Thomas Piketty is Professor at École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) and the Paris School of Economics and Codirector of the World Inequality Lab.
A sustained argument for why we should be optimistic about human
progress…An engaged and clearheaded socialist thinker, Piketty sets
forth…one of the most comprehensive and comprehensible social
democratic programs available anywhere…He has laid out a plan that
is smart, thoughtful, and motivated by admirable political
convictions.
*Washington Post*
An opportunity for readers to see Piketty bring his larger argument
about the origins of inequality and his program for fighting it
into high relief.
*New York Times*
A Brief History of Equality is a route into Piketty’s arguments in
his earlier books, with their luxuriantly extensive data and
historical detail. Anybody who has not been able to face those
tomes…should read this one.
*Financial Times*
Peak Piketty…He possesses the rarest of abilities to analyze
staggering quantities of information and offer original insights
into the structures that underpin our economies…At a time when the
concept of objective truth is under assault and when the nuance of
argument can be drowned out by the shouting of slogans, there is
something glorious about the scale of the work of Thomas Piketty.
His arguments are vast in their detail, ever ambitious and always
hopeful. This elegant and (by his standards) short book will allow
any reader to understand the glory.
*Irish Times*
An analysis that might just provide a fresh opportunity for social
hope…Piketty has undeniably identified clues about how to achieve a
more egalitarian world.
*The Lancet*
An activist’s history, part reckoning with the past and part
manifesto for the future, designed to bolster the courage of those
who would continue the forward march. It is an admirable
undertaking…Piketty mounts an impassioned plea for a renewed and
retooled commitment to equality in its various forms, laying out an
ambitious blueprint for a new kind of democratic, self-managing and
decentralized socialism, not least as a counter to the
authoritarian, state-socialist model of China.
*Literary Review*
Piketty is now attempting to revive an egalitarian political
project that he traces all the way back to the Enlightenment, but
which has stalled since 1980. In A Brief History of Equality he
lays out a program of democratic socialist reforms—to taxation,
property rights, corporate governance, international regulation and
much else—that would invert recent trends.
*London Review of Books*
Tidier and more lucid…Piketty is guardedly optimistic about the
prospects for future social progress.
*New Republic*
Piketty…avoid[s] the twin seductions of triumphalism and
hopelessness. He treats the concept of equality more expansively
here, including not only income and property but also gender and
race. By moving the focus from inequality to equality, he suggests
that what’s needed isn’t only the harsh light of critique but also
the remedy of repair.
*New York Times*
[Piketty] argues that we’re on a trajectory of greater, not less,
equality and lays out his prescriptions for remedying our current
corrosive wealth disparities.
*New York Times Magazine*
A nice distillation of the ‘rockstar’ economist’s ideas and a good
entry point for the uninitiated…[Piketty] points out that an
unequal concentration of wealth is bad for growth and corrosive to
democracy, precisely because it limits social mobility and prevents
people from accessing key institutions…If the politics of Europe
and America during the last decade have taught us anything, it is
that the failure to address inequality is highly corrosive to the
social contract. It fosters distrust and resentment, and makes
people vulnerable to demagogy, populism, xenophobia, and
reactionary politics of all kinds.
*Quillette*
Surprisingly optimistic…Building on his previous works and drawing
on the sweeping historical record, Piketty brings his larger
argument about the origins of inequality and the political, social,
and institutional contexts of its evolution into sharp relief.
*Finance & Development*
Thomas Piketty presents a narrative of history that is optimistic—a
narrative that shows, despite numerous setbacks, over the long
durée that civilization is trending towards social, economic and
political equality.
*Marx and Philosophy Review of Books*
Merciful in its brevity, although no less intellectually rigorous.
Designed to be read by politically-minded citizens, not just
economists, it distills the key concepts from Piketty’s previous
three books…Piketty’s overview of 20th-century history and politics
has given us a blueprint for achievable political transformation
and reason to hope that progress is possible.
*PopMatters*
[Piketty] constantly rethinks and seeks to address new audiences.
His impact on political thinking and strategy is undoubted: there
can be no denying that the increasing call for wealth taxation
draws on his lead. In this spirit, this book will occupy a valuable
place in his wider set of writings.
*Administrative Science Quarterly*
This thought-provoking book is recommended to all readers who want
to learn more about how the scourge of inequality might be dealt
with and enhance the lives of all humans.
*Choice*
Marked by Piketty’s trademark lucidity, impressive
multidisciplinary scholarship, and provocative progressivism, this
is a vital introduction to his ideas.
*Publishers Weekly (starred review)*
There is no historian of global inequality more impactful today
than Piketty. His latest book is a succinct synthesis of the
important lessons of his work to date—a valuable resource for all
of us trying to build an economy that is driven by value creation
for all and not value extraction for the few.
*Mariana Mazzucato, author of Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide
to Changing Capitalism*
Thomas Piketty helped put inequality at the center of political
debate. Now, he offers an ambitious program for addressing it. The
revitalized democratic socialism he proposes goes beyond the
welfare state by calling for guaranteed employment, inheritance for
all, power-sharing in corporations, and new rules for
globalization. This is political economy on a grand scale, a
starting point for debate about the future of progressive
politics.
*Michael J. Sandel, author of The Tyranny of Merit: Can We Find
the Common Good?*
A Brief History of Equality is a literally exceptional book. Thomas
Piketty documents the economic growth and moral progress humanity
has experienced over the past three centuries and draws a new
inspiration from this history. Others who emphasize progress
succumb to flatfooted views of well-being, technocratic fear of
politics, and quietism about justice. But Piketty confronts
historical progress with a subtle understanding of human
flourishing, a keen appreciation for political struggle, and a deep
commitment to a more just world. In this way, Piketty makes past
progress into a call to continue the struggle for justice, with
stronger historical foundations, a deeper understanding of the
present, and a clearer vision for the future.
*Daniel Markovits, author of The Meritocracy Trap: How America’s
Foundational Myth Feeds Inequality, Dismantles the Middle Class,
and Devours the Elite*
A profound and optimistic call to action and reflection. For
Piketty, the arc of history is long, but it does bend toward
equality. There is nothing automatic about it, however: as
citizens, we must be ready to fight for it, and constantly
(re)invent the myriad of institutions that will bring it about.
This book is here to help.
*Esther Duflo, Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences*
 |
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
