Out of Gas The End of the Postwar Boom and the Birth of the Modern Economy

Stagnant wages. Feeble growth figures. An angry, disillusioned public. The early 1970s witnessed the arrival of the problems that define the twenty-first century. In An Extraordinary Time, Marc Levinson investigates how the economic collapse of the 1970s marked a radical turning point in global economics - and paved the way for the political and financial troubles of the present. He begins with the story of the visionary policymakers who rebuilt the global economy from the ruins of World War Two, bringing unprecedented affluence to populations from Washington to Berlin, Nairobi to Tokyo. Then he examines why a series of shocks caused this fragile system to collapse, giving way to an era of uncertainty and political extremism that we are still grappling with now. Above all, Levinson shows that we must understand the economic disaster of the 1970s if we want to overcome the problems we face today: the sluggish growth and political polarisation that define our time had their origins in the crisis of the post-war economy. Full of vivid anecdotes and rigorous analysis, An Extraordinary Time is an exciting new examination of the last sixty years of global history. By focusing on a pivotal but often overlooked moment in the twentieth century,Levinson offers a crucial and timely reappraisal of our age.