
Ages of American Capitalism
A History of the United States
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Narrated by:
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John Lee
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By:
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Jonathan Levy
About this listen
A leading economic historian traces the evolution of American capitalism from the colonial era to the present - and argues that we’ve reached a turning point that will define the era ahead.
“The best one-volume history of American capitalism.... It is impossible to understand the United States without understanding its economic history. This book, from one of the nation’s foremost historians of capitalism, brings that important and endlessly fascinating story to life.” (Sven Beckert, author of Empire of Cotton)
Today, in the midst of a new economic crisis and severe political discord, the nature of capitalism in United States is at a crossroads. Since the market crash and Great Recession of 2008, historian Jonathan Levy has been teaching a course to help his students understand everything that had happened to reach that disaster and the current state of the economy, but in doing so he discovered something more fundamental about American history. Now, in an ambitious single-volume history of the United States, he reveals how, from the beginning of US history to the present, capitalism in America has evolved through four distinct ages and how the country’s economic evolution is inseparable from the nature of American life itself.
The Age of Commerce spans the colonial era through the outbreak of the Civil War, a period of history in which economic growth and output largely depended on enslaved labor and was limited by what could be drawn from the land and where it could be traded. The Age of Capital traces the impact of the first major leap in economic development following the Civil War: the industrial revolution, when capitalists set capital down in factories to produce commercial goods, fueled by labor moving into cities. But investments in the new industrial economy led to great volatility, most dramatically with the onset of the Great Depression in 1929. The Depression immediately sparked the Age of Control, when the government took on a more active role in the economy, first trying to jump-start it and then funding military production during World War II. Skepticism of government intervention in the Cold War combined with recession and stagflation in the 1970s led to a crisis of industrial capitalism and the withdrawal of political will for regulation. In the Age of Chaos that followed, the combination of deregulation and the growth of the finance industry created a booming economy for some but also striking inequalities and a lack of oversight that led directly to the crash of 2008.
In Ages of American Capitalism, Jonathan Levy proves that, contrary to political dogma, capitalism in the United States has never been just one thing. Instead, it has morphed throughout the country’s history - and it’s likely changing again right now.
* This audiobook includes a downloadable PDF containing graphs and maps.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2021 Dr. Jonathan Levy (P)2021 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“Prodigiously researched, elegantly written, and relentlessly interesting...Ages of American Capitalism deftly weaves strands of economic, business, political, social and intellectual history into an engaging, accessible narrative.” (The Washington Post)
“Prodigious...a vivid social and geopolitical history.” (Boston Review)
“It is impossible to understand the United States without understanding its economic history. This book, from one of the nation’s foremost historians of capitalism, brings that important and endlessly fascinating story to life, taking the reader on a whirlwind tour of plantations and factories, boardrooms and government offices. If you want to get a better sense of where we are, think about how we got here.” (Sven Beckert, author of Empire of Cotton)
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- By Kau'i Baumhofer on 07-09-21
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Trade Wars Are Class Wars
- How Rising Inequality Distorts the Global Economy and Threatens International Peace
- By: Matthew C. Klein, Michael Pettis
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Trade disputes are usually understood as conflicts between countries with competing national interests, but as Matthew C. Klein and Michael Pettis show in this book, they are often the unexpected result of domestic political choices to serve the interests of the rich at the expense of workers and ordinary retirees. Klein and Pettis trace the origins of today's trade wars to decisions made by politicians and business leaders in China, Europe, and the United States over the past 30 years.
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Narrator is robotic
- By dugmartssch on 05-22-20
By: Matthew C. Klein, and others
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Crashed
- How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World
- By: Adam Tooze
- Narrated by: Simon Vance, Adam Tooze
- Length: 25 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Current events have deep roots, and the key to navigating today’s roiling policies lies in the events that started it all — the 2008 economic crisis and its aftermath. Despite initial attempts to downplay the crisis as a local incident, what happened on Wall Street beginning in 2008 was, in fact, a dramatic caesura of global significance that spiraled around the world, from the financial markets of the UK and Europe to the factories and dockyards of Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America.
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A vaccine against substance free deceivers
- By Gary on 08-19-18
By: Adam Tooze
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The Wages of Destruction
- The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy
- By: Adam Tooze
- Narrated by: Adam Tooze, Simon Vance
- Length: 30 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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An extraordinary mythology has grown up around the Third Reich that hovers over political and moral debate even today. Adam Tooze's controversial book challenges the conventional economic interpretations of that period.
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Ties the story together in an amazing way
- By Philo on 08-23-21
By: Adam Tooze
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The Big Myth
- How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market
- By: Naomi Oreskes, Erik M. Conway
- Narrated by: Liza Seneca
- Length: 21 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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In the early 20th century, business elites, trade associations, wealthy powerbrokers, and media allies set out to build a new American orthodoxy: down with 'big government' and up with unfettered markets. With startling archival evidence, Oreskes and Conway document campaigns to rewrite textbooks, combat unions, and defend child labor.
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Refuting the Chicago School
- By Todd W. Laveen on 06-01-23
By: Naomi Oreskes, and others
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Capital and Ideology
- By: Thomas Piketty, Arthur Goldhammer - translator
- Narrated by: Rick Adamson
- Length: 48 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Thomas Piketty’s best-selling 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.
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Big thinking at its finest
- By Amazon Customer on 03-20-20
By: Thomas Piketty, and others
What listeners say about Ages of American Capitalism
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Marvin Martin
- 04-08-24
Marvelous review and insight
This is a wonderful book. Thorough, insightful, and fascinating. In discussing the causes and results of major economic events in US history it identifies the strengths and weaknesses of the American individual and of American society over time.
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- Jack
- 08-22-21
The narrator. The book.
The narrator lets his voice trail off at the end of phrases and sentences, requiring multiple rewinds.
Aside from that, his inflection and clarity are good.
The book is a wonderful blending of economic, political, and cultural history, and their symbiosis. A grand and sweeping tale, well told.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Owen Davis
- 02-27-22
Hard to imagine a better one-volume economic history of the US
I really enjoyed listening to this book. I come to it as an economist though not a history buff by any means. The book maintained a good pace without leaving me in the dark at any point. Levy sets up a particular economic analytic framework early on — a classically Keynesian one — and uses it to great effect in his analysis of the macro trends throughout US history. Some may quibble with his analysis here and there but Levy is clear and consistent throughout.
A particular strength is Levy’s attention to cultural phenomena. Interspersed with the history and economics are short and delightful forays into the art and the entertainment of the eras under consideration. These are fun and surprising and provide a nice break from facts dates and figures.
I also appreciated Levy’s detailed accounts of business operations. Two standouts are Carnegie’s steelworks and Silicon Valley. These sections are interesting in their own right, but also provide essential context to the macroeconomic developments they illuminate.
The narrator is very good too.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Robert P.
- 07-03-23
Left biased. Democrats great. Republicans evil.
A well researched academic work, it suffers from the usual bias against anyone who actually worked for a living, met a payroll, risked their capital, and dared to make profits. Democratic administrations could do no wrong and Republican administrations were all evil. NBC, CBS, CNN and ABC are honest, unbiased news organizations, but Fox is “news entertainment.” Sorry I wasted my time on this one.
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- Leslie K. Ross
- 03-05-24
Terrible Narrator
Probably the worst narrator I've experienced out of dozens of audiobooks. Constantly mumbling and trailing off to the point I could barely follow the points the author was making.
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- David M. Harkness
- 08-20-21
Terrible
I don't agree with the author's assumptions, and it is clear he is biased. The writing is not engaging and it starts dragging from the get go.
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1 person found this helpful