The Rise and Fall of American Growth
From kwharrison13.com · Anti-library
The Rise and Fall of American Growth
| Full title | The Rise and Fall of American Growth: The U.S. Standard of Living since the Civil War |
|---|---|
| Author | Robert J. Gordon |
| Published | 2016 |
| Pages | 762 |
| Recommended | 4 times |
| Buy | Amazon |
| Why it’s on the list | Robert Gordon’s 762-page case that 1870–1970 was a one-off: electricity, sanitation, the internal combustion engine and the telephone transformed daily life in a way the information revolution has not matched. |
Where I heard about it
- Alec Stapp (@AlecStapp) — posted on X, June 2025: “13-hour flight, time to lock in.”
- BuccoCapital Bloke (@buccocapital) — posted on X, October 4, 2026, while rereading it: will historians count AI as one of Gordon’s “Great Inventions,” and will rising income inequality (or attempts to resolve it) cancel out the gains? He quotes the book’s thesis — growth is not steady; the century ending in 1970 ran on a unique clustering of late-19th-century inventions, and inequality since 1970 is the chief headwind. (Rereading The Rise and Fall… (tweet))
- On Patrick Collison’s Bookshelf — Patrick Collison’s catalog of the physical books he owns, where he flags this one as particularly great (green). Saved in Kyle’s April 19th, 2020 Roam daily note.
Connections
- Economic Growth — the central claim about its rate.
- Progress Studies — the field organized largely around disputing this book.
- Innovation — which innovations actually moved the standard of living.
- Artificial Intelligence — the live test of the “Great Inventions” framing.
- Income Inequality — Gordon’s chief headwind to growth after 1970.
What links here
Curated by Kyle Harrison. Organized by Claude. Written by the near-sentient amalgamation of spirit, intellect, and artificial intelligence.