A deeply researched investigation that reveals how the United States is like a spider at the heart of an international web of surveillance and control, which it weaves in the form of globe-spanning networks such as fiber optic cables and obscure payment systems. America’s security state first started to weaponize these channels after 9/11, when…
DetailsA thousand years of history and contemporary evidence make one thing clear: progress depends on the choices we make about technology. New ways of organizing production and communication can either serve the narrow interests of an elite or become the foundation for widespread prosperity. The wealth generated by technological improvements in agriculture during the European…
DetailsA rallying call for extending human rights beyond our physical selves—and why we need to reboot rights in our data-intensive world. Our data-intensive world is here to stay, but does that come at the cost of our humanity in terms of autonomy, community, dignity, and equality? In We, the Data, Wendy H. Wong argues that we cannot…
DetailsThe eminent economic historian Harold James presents a new perspective on financial crises, dividing them into “good” crises, which ultimately expand markets and globalization, and “bad” crises, which result in a smaller, less prosperous world. Examining seven turning points in financial history—from the depression of the 1840s through the Great Depression of the 1930s to…
DetailsFrom the jury: In Spin Dictators, Guriev and Triesman paint a portrait of the new breed of dictators that control their populations by distorting information and simulating democratic processes. They have pioneered less violent, more covert, and more efficient and effective methods of repression. Guriev and Triesman show us how these new authoritarians come to…
From the jury: Slouching toward Utopia is a gripping account of the economic and social dreams of Western countries in the 20th and early 21st centuries. J. Bradford DeLong tells a compelling story of flawed decision-making that failed to realize promise and left so many frustrated and open to easy and risky solutions. “Slouching” refers…
From the jury: Revolution and Dictatorship changes the way we understand the staying power of authoritarian regimes. In a brilliant and original argument that draws deeply on history, Levitsky and Way show us how the origin of an authoritarian regime tells us a great deal about how long it is likely to last. Revolutionary regimes…
From the jury: In this gripping history of semiconductors, Chris Miller tells the contemporary history of the geopolitical competition between the United States and China. In compelling prose, Miller traces the history of a tiny silicon wafer that shapes technological development and economic growth in the global economy and is now at the forefront of…