Back
Gordon, Robert J.: The Rise and Fall of American Growth (2016, Princeton University Press)

The trajectory and impetus of American growth from the end of the Civil War until …

A Voluminous, Economics-Focused Review of Technological and Social Change in the US

This book is a methodical review of technological and corresponding social/economic changes in the US since the Civil War, reviewing the impacts of the industrial revolutions and contrasting them to the decline of growth in the US since 1980. Gordon's analysis beyond the detailed accounting of different technological effects, however, is extremely lacking - devoting nearly no space to changes in unionization, tax law, or antitrust relaxation and adopting an extreme techno-deterministic view of development. The refrain that "X can only happen once" is repeated throughout to the point of nearly being a punchline - literally any innovation can only happen once. That being said, the decline of growth is little understood outside economics circles, and this is a good attempt at capturing the problem. Highly recommend