Economic History

Titan is the first full-length biography based on unrestricted access to Rockefeller’s exceptionally rich trove of papers. A landmark publication full of startling revelations, the book indelibly alters our image of this most enigmatic capitalist....

The true, behind-the-scenes history of the people who built Silicon Valley and shaped Big Tech in America....

Michael Lewis intelligently - and humorously - explains the current economic crisis in The Big Short....

Brilliant and engagingly written, Why Nations Fail answers the question that has stumped the experts for centuries.....

Life is getting better at an accelerating rate. The pessimists insist that we will reach a turning point and things will get worse. But they have been saying this for 200 years....

The definitive volume on Enron's amazing rise and scandalous fall, from an award-winning team of Fortune investigative reporters....

Big tech has replaced capitalism's twin pillars—markets and profit—with its platforms and rents. With every click and scroll, we labor like serfs to increase its power....

Innovation is the main event of the modern age, the reason we experience both dramatic improvements in our living standards and unsettling changes in our society....

Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google are the four most influential companies on the planet. Just about everyone thinks they know how they got there. They're wrong....

Richard Cockett gives us the entirety of an extraordinary story of how one city made the modern world—and how we all remain inescapably Viennese....

A real-life thriller about the most tumultuous period in America's financial history by an acclaimed New York Times reporter....

If you asked most people what forces led to today’s unprecedented income inequality and financial crashes, no one would say the Federal Reserve. For most of its history, the Fed has enjoyed the fawning adoration of the press....

Richard H. Thaler has spent his career studying the radical notion that the central agents in the economy are humans - predictable, error-prone individuals....

Palo Alto’s weather is temperate, its people are educated and enterprising, its corporations are spiritually and materially ambitious and demonstrably world-changing....

In Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Thomas Piketty analyzes a unique collection of data from 20 countries, ranging as far back as the 18th century, to uncover key economic and social patterns....

When Money Dies is the classic history of what happens when a nations currency depreciates beyond recovery....

The bestselling author of No Logo shows how the global "free market" has exploited crises and shock for three decades, from Chile to Iraq....

An explosive, deeply reported exposé of McKinsey & Company, the international consulting firm that advises corporations and governments, that highlights the often drastic impact of its work on employees and citizens around the world....

When did America give up on fairness? The author of Fantasyland tells the epic history of how America decided that big business gets whatever it wants, only the rich get richer, and nothing should ever change - and charts a way back to the future....

Called by H.L. Mencken, "one of the few economists in history who could really write," Henry Hazlitt achieved lasting fame for this brilliant but concise work....

Acclaimed economist and BBC broadcaster Linda Yueh profiles the great economic minds who focused on the big questions: growth, innovation, and the nature of markets....

More than 200 million years ago, geological forces split apart the continents. Isolated from each other, the two halves of the world developed radically different suites of plants and animals....

These Are the Plunderers traces the thirty-year history of corporate takeovers in America and private equity’s increasing dominance....

Sacred Economics traces the history of money from ancient gift economies to modern capitalism, revealing how the money system has contributed to alienation, competition, and scarcity....

Through the last 150 years of American history, Ijeoma Oluo exposes the devastating consequences of white male supremacy on women, people of color, and white men themselves....

In explaining how economic thinking is indispensable to tackling these huge problems, this book is a sure-footed guide, spanning Aristotle’s ideas about restraining consumption, Adam Smith’s thinking about the importance of moral character for sustained economic development, and Esther Duflo’s ongoing work to help the world’s poorest communities lift themselves out of poverty.

With unparalleled access, and having interviewed hundreds of people – from Amazon executives to competitors to small businesses who rely on its marketplace to survive – Dana Mattioli exposes how Amazon was driven by a competitive edge to dominate every industry it entered, bulldozed all who stood in its way, reshaped the retail landscape, transformed how Wall Street evaluates companies, and altered the very nature of the global economy.

Welcome to Gold Rush to Modern Day Mines - a definitive guide to the fascinating world of gold mining, spanning centuries and continents. This eBook is a treasure trove of stories, facts, and insights that will surprise and delight anyone interested in the history, culture, and economic significance of this glittering metal. From the legendary California Gold Rush that transformed America's destiny to the discovery of Witwatersrand, the world's largest gold deposit, in South Africa, this book takes you on a riveting journey through some of the most iconic moments in the history of gold ...

Prepare to delve into the dynamic universe of economics as you've never seen it before. "China's Economic Ascendance" presents an enthralling and comprehensive in-depth examination of China's extraordinary economic journey. This is no mere textbook but a vibrant and exciting exploration that will captivate anyone with an interest in China, economics, or the intriguing interplay between them. In this detailed tome, you'll traverse the terrain from the foundations of Mao's era to the present day, covering a broad spectrum of topics from China's integration into the global economy, the entry ...

Are you ready for a journey back in time to the thrilling era of the Gold Rush? Get ready to step into the shoes of gold miners who risked it all to strike it rich. Life in the Gold Rush is an insightful and captivating eBook that delves into the realities of life as a gold miner. With 20 diverse and fascinating chapters, this eBook offers an in-depth look at the lure of gold, the daily routine of a gold miner, and the tools of the trade. We explore how technology has transformed modern mining and the economic impact of gold mining. But this eBook is not just a lesson in history: we also ...

Discover the fascinating world of commercial trucking in this comprehensive guide that delves into the rich history, current challenges, and future trends of one of the most vital industries in the global economy. From the early days of horse-drawn wagons to the cutting-edge technologies of autonomous vehicles, "The Road Ahead" provides a captivating journey through the evolution of commercial trucking. Explore the pioneering spirit of truck drivers, the growth of interstate highways, and the impact of deregulation on industry dynamics.

Over the past two centuries, economic growth has freed billions from poverty and made our lives far healthier and longer. As a result, the unfettered pursuit of growth defines economic life around the world. Yet this prosperity has come at an enormous price. At this time of uncertainty about growth and its value, award-winning economist Daniel Susskind provides an essential reckoning. In a sweeping analysis full of historical insight, he argues that we cannot abandon growth but shows instead how we must redirect it, making it better reflect what we truly value.

An eye-opening account of the failures of our financial system, the sources of its staying power, and the path to meaningful economic reform.

This book explores what we can learn from the global history of financial bubbles and their booms and busts. Warren Buffett once said, "The first rule of an investment is don't lose money. And the second rule of an investment is don't forget the first rule. And that's all the rules there are." The tales of overreaching hubris and greed that follow in this book remind us not to get carried away and risk investment losses that are hard to recover from. Bulls and Bears make money, but Hogs get slaughtered. Navigating the financial markets' twists and turns can often feel like deciphering a ...

In 1995, Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin re-defined the next thirty years of currency policy that ushered in exceptional prosperity and cheap foreign goods, but the strong dollar policy also played a role in the devastating hollowing out of America’s manufacturing sector. Meanwhile, abroad, the United States increasingly turned to the dollar as a weapon of war. In Paper Soldiers, Saleha Mohsin reveals how the Treasury Department has shaped U.S. policy at home and overseas by wielding the American dollar as a weapon—and what that means in a new age of crisis.

In the twelfth-century, Pisa was a thriving metropolis, a powerhouse of global trade, and a city that stood at the centre of Mediaeval Europe. But Pisa had a problem. It was running out of coins. In the face of financial crisis, it was here that the foundations of modern banking were born. In Money and Promises, the distinguished financier, entrepreneur and historian Paolo Zannoni examines the fascinating, complex relationship between states and banks.

It’s easy to look at the state of the world around us and feel hopeless. We live in an era marked by war, climate crisis, political polarization, and acute inequality—and yet many of us feel powerless to do anything about these profound issues. We’ve been assured that unfettered capitalism is necessary to ensure our freedom and prosperity, even as we see its corrosive effects proliferating daily. Why, in our age of unchecked corporate power, are most of us living paycheck to paycheck?

The little-engine-that-could story of how a band of scrappy entrepreneurs are reviving the enterprise of manufacturing clothing in the United States.

This is a digestible summary of the most authoritative (but too long) treatise of all time on Austrian Economics. No crafty Keynesianism. No academic obfuscation. Rather, a succinct series of building blocks, based on actual human behavior, that lead to rational truths at the societal level. The original is condensed to one-sixteenth its length and organized into the three states of relative market freedom: free, mixed (government interventions), and un-free (socialism). Use the Synthesis as a sort of Cliff’s Notes to a timeless classic.

This volume in a series of world history case studies focuses on Scottish businessman Richard Oswald, a man who epitomized the inter-connectivity of the Atlantic world in the eighteenth century, as well as the horrors that unity produced. By establishing his own triangular trade with a slave station in Sierra Leone, a plantation in Florida, and an office in London, Oswald became a wealthy man who benefited from the misery of others. Because he also served as the chief British negotiator in the Peace of Paris (1783) that ended the American Revolution, Oswald's life also provides us with a ...