Capital and Ideology

In an election cycle where the political discourse has been thoroughly shaped by Pikettys work, his new book feels especially urgent. * GQ * Ventures to trace the origin of inequalities and propose methods of eradicationLands on the worlds 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 recessionPiketty has put forward proposals for long-term, permanent change, but impressively, they would also be immediately useful in speeding along the recovery. * New Republic * Nothing less than a global history of inequality and the stories that societies tell to justify it, from pre-modern India to Donald Trumps U.S. * Wired * Might become even more politically influential than the French economists 2013 overview of inequality, Capital in the Twenty-First CenturyPiketty explains why this could be the moment for a turn to equality, and which policies could make that happen. -- Simon Kuper * Financial Times * Thomas Pikettys books are always monumentalIn 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. -- Branko Milanovic * ProMarket * 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 Knausgrd than of Karl MarxWill be impossible to ignore. -- William Davies * The Guardian * 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. Its up to us to make our future. Lets roll up our sleeves. -- Esther Duflo, Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences 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 hes right or wrong, his dazzling intellect makes for thought-provoking reading. * Washington Post * Boldly proclaims that inequality is ultimately rooted in ideologyOffer[s] a global history of how different political systems have justified inequality, and how these systems have been transformed over time. * The Nation * A magisterial history of economic development as seen through the prism of inequality. It is breathtaking in its scholarship and sweep (almost no corner of the globe is left unvisited) and incandescent in its insights[Piketty] casts his discerning gaze on historys sweep, not just to understand the world but also to transform it. -- Arvind Subramanian * Foreign Affairs * Spenglerian in scope, Pikettys critique reaches far back in history and across the globeIts an admirable corrective to the usual Eurocentrism of Western economistsPiketty has modified his thinking since his previous opus. Rather than imply that rising inequality is a problem inherent in capitalism, he now suggests that the levels of inequality we get are the ones we countenancethat theyre entirely a matter of political and ideological choices. -- Idrees Kahloon * New Yorker * Packed with fascinating detail and vast quantities of skillfully assembled dataA systematic examination of inequality across time and place, and of the ideas the powerful have used to justify itWe 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 taxationWhether or not his revolution without revolutionaries can get us where we need to go, his analysis of how we got here demands our attention. -- Geoff Mann * London Revi

Thomas Piketty is Professor at cole des Hautes tudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) and the Paris School of Economics and Codirector of the World Inequality Lab.