具体描述
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 U.S. 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.
作者简介
Jonathan Levy is a professor in the Department of History and the John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. His first book, Freaks of Fortune: The Emerging World of Capitalism and Risk in America, won the Organization of American Historians’ Frederick Jackson Turner Award, Ellis W. Hawley Prize, and Avery O. Craven Award, as well as the American Society for Legal History’s William Nelson Cromwell Book Prize. He lives in Chicago, Illinois.
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这本书对我理解现代社会运作逻辑起到了极大的启发作用。它成功地将长达数百年的经济演变串联成一个有机的整体，揭示了资本积累和权力分配的周期性规律。与我过去读过的某些侧重于纯粹宏观数据的经济史著作不同，这部作品极为注重“人”在历史中的能动性。无论是那些白手起家的实业家，还是致力于规范市场秩序的政治家，他们的决策和道德困境构成了历史的血肉。尤其是在讨论特定历史转折点时，作者对替代性历史路径的潜在可能性的探讨，引人深思。读完全书后，我感觉对当前全球经济体系的根源性问题有了更清晰的认识，不再满足于表面的解释，而是开始探究其深层的结构性成因。
评分这本厚重的历史著作，在我读完后留下了深刻的印象。作者的叙事功力非凡，将复杂纷繁的经济变迁编织成一幅引人入胜的画卷。从早期美国经济的萌芽，到工业化浪潮的汹涌澎湃，再到金融资本的崛起与扩张，每一个阶段的更迭都伴随着激烈的社会冲突与观念的碰撞。我特别欣赏作者在描绘历史细节时的严谨态度，那些关于特定时期商业实践、劳资关系的生动案例，仿佛将我带回了那个特定的年代。尽管涉及大量经济学理论和数据分析，但作者的笔触始终保持着一种流畅的叙事节奏，使得即便是初涉此领域的读者也能紧随其后，理解资本主义在美国这片土地上是如何一步步塑造其社会结构与国民性格的。书中对不同历史时期政策制定的背景、参与者的动机的剖析，尤为精妙，让人不禁反思，我们今天所处的经济环境，究竟是历史的必然，还是无数次选择的结果。
评分阅读过程更像是一次对美国精神内核的深度探寻。它不仅仅是一本关于经济史的书，更是一部关于美国人“梦想与现实”的编年史。书中的篇章结构设计得颇具匠心，每一部分都像是一个独立的短篇故事，但又紧密相连，共同构筑起宏大的叙事主题。我尤其对书中对创新与破坏性技术如何重塑市场格局的论述深感兴趣。那种近乎野蛮生长的力量，既带来了前所未有的财富积累，同时也制造了难以调和的社会鸿沟。作者没有采取简单的褒贬态度，而是以一种近乎冷静的史学家视角，展示了这种内在的张力。读到某些段落时，我甚至能感受到那种时代特有的躁动与不安，仿佛能闻到蒸汽机燃烧的煤灰味和华尔街午后紧张的空气。此书的价值，在于它帮助读者跳出日常琐碎的经济新闻，用更具历史深度的眼光去审视当前的经济现象。
评分我必须承认，这本书的阅读体验是极具挑战性的，但绝对物有所值。它要求读者具备一定的耐心和专注力，因为作者深入挖掘的层次非常深，丝毫不回避那些令人不适的经济衰退与社会不公的黑暗面。书中对不同意识形态之间拉锯战的描绘尤其精彩，无论是自由放任主义者还是社会改良派，他们对“美国梦”的定义和实现路径的理解存在着根本性的分歧，而这些分歧正是驱动历史前进的根本动力。我尤其被那些被历史进程无情抛弃的群体和产业所占据的章节所触动，他们的故事是理解经济效率背后沉重代价的关键。这本书的语言风格比较偏向学术，但通过大量的历史档案和人物引述，有效地软化了理论的生硬感，使得严肃的主题读起来也充满了画面感和戏剧性。
评分老实说，这本书的体量和内容的密度初看之下可能会让人望而却步，但一旦沉浸其中，就会被作者那近乎全知全能的叙事视角所折服。它仿佛是一部交响乐，不同的经济主题作为乐章，时而高亢激昂，时而低沉内省。我特别欣赏作者对金融工具创新如何改变社会财富结构这一问题的处理。从早期的商业信用票据到后来的复杂衍生品，每一种工具的出现都伴随着对现有秩序的颠覆。书中对这些工具背后的哲学基础和实际社会后果的分析，既严谨又富有洞察力。这本书的叙事方式有一种独特的历史重量感，它让你在阅读时不断地停下来，思考当下的决策将在未来被如何评判。这是一部值得反复研读的鸿篇巨著，其价值会随着时间推移愈发凸显。
评分In Levy’s telling, each age of American capitalism represents a fresh effort to refashion the relationship between government and markets in response to major disruptions to the old economic order. Levy is an unabashed Keynesian, he describe the crucial importance of investment and the necessary role of government in directing and sustaining it.
评分In Levy’s telling, each age of American capitalism represents a fresh effort to refashion the relationship between government and markets in response to major disruptions to the old economic order. Levy is an unabashed Keynesian, he describe the crucial importance of investment and the necessary role of government in directing and sustaining it.
评分In Levy’s telling, each age of American capitalism represents a fresh effort to refashion the relationship between government and markets in response to major disruptions to the old economic order. Levy is an unabashed Keynesian, he describe the crucial importance of investment and the necessary role of government in directing and sustaining it.
评分In Levy’s telling, each age of American capitalism represents a fresh effort to refashion the relationship between government and markets in response to major disruptions to the old economic order. Levy is an unabashed Keynesian, he describe the crucial importance of investment and the necessary role of government in directing and sustaining it.
评分In Levy’s telling, each age of American capitalism represents a fresh effort to refashion the relationship between government and markets in response to major disruptions to the old economic order. Levy is an unabashed Keynesian, he describe the crucial importance of investment and the necessary role of government in directing and sustaining it.
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