The rise and fall of American growth : the U.S. standard of living since the Civil War / Robert J. Gordon.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gordon, Robert J. (Robert James), 1940- author.

Series:

Princeton economic history of the Western world

The Princeton economic history of the Western world

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cost and standard of living--United States--History.

Cost and standard of living.

History.

United States--Economic conditions--1865-1918.

United States.

Economic conditions.

United States--Economic conditions--1918-1945.

United States--Economic conditions--1945-.

Economic history.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xii, 762 pages; : charts ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Princeton : Princeton University Press, [2016]

Summary:

Examines the economic growth of the United States since the Civil War, arguing that the rate of growth between 1870 and 1970 cannot be repeated and that a number of issues are further stagnating the already slow rate of productivity growth.

Contents:

1 Introduction: The Ascent and Descent of Growth 1

Part I 1870-1940-The Great Inventions Create a Revolution MSM and Outside the Home 25

2 The Starting Point: Life and Work in 1870 27

3 What They Ate and Wore and Where They Bought It 62

4 The American Home: From Dark and Isolated to Bright and Networked 94

5 Motors Overtake Horses and Rail: Inventions and Incremental Improvements 129

6 From Telegraph to Talkies: Information, Communication, and Entertainment 172

7 Nasty, Brutish, and Short: Illness and Early Death 206

8 Working Conditions on the Job and at Home 247

9 Taking and Mitigating Risks: Consumer Credit, Insurance, and the Government 288

Entr'acte. The Midcentury Shift from Revolution to Evolution 319

Part II 1940-2015-The Golden Age and the Early Warnings of Slower Growth 329

10 Fast Food, Synthetic Fibers, and Split-Level Subdivisions: The Slowing Transformation of Food, Clothing, and Housing 331

11 See the USA in Your Chevrolet or from a Plane Flying High Above 374

12 Entertainment and Communications from Milton Berle to the iPhone 409

13 Computers and the Internet from the Mainframe to Facebook 441

14 Antibiotics, CT Scans, and the Evolution of Health and Medicine 461

15 Work, Youth, and Retirement at Home and on the Job 498

Entr'acte. Toward an Understanding of Slower Growth 522

Part III The Sources of Faster and Slower Growth 535

16 The Great Leap Forward from the 1920s to the 1950s: What Set of Miracles Created It? 535

17 Innovation: Can the Future Match the Great Inventions of the Past? 566

18 Inequality and the Other Headwinds: Long-Run American Economic Growth Slows to a Crawl 605.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780691147727

0691147728

OCLC:

908084072