Slouching Towards Utopia
by Bradford DeLong · first published 2022
10mentions
3recommended by
4HN commenters
2022–2024first – last mentioned
75% recommend25% neutral
An examination of global economic behavior in the long twentieth century from 1870 to 2010.
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…I've enjoyed during the year but haven't gotten this year's list up. Here are my lists from prior years: https://bcmullins.github.io/interesting-books-2022/ Here are two I've enjoyed so far this year: "Slouching Towards Utopia" by J. Bradford DeLong (2022). This is a narrative economic history of the 20th century. It heavily focuses on the interaction between policy and economic thought. "Lost Continents" by L. Sprague de…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2023 and recommend for 2024” ↗Here's my list from 2023 (mostly history with some mythology): * Lost Continents by L. Sprague de Camp (1954) * Slouching Towards Utopia by J. Bradford DeLong (2022) * The Rise of Universities by Charles Homer Haskins (1923) * Colonial New England on 5 Shillings a Day by Bill Scheller (2010) * The Book of Yōkai by Michael Foster (2015)…
on “Ask HN: Favorite Nonfiction Books of 2023?” ↗…some overlap in interests. Here's my books list from last year (with links to others therein): https://bcmullins.github.io/interesting-books-2023/. Here's a few books I think you'd be interested in: Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century (2022) by Brad DeLong The Open Society and Its Complexities (2021) by Jerry Gaus Rationalizing Capitalist Democracy: The Cold War Origins of Rational Choice…
on “Ask HN: Book Recommendations?” ↗…asymptotic). And while the Internet (classified under the Information, Communication, Technology (ICT) chapters) gave a bump in the 1990s, it's mostly been flat since 2004. More economic history with Slouching towards Utopia: an economic history of the twentieth century by J. Bradford Delong. More economic ideas stuff in Value(s): building a better world for all by Mark Carney (ran the Banks of Canada and England). Also Waphsott's…
on “Ask HN: Best non-fiction book you read in 2024?” ↗…than Ministry for the Future, but also felt pretty realistic. This is how you lose the time war -- took me a long time to start this book, and then I couldn't put it down. Non fiction, I really enjoyed Slouching Towards Utopia. I'm a sucker for narrative history like that, and I got a few useful concepts from the book. I also really liked The Prince of Peace, a biography of Keynes.
on “Ask HN: What were the best books you read this year?” ↗Here's my next two: Slouching Towards Utopia (2022) by DeLong. The Federal Reserve: A New History (2022) by Hetzel. These are both somewhat hyped economic history books covering the 20th century. They both came out last fall but I'm just now getting…
on “Ask HN: Books on your reading list for 2023?” ↗…right now to put up tomorrow. I've done this each December for a few years now. Here's my list from 2022: https://bcmullins.github.io/interesting-books-2022/ Here's a gloss on my list for this year: "Slouching Towards Utopia" by J. Bradford DeLong (2022). A narrative economic history of the 20th century that focuses on the interaction between policy and economic thought. "Lost Continents" by L. Sprague de Camp (1954). Looks…
on “Ask HN: Best books you read in 2023” ↗…better notes when I read. Now, I occasionally also get a nice message from someone who stumbled onto something new. Enjoy! Here's a peek at the list: * Lost Continents by L. Sprague de Camp (1954) * Slouching Towards Utopia by J. Bradford DeLong (2022) * The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle (1902) * The Rise of Universities by Charles Homer Haskins (1923) * Colonial New England on 5 Shillings a Day by Bill…
on “Interesting Books I've Read in 2023” ↗…the Arabs preserved a lot but without the ecclesiastical establishment much more of the Wheat would have lost all literate culture. On economic and technological growth Brad Delong has a new book out, Slouching Towards Utopia, and he kind of hits the idea of very, very slow technological progress before 1870 over and over again. I want to say 1% growth every 50 years on average? Doubling slow enough to be easily outpaced by…
This is an over statement. I, too, have read Slouching Towards Utopia and Steven Pinker. But (a) technology is not a monolith, it's clearly nice to have enough food and modern medicine while it's also terrible that we're destroying our biome or facing increased illiteracy…
on “Singles Want to Find Love in Real Life Again, If Only They Could Remember How” ↗