How Economics Explains the World: A Short History of Humanity

This brisk study from Leigh (Randomistas), an economist and member of Australia’s parliament, traces how economic factors have shaped world history from the dawn of agriculture to the present. He suggests that the transition from hunting and gathering to farming around 12,000 years ago led to the establishment of private property and food surpluses, which in turn made it possible for leaders to enrich themselves by appropriating the products of others’ labor. More effective technologies for harnessing the power of coal sparked the Industrial Revolution in the late 1700s, and the 19th-century rise of limited liability corporations stimulated the flow of capital into risky ventures that, when successful, created massive businesses whose size compelled workers to unionize in order to maintain bargaining power. Elsewhere, Leigh covers the rise of Keynesianism during the Great Depression, central banks’ role in taming inflation in the 1980s, and how the contemporary dominance of a handful of Silicon Valley tech companies results in lower wages for workers. The history will largely be familiar to readers of Yuval Noah Harari and Jared Diamond, whom Leigh cites in his research, but he does a solid job of succinctly recounting the events and developments that explain “how our market system developed.” It’s a satisfying overview of economic history. Photos. (Sept.)