Land of Promise

Resumen del libro

The acclaimed author of The Next American Nation and Up from Conservatism delivers a sweeping and original work of economic history, telling the dramatic story of America's rise to-and fall from-global dominance

"Mr. Lind is brilliant."-Richard Bernstein, New York Times

Michael Lind's sweeping economic history offers a much-needed historical perspective on the relationship between economic, technological, and political change. A cogent analysis of America's economic growth over the course of two centuries, it provides bold new insights into our nation's past-insights with disturbing implications for our future.

Lind portrays our economic rise not as a continuous wave of improvement but as bursts of growth driven by technological development inextricably linked to political change. Throughout our history, he reveals, the adoption of major new technologies transformed industries so fundamentally that existing political institutions could no longer effectively govern them. This economic destabilization, which has often caused depression or allowed for war, has resulted in the need for a new political order better suited to the country's needs.

Land of Promise ties the invention of new technology with the foundation of a new American Republic: the invention of the steam engine in the 1770s with the Revolution; the invention of electricity in the 1860s with the Civil War; the invention of information technology in the 1930s with World War II. It introduces the inventors, the businessmen, and the politicians who have struggled to keep our government and economy in step with technological revolutions. In the past, Lind makes clear, our government has been very responsive to such changes, and the American infrastructure has been the envy of the world. Yet today, due in part to neglect and over-reliance on free-market globalism, our economy is crumbling. If we do not return to the adaptive ways of previous generations, Lind warns, our economy will continue to stagnate, our way of life erode, and our international power and prestige decline.