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cody240fc 's review for:
Ages of American Capitalism: A History of the United States
by Jonathan Levy
This is an impressive achievement by Levy. The pure scope of the work, and I am not talking about the page count, would be enough to deter most economists. We're covering the entire economic history of the United States here. This is not the first time such a book has been published, but it is the most up to date and therefore covers more ground than any American economics book before it.
Levy has divided this history into four parts and given each respective age a descriptive title. The points at which he demarcated each era are interesting in their own right; American colonization, Civil War, the World Wars, and the Reagan administration. It's kind of wild how drastically our economy changed in the 1980's and it's not surprising that those changes have lead to the disputes that we are seeing today regarding monetary and fiscal policies.
Alas, this is one of those instances where the size of the task smothers the details. It is inevitable that large portions of this book are dry; we're just covering too much ground to avoid it. The Gilded Age section was surprisingly on the dull side. Maybe that is a result of having read several books on the category already. The most interesting part is the final section that covers the Reagan administration onwards, which Levy has dubbed The Age of Chaos. I am guilty of recency bias here but the events that have lead us to where we are today are obviously going to be the most pertinent for us.
This is a work Levy should be proud of, however, and it is a worthwhile read. This is probably a book I will refer back to when discussing economics and fiscal policies in the future. A strong three stars.
Levy has divided this history into four parts and given each respective age a descriptive title. The points at which he demarcated each era are interesting in their own right; American colonization, Civil War, the World Wars, and the Reagan administration. It's kind of wild how drastically our economy changed in the 1980's and it's not surprising that those changes have lead to the disputes that we are seeing today regarding monetary and fiscal policies.
Alas, this is one of those instances where the size of the task smothers the details. It is inevitable that large portions of this book are dry; we're just covering too much ground to avoid it. The Gilded Age section was surprisingly on the dull side. Maybe that is a result of having read several books on the category already. The most interesting part is the final section that covers the Reagan administration onwards, which Levy has dubbed The Age of Chaos. I am guilty of recency bias here but the events that have lead us to where we are today are obviously going to be the most pertinent for us.
This is a work Levy should be proud of, however, and it is a worthwhile read. This is probably a book I will refer back to when discussing economics and fiscal policies in the future. A strong three stars.