An Extraordinary Time: The End of the Postwar Boom and the Return of the Ordinary Economy

Product Description

Award-winning historian Marc Levinson investigates how the early 1970s marked a radical turning point in global economics, paving the way for the political and financial troubles of the present. Zooming in on the economic crisis of 1973, Levinson describes how the golden age that lasted nearly three decades after World War II suddenly evaporated, giving way to an era of anxiety, uncertainty, and political extremism that we are still grappling with. Above all, Levinson shows how the disputes of the 1970s remain incredibly relevant: then, as now, economic growth in much of the world was well below its potential, the public assumed that policymakers could save the economy, and governments' inability to do so bred cynicism and anger. By focusing on a transformative but often forgotten moment in twentieth century history, Levinson offers a critically important reappraisal of the last forty years.