Growth: A Reckoning

Shortlisted for the 2024 Financial Times & Schroders Business Book of the Year

A revelatory account of the past, present, and future of economic growth - and how we should rethink it

Over the past two centuries, economic growth has freed billions from poverty and made our lives far healthier and longer. As a result, the unfettered pursuit of growth defines economic life around the world. Yet this prosperity has come at an enormous price: deepening inequalities, destabilizing technologies, environmental destruction and climate change.

Resolving this growth dilemma, best-selling economist Daniel Susskind argues, is the urgent task of our age. For many, in our era of sluggish productivity, the worry is slowing growth—in the UK, Europe, China and elsewhere—and reversing this stagnation is the goal of every politician. Others understandably claim, given its social and environmental costs, that the only way forward is through 'degrowth', deliberating shrinking our economies.

At this time of uncertainty about growth and its value, Susskind has written an essential reckoning. In a sweeping analysis full of historical insight, he explores what really drives growth, offering original ideas for combatting our economic slowdown. He argues that we cannot abandon growth but shows instead how we can redirect it, making it better reflect what we truly value.

Lucid, thought-provoking and brilliantly researched, Growth: A Reckoning is a vital guide to one of our greatest challenges.