Reviews
A significant work. The author interrogates the principal forms of economic organization over time, from slavery to 'non-European trifunctional societies,' Chinese-style communism, and 'hypercapitalist' orders, in order to examine relative levels of inequality and its evolution...A deftly argued case for a new kind of socialism that, while sure to inspire controversy, bears widespread discussion., Both a history of the world and a theory of history. Every society is unequal, and therefore constitutes an 'inequality regime' maintained not solely by force but also by ideology... Most of the book is a history of how those ideologies have helped bolster social structures characterized by extreme inequality, from feudal and slave societies through colonial regimes to the hypercapitalist world of today...The bleakly unequal impact of the coronavirus pandemic on rich and poor may reinforce that discontent., Mixes history and polemic--case studies from modern Sweden and Soviet Russia alongside a genuine political program to help mitigate, at least, the cruelest inequities highlighted in his first book., Focuses on the relationship between inequality and the way in which the concept of private property has evolved over time...Fascinating analysis., An encyclopaedic, rewarding work that merits thoughtful engagement...Piketty successfully puts forward a superb, data-driven normative defense of democratic socialism. The principles that Piketty proposes--fair tax, fair trade, clean air and, above all, a democratic economy--have a huge amount to commend them, and make this book an essential read., A book of remarkable clarity and dynamism. Drawing lessons from a breathtaking survey of different historical experiences, it teaches us that nothing is inevitable, that there exist a whole range of possibilities between hypercapitalism and the disasters of the communist experience. It's up to us to make our future. Let's roll up our sleeves., [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., A believer in how capitalism can be used to eradicate inequality, Piketty argues for new taxation systems that might minimize the gap between the one percent and the underserved. Whether he's right or wrong, his dazzling intellect makes for thought-provoking reading., Thomas Piketty's new book starts where Capital in the Twenty-First Century left off, revealing how inequality was allowed to develop into an acceptable condition, now and in the past, in the West and in the rest of the world. Still, not all is bad: if inequality is a social construct, that means it can also be undone. Based on monumental research, Capital and Ideology is an appeal to rethink capitalism--if not for today's politicians then perhaps for tomorrow's revolution!, Thomas Piketty's books are always monumental...In the same way that Capital in the Twenty-First Century has transformed how economists look at inequality, Capital and Ideology will transform the way political scientists look at their own field., Ranges widely across continents and centuries in its analysis of economic inequality and the ways it is justified., Ventures to trace the origin of inequalities and propose methods of eradication...Lands on the world's doorstep in the midst of an unfolding economic crisis, when the shutdown required to prevent the spread of the coronavirus is sending the world into a spiraling recession...Piketty has put forward proposals for long-term, permanent change, but impressively, they would also be immediately useful in speeding along the recovery., Packed with fascinating detail and vast quantities of skillfully assembled data...A systematic examination of inequality across time and place, and of the ideas the powerful have used to justify it...We learn a good deal about the lengths to which the powerful will go to assert their privilege (and the often outrageous injustice this entails), and about the only things that have ever thwarted them: mass violence and progressive taxation...Whether or not his revolution without revolutionaries can get us where we need to go, his analysis of how we got here demands our attention., 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 the possibilities of our present. 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., Adds something vital to the author's decades-old, impressively data-rich indictment of unequal wealth accumulation. This book proposes a lively, tendentious, debatable account of the ideologies that propel different property regimes--as well as a nuanced genealogy of how such ideologies can change., As in his previous book, Piketty's quest to quantify and track inequality is grounded in a rigorous analysis of data...In Capital and Ideology , he also seeks to better explain how systems of inequality persist and justify themselves...Ultimately as much a work of history as of economics...Piketty's latest work offers us plenty of valuable ideas., An astonishing experiment in social science, one that defies easy comparison. In its ambition, obsessive testimony and sheer oddness, it is closer to the spirit of Karl Ove Knausgård than of Karl Marx...Will be impossible to ignore., [Has] the potential to start an important debate about how to restructure society in a more egalitarian and ecologically sustainable way., Might become even more politically influential than the French economist's 2013 overview of inequality, Capital in the Twenty-First Century ...Piketty explains why this could be the moment for a turn to equality, and which policies could make that happen.
