Michael Lind, “Land of Promise: An Economic History of the United States” (Harper, 2012)

Over the last several podcasts, authors (Stedman Jones, Buchman, and Tienken) have repeatedly evoked neoliberalism. A new book helps to place this term and its meaning in American political history into better context. Michael Lind, the author of Land of Promise: An Economic History of the United States (Harper, 2012), has written a sweeping economic and political history of the United States. He is cofounder of the New American Foundation and policy director of the foundation’s Economic Growth Program.

Lind argues that the important divide in the economic intellectual history of the country is between the “developmental tradition” of Hamilton and the “producerist vision” of Jefferson. Major social, political, and economic eras have been defined by competing arguments and victories along that age old argument. Lind takes us up through the present and calls on the Next Social Contract to adjust to the new economic realities of the 21st century.

Lind brings a journalist’s style and a wonk’s zeal for detail and argument. His book is provocative and accessible to a wide audience.

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