Ideas That Rule Us

Chris Grocott is Lecturer in Management and Economic History at the University of Leicester, UK.

"For readers engaged in the movement to rethink economics, this book offers valuable context. It clarifies how the stories we tell about markets, growth and responsibility became so dominant and how they might be rewritten. Grocott book reminds us that to change the economy, we must first understand the ideasthat underpin it. That understanding is the first step towards building something better." Chanda Katema, Rethinking Economics"You might ask yourself, how did we get here: broken public services, polluted rivers and the return of rickets? Chris Grocott provides a crucial part of the answer, deftly recounting the history of the ideas that have come to drive policy, shape behaviour and dominate thinking." David Harvie, co-author of Shaping for Mediocrity: The Cancellation of Critical Thinking at Our Universities, and co-editor of Commoning with George Caffentzis and Silvia Federici"The state of affairs that economists so often justify is producing gigantic inequalities and a climate crisis. In this beautiful little book, Chris Grocott punctures the old stories and encourages the birth of new ones. This is essential reading which will help us to produce a low carbon, high inclusion, high democracy economy." Martin Parker, Professor of Organization Studies, University of Bristol Business School, UK"Economic ideas have a reputation for being devilishly complicated. But The Ideas That Rule Us makes clear that economics has always been most powerful when it is presented as deceptively simple: something that can bring order to the messiness of people’s lives. Grocott expertly leads the reader through the basic economic assumptions that shape how we think about the world via a study of key economic theorists from Adam Smith and Karl Marx to John Maynard Keynes and Friedrich Hayek. But as he explains, the ‘common sense’ economic ideas we live with are now centuries old, and in need of re-evaluation. An important but accessible read that tackles the big questions that continue to perplex society – namely what makes an economy ‘good’ and who is it really ‘good’ for?" Amy Edwards, Senior Lecturer in Modern British History, University of Bristol and author of Are We Rich Yet? The Rise of Mass Investment Culture in Contemporary Britain

• 1. Introduction 2. Just Desserts 3. Tell Me Why I Don’t Like Mondays 4. Unemployment 5. The General Theory 6. You’ve Never Had it so Good: Social Democracy in Post-War Britain 7. Serfdom, Capitalism and Freedom 8. Imperialism for Free Trade 9. No Such Thing as Society 10. Things Can Only Get Better 11. The Keynesian Foxhole 12. Austerity and the Nation’s Credit Card 13. ‘Why Did No One See it Coming?’ 14. Economics Overreach