Synopses & Reviews
How did a weak collection of former British colonies become an industrial, financial, and military colossus?From the eighteenth to the twenty-first centuries, the American economy has been transformed by wave after wave of emerging technology: the steam engine, electricity, the internal combustion engine, computer technology. Yet technology-driven change leads to growing misalignment between an innovative economy and anachronistic legal and political structures until the gap is closed by the modernization of America's institutions—often amid upheavals such as the Civil War and Reconstruction and the Great Depression and World War II.
When the U.S. economy has flourished, government and business, labor and universities, have worked together in a never-ending project of economic nation building. As the United States struggles to emerge from the Great Recession, Michael Lind clearly demonstrates that Americans, since the earliest days of the republic, have reinvented the American economy—and have the power to do so again.
Review
The book is rich with details…among the joys of Linds book are small, little-known stories like the one about the Wright brothers that have clear relevance today. New York Times Book Review
Review
“[An] illuminating new book…” David Brooks, New York Times
Synopsis
A sweeping and original work of economic history by Michael Lind, one of Americas leading intellectuals,
Land of Promise recounts the epic story of Americas rise to become the worlds dominant economy. As ideological free marketers continue to square off against Keynesians in Congress and the press, economic policy remains at the center of political debate.
Land of Promise: An Economic History of the United States offers a much-needed historical framework that sheds new light on our past—wisdom that offers lessons essential to our future. Building upon the strength and lucidity of his New York Times Notable Books The Next American Nation and Hamiltons Republic, Lind delivers a necessary and revelatory examination of the roots of American prosperity—insight that will prove invaluable to anyone interested in exploring how we can move forward.
About the Author
Michael Lind is cofounder of the New America Foundation and policy director of its Economic Growth Program. Mr. Lind's first three books of political journalism and history—The Next American Nation: The New Nationalism and the Fourth American Revolution, Up from Conservatism: Why the Right Is Wrong for America, and Vietnam: The Necessary War—were all selected as New York Times Notable Books. With Ted Halstead, he is coauthor of The Radical Center: The Future of American Politics. Mr. Lind has taught at Harvard University and Johns Hopkins, and he writes frequently for the Financial Times, the New York Times, Democracy, and other publications. He has appeared on C-SPAN, National Public Radio, CNN, the Business News Network, PBS's NewsHour, and other programs. He has a weekly column in Salon.