Ben Waber reviewed Ages of American Capitalism by Jonathan Levy
A Slightly Dated American Economic History with a Few Nuggets
3 stars
This book is an absolute tome, mostly using that length to provide a fairly undistinguished individual-focused chronology of American economic history. There's little analysis here, with the reader given the task to actually connect the different individual case studies and events into a theory of larger themes. The analysis is also fairly dated - nearly completely ignoring Native Americans, focusing pretty much exclusively on white men's economic conditions (albeit at least sometimes acknowledging it), etc. Levy inexplicably doesn't take on the role of capitalism in driving slavery, despite spending time with causality on a number of other, much less important, issues. Unsurprisingly, a clear Chicago School ethos is present throughout. He even has the audacity to say we don't know what to call the American economic system after 1980 (hint: it rhymes with "leo-niberalism"). Similarly giving neoliberalism credit for ending Jim Crow policies is laughable, as is the on brand …
This book is an absolute tome, mostly using that length to provide a fairly undistinguished individual-focused chronology of American economic history. There's little analysis here, with the reader given the task to actually connect the different individual case studies and events into a theory of larger themes. The analysis is also fairly dated - nearly completely ignoring Native Americans, focusing pretty much exclusively on white men's economic conditions (albeit at least sometimes acknowledging it), etc. Levy inexplicably doesn't take on the role of capitalism in driving slavery, despite spending time with causality on a number of other, much less important, issues. Unsurprisingly, a clear Chicago School ethos is present throughout. He even has the audacity to say we don't know what to call the American economic system after 1980 (hint: it rhymes with "leo-niberalism"). Similarly giving neoliberalism credit for ending Jim Crow policies is laughable, as is the on brand Chicago School criticism of the literally never before or since reproduced economic growth of the New Deal era.
These shortcomings are a shame, as there are some fascinating nuggets buried within this volume. Macro economic conditions and capital concentration metrics during the Civil War in particular stood out. In addition, Levy provides citations to so many primary sources and period texts that simply as a pointer to references this book is undeniably impressive. If only the analysis was as similarly compelling