An Intriguing But Unfulfilled Premise
3 stars
The initial premise of this book - to explore how changes in economic conditions impact ethics and societal norms - is intriguing. Unfortunately, the book deviates from all but a small sliver of that premise, and even that is analyzed incompletely and problematically. Specifically, Friedman investigates how economic growth in the West during and after the Industrial Revolution relates to right wing ideology popularity. The cases presented here are interesting, but the complete lack of any quantitative analysis, the shocking omission of Native Americans, the nearly total absence of any mention of racism and its predictive power, and finally the extremely narrow timeline (what about the fact that economic growth basically didn't exist before the industrial revolution?) and cultural focus saps this book of any legitimacy. Some specific points are certainly prescient given that this book was written in 2006, but you're much better off picking up one of Piketty's …
The initial premise of this book - to explore how changes in economic conditions impact ethics and societal norms - is intriguing. Unfortunately, the book deviates from all but a small sliver of that premise, and even that is analyzed incompletely and problematically. Specifically, Friedman investigates how economic growth in the West during and after the Industrial Revolution relates to right wing ideology popularity. The cases presented here are interesting, but the complete lack of any quantitative analysis, the shocking omission of Native Americans, the nearly total absence of any mention of racism and its predictive power, and finally the extremely narrow timeline (what about the fact that economic growth basically didn't exist before the industrial revolution?) and cultural focus saps this book of any legitimacy. Some specific points are certainly prescient given that this book was written in 2006, but you're much better off picking up one of Piketty's many excellent books to learn more about the concepts introduced here.