is not a check from a gainer to the loser, but a basic principle that support for preparation (opportunity) and reconnection (social insurance) must accompany market acceptance of change. It preserves both the gains of market capitalism and dynamism, and popular support for those gains.’ Hubbard’s support for such ideas is to me surprising, important and correct.”—Martin Wolf, The Economist, “Best New Books on Economics”“In the tortured partisan debate on economic policy, it is a rare pleasure to find a superb scholar such as Glenn Hubbard framing issues from the center.”—Kenneth Rogoff, Harvard University“Glenn Hubbard’s rare blend of a keen mind, a facile pen, and copious government experience makes him a voice worth listening to. I always do, even when we disagree. The Wall and the Bridge is a great read—packed with good ideas and sprightly writing.”—Alan S. Blinder, Princeton University“When technological change and globalization in recent decades brought frustration over the resulting losses to jobs and communities, there were no guardrails to get these workers back on track. As this compelling book shows, our nation is going to need bridges to help people get through the unavoidable transformations.”—Edmund Phelps, 2006 Nobel Laureate in Economics and author of Mass Flourishing

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Book SynopsisMoney is mysterious. We love it, we hate it, but few people can tell you what the heck it really is. Wouldn't it be good to get out of the fog? This book will help you understand both the way money works and how to leverage its power. The authors take you on an illuminating journey from your piggy bank to the Federal Reserve with no pesky jargon or complex math. Once you see money clearly, life will never be the same. You'll know what really goes on in banks and what the cash in your wallet represents. You'll know how government really spends and why it can’t run out of money. You'll know what money can actually do — and how we can make it work for us.Trade Review“BRILLIANT!! Tally-ho!”James K. Galbraith, The University of Texas at Austin“This short illustrated book contains more wisdom on money than all the textbooks in the world.”Steve Keen, author of The New Economics: A Manifesto“Economics can be intimidating, but this book provides an excellent introduction for high school students.”Rose Rodriguez, retired teacher, Modesto School DistrictTable of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1. Money: An Introduction Chapter 2. Money: An Origins Story Chapter 3. Money: The Story of Redemption Chapter 4. Currency: The Government’s Money Chapter 5. Can Government Run Out of Currency? Chapter 6. Anyone Can Create Money? Chapter 7. Private Bank Money Chapter 8. The Central Bank’s Money: Lender of Last Resort Chapter 9. Central Bank Money: Government Finance Chapter 10. Government’s Debt is Our Asset Chapter 11. Money as Scorekeeping Chapter 12. Rise of the Winners-Take-All Economy Chapter 13. The Way Forward: We Take Care of our Own

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewLiving Together contains an impressive amount of good sense in a relatively short and highly readable text. Every philosophical "sketch" should be so successful. * Christopher Tollefsen, University of South Carolina *Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. * Choice *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Preface Introduction 1. The Rise and Fall of Moral Science 1.1. Philosophy Lost 1.2. The Is-Ought Problem 1.3. Justice As Traffic Management 1.4. What Is a Theory? 2. After Solipsism 2.1. Strategic Consequentialism 2.2. After Shallow Pond 2.3. What Works 2.4. Strategic Deontology 3. Toward a Realistic Idealism 3.1. Ideal Theory: What It Was 3.2. Justice Is Not a Peak 3.3. Compliance Is Not a Detail 3.4. High Standards 4. Political Economy & Moral Science 4.1. The Moral Science of Adam Smith 4.2. The Political Economy of Corruption 5. Political Economy & Moral Science II 5.1. Political Economy & the Rule of Law 5.2. Cost-Benefit Analysis as Moral Science 6. Inventing the Self 6.1. The Reconciliation Project 6.2. Rational Choice Theory's Silence About Ends 6.3. Reasons for Reasons 6.4. Navigating the Terrain of Reasons 7. The Possibility of Civilization 7.1. Ecological Justice 7.2. A Brief History of the Human Condition 7.3. Ideals as Specializations References Index

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Book SynopsisExploring the social, cultural and political implications of deindustrialisation in twentieth-century ScotlandTrade Review"This is a work of considerable merit and of significant interest to an academic audience within and beyond the boundaries of economic history. [...] It is a compelling account of the origins of Scotland's new political direction. [...] This tight, well-disciplined book promotes deeper understanding of Scottish deindustrialisation." -Professor William Wardle

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Book SynopsisCharles Maier offers a new narrative of the long twentieth century, focused on institutions that shaped politics and societies: project-states, driven by democratic or authoritarian ideologies; capital; and advocates of apolitical values, such as health, human rights, and international law. In this we discern the unfolding of our own troubled time.Trade ReviewMaier offers an alternative account of the last century, looking at how a wide range of actors tried to harness industrial modernity in the pursuit of power and material interests…[He] weaves a narrative about the explosive interplay of economic privilege and political grievance. -- G. John Ikenberry * Foreign Affairs *Ambitious…It is Maier’s open worry about the fragility of our democratic order and about the considerable strength of the antidemocratic impulses in this third decade of the 21st century that makes The Project-State and Its Rivals a book that will last. -- Paul Kennedy * Wall Street Journal *Extraordinarily erudite and brimming with insight…[Maier] leaves open the question of whether the project-state will escape the dustbin of history and be revivified and redeployed, democratically, for the common good. -- Jonathan Ira Levy * Project Syndicate *Through his decades of scholarship and teaching on both sides of the Atlantic, Charles S. Maier has focused on one basic question, formulating and refining his answers with each successive book and monograph. His goal has been to understand and explain the ways in which advanced capitalist states evolved over the past century in response to world war, colonial war, cold war and economic globalisation. This…fascinating book provides a summation and updating of Maier’s lifelong work. -- David C. Unger * Survival *A very refreshing take on a history I thought I knew well. -- J. Bradford Delong * Harvard Magazine *[The] story of the exhaustion of the postwar political-economic order has now been told many times; what sets Maier’s account apart is the way he weaves together the work of capitalist activists and their allies in politics and think tanks with the work of governance activists in the same years. His wide-angle lens shows how the political and economic turbulence of that period led not only to the Volcker shock but to the rising prominence of NGOs and foundations seeking to restore order and stability at home and abroad. -- Jonathan S. Blake * Boston Review *An intriguing, sophisticated book about the relationships between the evolution of the modern nation-state and the concurrent forces of capitalism, popular politics, socialist responses, and bureaucratic governance. This is a deep and clever work, the culmination of an erudite historian's long grappling with humankind's mixed record of progress and failure. -- Paul Kennedy, author of The Rise and Fall of the Great PowersCharles Maier has produced a brilliantly innovative reconceptualization of twentieth-century history in terms of the interaction between states, resources, and markets. He sets a bold agenda for future thinking about the shape of the past one hundred years. -- Harold James, author of The War of Words: A Glossary of GlobalizationA true history of the present. The Project-State and Its Rivals is a powerful, insightful, and penetrating analysis of the major shifts in global order and social dynamics across the past century. There are few historians today who can venture to undertake such a tour d'horizon with equal confidence and expertise as Maier. -- Sebastian Conrad, author of What Is Global History?

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Book SynopsisExamines the ways Singapore’s impressive public housing program is central to the political legitimacy of the city-state’s single-party regime, and the growing contradictions of its success. The achievement of Singapore’s national public housing program is impressive by any standard. Within a year of its first election victory in 1959, the People's Action Party began to deliver on its promises. By the 1980s, 85% of the population had been rehoused in modern flats. Now, decades later, the provision of public housing shapes Singapore's environment. The standard accounts of this remarkable transformation leave many questions unanswered, from the historical to urgent matters of current policy. Why was housing such a priority in the 1960s? How did the provision of social welfare via public housing shape Singapore's industrialization and development over the last 50 years? Looking forward, can the HDB continue to be both a source of affordable housing for young families and a mechanism for retirement savings? What will happen when 99-year leases expire?Public Subsidy, Private Accumulation is a culmination of Chua Beng Huat's study of Singapore's public housing system, its dynamics, and the ways it functions in Singapore's politics. The book will be of interest to citizens and to scholars of the political economy of Asian development, social welfare provision, and Singapore.Table of ContentsPrefaceIntroductionChapter One: Why Singapore Prioritizes Public Housing?Chapter Two: Current State of Housing Provision Across Different SystemsChapter Three: The National Public Housing ProgramChapter Four: From Necessary Accommodation to Market CommodityChapter Five: Public Housing as Retirement AssetChapter Six: Residual Housing for Residual PeopleChapter Seven: Politics and Public Housing Ownership: From Clients to Entitled Citizens of the StateBibliographyIndex

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