Compared to birds, jaguars, national parks and such, this book sounds like a snoozer. But as we scan the media for ways to understand the precarious predicament of the natural world, this book sounds worthy of the challenge (thanks to NYRB) as we contemplate the balance between the environmental costs of all that growth versus all the dramatic improvements in health and other welfare:

…a magnificent book on the economic history of the United States over the last one and a half centuries. His study focuses on what he calls the “special century” from 1870 to 1970—in which living standards increased more rapidly than at any time before or after. The book is without peer in providing a statistical analysis of the uneven pace of growth and technological change, in describing the technologies that led to the remarkable progress during the special century, and in concluding with a provocative hypothesis that the future is unlikely to bring anything approaching the economic gains of the earlier period. Continue reading →