How America's high standard of living came to be and why future growth is under threat In the century after the Civil War, an economic revolution improved the American standard of living in ways previously unimaginable. Electric lighting, indoor plumbing, motor vehicles, air travel, and television transformed households and workplaces. But has that era of unprecedented growth come to an end? Weaving together a vivid narrative, historical anecdotes, and economic analysis, The Rise and Fall of American Growth challenges the view that economic growth will continue unabated, and demonstrates that the life-altering scale of innovations between 1870 and 1970 cannot be repeated. Gordon contends that the nation's productivity growth will be further held back by the headwinds of rising inequality, stagnating education, an aging population, and the rising debt of college students and the federal government, and that we must find new solutions. A critical voice in the most pressing debates of our time, The Rise and Fall of American Growth is at once a tribute to a century of radical change and a harbinger of tougher times to come. "Winner of the 2017 Excellence in Financial Journalism Book Award, New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants" "Winner of the 2017 PROSE Award in U.S. History, Association of American Publishers" "A New York Times Bestseller" "One of Financial Times (FT.com) Best Economics Books of 2016" "One of Foreign Affairs’ Editors’ Picks 2016" "One of The Economist’s Economics and Business Books of the Year 2016" "One of The Wall Street Journal’s “The 20 Books That Defined Our Year” 2016" "One of the Washington Post’s Best Economics Books 2016" "One of Bloomberg View’s “Five Books to Change Conservatives’ Minds,” chosen by Cass Sunstein" "One of Bloomberg View’s Great History Books of 2016" "#36 on Bloomberg’s "50 Most Influential" List" "One of Bloomberg’s Best Books of 2016" "One of The New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2016" "One of Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Books of 2016 in History" "One of the Strategy+Business Best Business Books 2016 in Economy" "Shortlisted for the 2016 Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award" "One of The NewYorker.com Page-Turner blog’s “The Books We Loved in 2016”" "Longlisted for the 2016 Cundill Prize in Historical Literature, McGill University" "The Thomas Piketty-esque economic must read of the year." ---Rana Foroohar, Time "This is a book well worth reading—a magisterial combination of deep technological history, vivid portraits of daily life over the past six generations and careful economic analysis. . . . [ The Rise and Fall of American Growth ] will challenge your views about the future; [and] it will definitely transform how you see the past." ---Paul Krugman, New York Times Book Review "[An] authoritative examination of innovation through the ages." ---Neil Irwin, New York Times "Robert Gordon has written a magnificent book on the economic history of the United States over the last one and a half centuries. . . . The book is without peer in providing a statistical analysis of the uneven pace of growth and technological change, in describing the technologies that led to the remarkable progress during the special century, and in concluding with a provocative hypothesis that the future is unlikely to bring anything approaching the economic gains of the earlier period. . . . If you want to understand our history and the economic dilemmas faced by the nation today, you can spend many a fruitful hour reading Gordon's landmark study." ---William D. Nordhaus, New York Review of Books "[ The Rise and Fall of American Growth ] is full of wonder for the miraculous things that America has accomplished." ---Edward Glaeser, Wall Street Journal "A masterful study to be read and reread by anyone interested in today's political economy." ― Kirkus Reviews "Normally, these kinds of big-think books end with a whimper, as the author totally fails to identify solutions to the problem he is writing about. But Gordon's conclusion offers some admirably definitive policy advice." ---Matthew Yglesias, Vox "Gordon uses exhaustive historic data to buttress his thesis." ---Greg Ip, Wall Street Journal "Magnificent. . . . Gordon presents his case . . . with great style and panache, supporting his argument with vivid examples as well as econometric data. . . . Even if history changes direction . . . this book will survive as a superb reconstruction of material life in America in the heyday of industrial capitalism." ― The Economist "Every presidential candidate should be asked what policies he or she would offer to increase the pace of U.S. productivity growth and to narrow the widening gap between winners and losers in the economy. Bob Gordon's list is a good place to start." ---David Wessel, WSJ.com "The year's most important book on economics. . . . What Gordon has provided is not a rejection of techn