Capital and Ideology, Thomas Piketty
Capital and Ideology, Thomas Piketty
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Capital and Ideology

Bestseller

Author: Thomas Piketty, Arthur Goldhammer

Narrator: Rick Adamson

Unabridged: 48 hr 57 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/10/2020

Synopsis

The epic successor to one of the most important books of the century: at once a retelling of global history, a scathing critique of contemporary politics, and a bold proposal for a new and fairer economic systemThomas Piketty’s bestselling Capital in the Twenty-First Century galvanized global debate about inequality. In this audacious follow-up, Piketty challenges us to revolutionize how we think about politics, ideology, and history. He exposes the ideas that have sustained inequality for the past millennium, reveals why the shallow politics of right and left are failing us today, and outlines the structure of a fairer economic system.Our economy, Piketty observes, is not a natural fact. Markets, profits, and capital are all historical constructs that depend on choices. Piketty explores the material and ideological interactions of conflicting social groups that have given us slavery, serfdom, colonialism, communism, and hypercapitalism, shaping the lives of billions. He concludes that the great driver of human progress over the centuries has been the struggle for equality and education, and not, as often argued, the assertion of property rights or the pursuit of stability. The new era of extreme inequality that has derailed that progress since the 1980s, he shows, is partly a reaction against communism, but it is also the fruit of ignorance, intellectual specialization, and our drift toward the dead-end politics of identity.Once we understand this, we can begin to envision a more balanced approach to economics and politics. Piketty argues for a new “participatory” socialism, a system founded on an ideology of equality, social property, education, and the sharing of knowledge and power. Capital and Ideology is destined to be one of the indispensable books of our time, a work that will not only help us understand the world, but that will change it.

About Thomas Piketty

Thomas Piketty is Professor of Economics at the Paris School of Economics and Centennial Professor at the LSE. His book Capital in the Twenty-First Century, which argued that when the rate of return on capital exceeds the rate of economic growth, the resulting unequal distribution of wealth causes instability, has global sales so far of more than 2m copies.

About Rick Adamson

Rick Adamson is an Audie Award winner for his work on In a Heartbeat by Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy (with Sally Jenkins) of The Blind Side fame. Also the winner of several ALA awards and a Harper Audio Grammy nominee, Rick has been narrating fiction and nonfiction as well as corporate and educational projects for twenty-five years. Originally from Maryland, he now lives in northern New Jersey, where he and his wife have raised three sons.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Laurent on December 12, 2019

No one would dare to suggest that Thomas Piketty lacks ambition. Just a few years after he wrote an unexpected bestseller on inequality which was largely filled with dry discussions of data and graphs, he's back with another work that most people would see as the result of a lifetime's work. "Capital......more

Goodreads review by P.E. on June 03, 2020

D'une histoire comparée des idéologies inégalitaires à une théorie de la société juste. Ce livre part de l'histoire institutionnelle de nombreux pays pour étudier la définition de la propriété, les origines et les ressorts des inégalités d'aujourd'hui et de leurs justifications, puis formuler des alt......more

Goodreads review by Marks54 on September 28, 2020

So, you are locked up at home and strongly encouraged/ordered to go nowhere for the foreseeable future. What should you be reading? To keep plowing through one’s normal queue seems questionable - these are not normal times and what is going to be waiting at the end when we eventually go back to norm......more

Goodreads review by J on April 14, 2020

Thomas Piketty’s previous book, Capital in the 21st Century, was (for this reader) one of the most important books of our age. In it, he marshaled a staggering array of quantitative and qualitative data to show how economic inequality developed and changed in Western Europe and the United states ove......more

Goodreads review by Tuncer on August 17, 2023

Only 6 years after his magnum opus, Capital in the 21st Century, Thomas Piketty is back with another massive book of 1105 pages: Capital and Ideology. The book starts with a striking statement: "Every human society must justify its inequalities." Then comes a grand tour from pre-modern terniary soci......more

Quotes

“If inequality has become the subject of intense public attention, a good deal of the credit goes to the French economist Thomas Piketty.” New Yorker

“A global overview to understand the most pressing economic and social issues of our time.” New York Times Book Review

“In Piketty’s story, now is the time to build a new coalition on the basis of a new ideology.” Washington Post

“In an election cycle where the political discourse has been thoroughly shaped by Piketty’s work, his new book feels especially urgent.” GQ magazine

“Piketty explains why this could be the moment for a turn to equality, and which policies could make that happen.” Financial Times (London)

“The world’s most famous economist sets out the case for socialism. Thomas Piketty’s new book may prove as famous—and controversial—as its predecessor.” The Economist (London)

“Outlines a fairer economic system for the world.” Management Today

“[A] wide-ranging historical survey of ‘inequality regimes’―dogmas that justify hierarchies of wealth and power…This ambitious manifesto will stir controversy but also cement Piketty’s position as the Left’s leading economic theorist.” Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A significant work…A deftly argued case for a new kind of socialism that, while sure to inspire controversy, bears widespread discussion.” Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Thomas Piketty’s magisterial global and connected history takes us on a whirlwind journey across the world during the past 500 years to show how shifting ideas and politics have shaped a wide variety of inequality regimes. Fully embracing the power of historical analysis, Capital and Ideology emboldens us to reimagine what is possible today. Enormously rich in argument and evidence, this tour de force by one of the most influential thinkers of our age is a must-read for anyone grappling with the dilemmas of our present.” Sven Beckert, author of Empire of Cotton: A Global History

Awards

  • Audible Pick
  • New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice
  • Kirkus Reviews Pick
  • Amazon Best Books of the Year
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