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Marc Levinson
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An Extraordinary Time: The End of the Postwar Boom and the Return of the Ordinary Economy Kindle Edition

by Marc Levinson (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 104 ratings
Editors' pick Best History
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The decades after World War II were a golden age across much of the world. It was a time of economic miracles, an era when steady jobs were easy to find and families could see their living standards improving year after year. And then, around 1973, the good times vanished. The world economy slumped badly, then settled into the slow, erratic growth that had been the norm before the war. The result was an era of anxiety, uncertainty, and political extremism that we are still grappling with today.

In An Extraordinary Time, acclaimed economic historian Marc Levinson describes how the end of the postwar boom reverberated throughout the global economy, bringing energy shortages, financial crises, soaring unemployment, and a gnawing sense of insecurity. Politicians, suddenly unable to deliver the prosperity of years past, railed haplessly against currency speculators, oil sheikhs, and other forces they could not control. From Sweden to Southern California, citizens grew suspicious of their newly ineffective governments and rebelled against the high taxes needed to support social welfare programs enacted when coffers were flush.

Almost everywhere, the pendulum swung to the right, bringing politicians like Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan to power. But their promise that deregulation, privatization, lower tax rates, and smaller government would restore economic security and robust growth proved unfounded. Although the guiding hand of the state could no longer deliver the steady economic performance the public had come to expect, free-market policies were equally unable to do so. The golden age would not come back again.

A sweeping reappraisal of the last sixty years of world history, An Extraordinary Time forces us to come to terms with how little control we actually have over the economy.
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  5. Publication date
    November 8, 2016
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Levinson, an economist and ex-journalist, has the virtues of both-an eye for detail and an understanding of the broader picture."
- Washington Post, Best Economics Books of 2016

"A smoothly written account of the U.S. and the world economy.... Mr. Levinson is a smart enough author not to be tempted into some breathless mono-causal account of either the earlier 'boom' or the later slowdown. He's excellent at description."
-Wall Street Journal

"A provocative book."
-Robert Samuelson, Washington Post

"[Levinson] has a journalist's appreciation for the power of on-the-ground observation."
-Bloomberg Buisnessweek

"A valuable antidote to all passionately held economic ideologie."
-Paul Collier, Times Literary Supplement (UK)


"It is this story of the coming and passing of that long boom-and apparently the inability of politicians to do much about resuscitating it-that Levinson crisply tells."
-National Review


"An Extraordinary Time provides a well-balanced (and surprisingly entertaining) tour of global economic and political history since 1973...Excellent book. Highly recommended."
-Inside Higher Ed


"Levinson has unmatchable understanding of economics and an extraordinary ability to explain intricate economics to laymen."
-Washington Book Review

"Levinson's account of this vexed era is lucid, well-paced, and entwined with vivid sketches of economists, central bankers, and politicians who failed to restore the pre-1973 good times. He also succeeds at translating complex economic issues into understandable terms for lay readers. Levinson's admirably evenhanded treatment of recent economic history steers clear of dogmas on both left and right to explore knottier truths."
-Publishers Weekly, starred review

"[Levinson's] view is absolutely worth heeding in these days of unprecedented worldwide financial experimentation.... A cogently argued account that lays bare the similarities and differences between the world today and earlier theoretical shortcomings."
-Kirkus Reviews

"I've heard it said that economic history is a dying art. Well, not in Marc Levinson's hands. This account of how the extraordinary economic times from 1948 to 1973 turned into the very ordinary (or worse) times that followed is comprehensive, artfully presented, and largely persuasive. That's quite an achievement."
-Alan Blinder, Princeton University, author of After the Music Stopped

"A provocative account of recent economic history which argues the good times have gone, and no government-neither left nor right-can bring them back. A sobering read."
-Eric Rauchway, University of California, Davis, author of The Money Makers

"Marc Levinson has given us a fascinating and perceptive account of the economic difficulties of the 1970s and the response of policymakers. As the United States and other countries struggled with the turbulent end of the post-World War II boom, seeking to cope with stagflation and higher unemployment, they often turned politically to the right-embracing tax cuts and deregulation. How did this process work its way out? This timely book of an important period is not just informative, but helps put our current economic difficulties in perspective."
-Douglas Irwin, Dartmouth College, author of Free Trade Under Fire

"A lively, well-researched tour of the transformation of the American economy in the decades after World War II-how it happened and why the pace didn't last. A great read for those who lived through those years and those who want to learn about them."
-Alice M. Rivlin, Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution

About the Author

Marc Levinson is the former finance and economics editor at the Economist and the author of five books, including The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger. He lives in Washington, DC.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B01IMZ5D10
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Basic Books; 1st edition (November 8, 2016)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ November 8, 2016
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1532 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 337 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 104 ratings

About the author

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Marc Levinson

Marc Levinson

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Marc Levinson is an independent historian, economist, and author. He spent many years as a journalist, including a stint as finance and economics editor of The Economist. He later worked as an economist at JP Morgan Chase, managed a staff advising Congress on transportation and industry issues at the Congressional Research Service, and served as senior fellow for international business at the Council on Foreign Relations. For more information, check out his website at www.marclevinson.net.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
104 global ratings
Marc Levinson Explains What Happened to the American Dream
4 Stars
Marc Levinson Explains What Happened to the American Dream
If you are wondering what happened to the American Dream, a time in which most Americans could feel confident that their and their children's standard of living would inevitably rise, Marc Levinson's book is for you. In it he explains how a unique confluence of events for 25 years after World War II contributed to rapid productivity growth, and as a result growing wealth for millions and millions around the world. Then starting in the mid-1970s as productivity growth was slowing other factors including technology shifts, globalization, reduced infrastructure spending and the flight of capital all contributed to growing income inequality in which wealth, rather than trickling downward, flowed upward to the top income brackets.It's a discouraging story, but one that we citizens need to understand to be able to address the issues our nation and economy face. Over the last 40 years Washington's approach has largely resulted in our income inequality, declining labor force participation and massive national debt. It's time for change.Attached are four graphs from my own work that reinforce Levinson's conclusions.
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Top reviews from the United States

Brett
5.0 out of 5 stars A superb, readable examination of economic transformation in the 20th century
Reviewed in the United States on January 3, 2017
Verified Purchase
Levinson has written some excellent histories, usually in the format of using one particular major change (the rise of containerized shipping in "The Box", the A&P store chain in "The Great A&P") as a way of discussing how it changed the economic landscape of the country - and in the process, providing an excellent economic history for lay readers on particular periods of time. "An Extraordinary Time" takes a broader approach (although it is ostensibly focused on productivity), but it continues in the vein of providing an excellent, supremely readable account of the economic transformation that countries across the world went through with the end of the Postwar Era (1945-1970s) and the rise of a new one.

He starts off by setting the framework in the 1970s, as economic growth reached its peak in the rich countries as they (unknowingly at the time) neared the pinnacle of their economic growth and frequently productivity growth (although the latter had already started to slow in several countries). Levinson then goes into great and fascinating detail about various countries' responses to this, from the rise of Thatcher in Great Britain to the shift towards new industries in Japan as the old "smokestack" export industries declined. Throughout it all, he poses a question - "Why did economic growth and productivity drastically slow down worldwide after the early 1970s?" There are no easy answers, and Levinson goes into great detail examining each potential reason why it might have occurred.

All of the above might make this book seem more dry than it is. It is not a dry book at all - as mentioned above, one of Levinson's great strengths is that he can make this all incredibly interesting and very readable. I strongly recommend this to anyone who might be curious about what has happened in the world's economy since the 1970s.
8 people found this helpful
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JC Reader
4.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting and stimulating but not 100% compelling.
Reviewed in the United States on February 9, 2017
Verified Purchase
Very readable writing style and interesting topic. The premise of the book is the decline of economic growth world wide since 1973 at least compared to the 25 years before that. In my opinion the arguement the author is making is logical and comprehensive but not 100% compelling. Still it was well worth reading.
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Interested customer
5.0 out of 5 stars drawing invidious comparisons with that which we enjoyed back in the post war years
Reviewed in the United States on December 8, 2016
Verified Purchase
I have long objected to those who bemoan our anemic our economic growth today, drawing invidious comparisons with that which we enjoyed back in the post war years. Of course we grew back then, with our soldiers returning, planning to marry, buy a house, furnishings, and a car, settle down, and raise a family--all objectives mandating a vastly increased GDP. Meanwhile the rest of the world lay in smoking ruins. How could we not grow explosively?,

Turns out I was only looking at part of the reason for our apparent success.. The entre post-war period was filled with other events and government action which magnified these already huge advantages which our economy temporarily enjoyed., while the rest of the world rebuilt, with modern equipment. and low cost labor, we enjoyed a fools' paradise--the grasshopper years. This book provides a fascinating tour through the well-intended mistakes which, we can see in retrospect, deluded us into thinking that this was God's plan. It wasn't.
23 people found this helpful
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sandy verona
5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't put it down!
Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2018
Verified Purchase
This is a very well written economic/financial history of the world in the 70 years following the end of WWII (roughly corresponding with my life span). Although I lived through this period, I was not really aware of the major financial turning points that the author accentuates, especially outside the US. The Boom Years of 1948-73 are what both major US political parties have been trying to restore, to no avail. I read the book in 2 days: i couldn't put it down.
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Bayard B.
3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and enjoyable to read but definitely not a detailed economic analysis of the subject.
Reviewed in the United States on June 14, 2017
Verified Purchase
This is a general discussion of the several factors that happened to coincide from around 1947 to the mid 1970s, resulting in the greatest period of economic growth the world has ever seen. It hadn't happened before, isn't happening now, and (according to the author) probably will never happen again.

Since the economic boom slowed in the 1970s and 1980s (depending on the country in which you lived or the industry in which you worked), politicians of all political and ideological convictions have tried to restore the glamour. Alas, neither right-wing free marketeers nor left-wing state socialists have been able to bring back the glory days. Electorates in reasonably democratic countries have responded with frustration.

One of the autnor's comments on page 267 perhaps summarizes it best: "... Rising anger at the state's inability to deliver average citizens the prosperity it had promised manifested itself in uncomfortable ways: resentment of immigrants blamed for taking supposedly scarce jobs; vociferous opposition to paying taxes to maintain roads and public buildings; relentless criticsm of public services that had once been treated as proud achievements, such as schools and health programs." Anybody reading this recognize what country this statement describes?

There are no charts or graphs in the book to demonstrate the author's assertions about long-term trends. The book is, however, heavily foot-noted. If you are interested in more detailed analysis, you should read the cited books and articles. Just glancing at their titles, many of them appear to be pretty dense reading. I didn't find the absence of heavy economic analysis to be an issue. In fact, I thought it made the book more enjoyable to read.
3 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Cheese and wine
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent economic review of a period with contemporary parallels
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 13, 2017
Verified Purchase
Interesting synopsis of a period that had much economic change. Some of the issues of productivity challenges resonate with current economic challenges.
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Amazon カスタマー
5.0 out of 5 stars Well-described the Dynamics of the World Economies
Reviewed in Japan on March 8, 2018
Verified Purchase
Levinson explains how the world economies in the "Gold Age," from the World War II to the Oil Shock, had well performed with high economic growth rate, low inflation rate and low unemployment rate. Such a good performance of the world economies significantly contributed for the improvement of human well-being in major advanced countries on the one hand, while the politicians, policy makers as well as ordinary nationals in these advanced countries, all became to take for granted that economy could be controllable so as to grow at high rate with continuous improvement of human well-being on the other hand.

After the world faced the Oil Shock in 1973, all the underlining economic conditions changed drastically, i.e., turned into being troubled with low economic growth rate, high inflation rate and high unemployment rate. In spite of efforts to challenge these economic bad conditions, such as the Thatcherism and the Reaganomics which promoted deregulation and privatization, the economies of major advanced countries have remained low growth rate and high unemployment rate, and widened income gap between rich and poor as a result of the liberalization of economies.

After reviewed postwar world economic history, Levinson concluded as below;

“The Golden Age was an extraordinary time, and the generation that lived through it enjoyed extraordinary opportunity. But as economist John Fernald observed after delving deeply into American productivity data, “It is the exceptional growth that appears unusual.” The same applies to every other country in the world. Economic miracles do happen, but in most times and most places, economics grow slowly, bringing a gradual improvement in living standards punctuated by sudden bursts of euphoria and by recessions that throw unneeded workers on the street. Neither market-oriented economic policies, such as those championed by Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, nor statist reforms, such as those initially undertaken by François Mitterrand, have proven able to alter that reality. In Japan and Korea, massive state-guided investment booms, once the objects of breathless admiration around the world, brought explosive economic growth followed by rapid improvements in living standards---again, for a while. But those economies, too, eventually fell from orbit, their political leaders no longer able to deliver miracles.”

Levinson successfully described the dynamics of the world economies, and the "Golden Age" was mere extraordinary period which derived from such historical conditions, (a) the restoration of the advanced countries from ruins after the World War II, (b) the rise of communism that resulted in Cold War, and (c) the implementation of the Marshall Plan to support economic restoration of the advanced countries as an urgent response of US against the rise of communism.

I highly recommend this book if you are interested in postwar world economic history, and want to understand why the advanced countries currently face difficulties in their economies.
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Stephen Dorril
4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 7, 2020
Verified Purchase
If you want know why we are in an economic mess and why the average person is no better off than 40 years ago - start here. if you want to know aboutwhy the Oil Crisis of 1973 was basically the end of the economic miracle of the post-war years - read this book.
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niall mcdonnell
4.0 out of 5 stars Great book!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 20, 2018
Verified Purchase
Excellent history of post war developed economics. The author adeptly covers the political landscape and its impact on various policies throughout the 70s and 80s. A must read for anybody with an interest in economics history.
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Ian
2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 15, 2016
Verified Purchase
His thesis stated in interviews is that there was faster growth after the Second World War and that it is slowing down to 1.5% pa. Hardly surprising and possibly optimistic. Certainly important and worth investigating.
This book is a chronologic collection of journalistic commentary on events of the period to 1973, when rapid growth was ended, partly by evil oil producing countries.
Not much analysis or objective fact.
Reads like his agent saw a gap in the post-Piketty market and persuaded him to dig out old writings and visit a newspaper archive.
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