The Rise and Fall of American Growth
Robert J. Gordon traces how American life was transformed between 1870 and 1970 by inventions like electricity, the automobile, indoor plumbing, the telephone, and modern medicine. He argues that this century of change raised living standards in ways that can only happen once, and that the digital revolution, for all its impact, has not delivered the same broad gains. The book combines deep economic data with vivid detail about daily life, from how people cooked and traveled to how long they lived. It became a central text in the debate over why economic growth has slowed.
What you might want to know about The Rise and Fall of American Growth
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
An economist argues that the surge in American living standards from 1870 to 1970 was a one-time event unlikely to repeat.
Gordon argues that the explosion in living standards from 1870 to 1970 was driven by once-in-history inventions, and that recent technology has not produced the same broad gains.
Yes. Patrick Collison flags it in green as particularly great on his public bookshelf.
The Rise and Fall of American Growth was written by Robert J. Gordon, published in 2016 by Princeton University Press.
The Rise and Fall of American Growth is 784 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Rise and Fall of American Growth takes most readers 12 to 17 hours to finish.
The Rise and Fall of American Growth is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.