In 1900 the world’s population numbered 1.65bn. A century later that figure had quadrupled to more than 6bn. At the same time, despite this unprecedented crowding of humanity, gross domestic product per capita rose in real terms by more than four times. That huge increase in productive potential redefined the lives of billions of people. It also enabled more destructive wars than ever before and, beyond wars, something even more terrifying: the real possibility of the total annihilation of human life on the planet. This duality of production and destruction gives the 20th century a claim to be the most radical in the history of our species.
With Slouching Towards Utopia, J Bradford DeLong, Berkeley economics professor, former Clinton-era Treasury official and pioneering economics blogger, tries his hand at a grand narrative of the last century. With disarming frankness, he starts with the basic question of any such enterprise: which model, which narrative frame to pick?