It's time to rethink liberal answers to society's biggest challenges - we must abandon fearmongering and embrace visionary action.
The real threat to liberal democracy isn't autocrats - it's the lack of effective action by progressives.
In Abundance, veteran journalists Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson reveal the structural, economic and political forces that have led to the America, and much of the liberal world, of today: where scarcity and preservation drive the agenda, and we have forgotten how to deliver on big ideas.
Decades of slashing immigration, off-shoring manufacture, preventing house-building and stalling ambitious infrastructure projects like high-speed rail means America has a shortage of workers, houses, innovative products and climate-change solutions. It's a story repeated across the Western World. To progress on the greatest challenges of our time, from housing to climate change, healthcare to infrastructure, progressives need a vision of abundance, and the ability and willingness to enact transformative strategies. Here, the authors lay out the barriers to consequential action, and how we can overcome them to actively build a better, more abundant future.
About the Author
Ezra Klein is a columnist and podcast host at the New York Times. He founded Vox, and has been a columnist and editor at the Washington Post; a political analyst at MSNBC; and a contributor to Bloomberg. He is the author of NYT-bestseller Why We're Polarized, one of Barack Obama's top books of 2022. Derek Thompson is a staff writer at The Atlantic, where he writes on economics, technology and society. A news analyst with NPR, Derek is also a contributor to CBS News. He is the author of the international bestseller Hit Makers.
Industry Reviews
"'Forceful, quick-moving ... important' - FINANCIAL TIMES
'Abundance is one of those books that matter ... filled with chilling examples but also with inspirational stories ... it explains that the scarcities that afflict our economies are scarcities we have actively chosen. Making it easier to build will enable us to build a better future. But it is a future that needs to be not just argued for, but fought for' - ROBERT COLVILE, SUNDAY TIMES
'At a time of global realignment and uncertainty, Klein and Thompson offer a bracingly bold basis for a progressive politics and policy that is both radical and realistic. One of the most important political books I have read in the past decade' - MATTHEW D'ANCONA, THE NEW EUROPEAN
'Klein and Thompson want you to hold space to dream about utopia. No need to tighten the belt, they argue: We have everything we need to build the future that liberals want, clean energy and affordable housing included, today!Their book explains how' - NEW YORK TIMES
'Abundance reminds us that the UK isn't the only country that has forgotten how to build [and] there is reassurance here for British readers [on] how to build millions of homes and a new green infrastructure ... Klein and Thompson have sidestepped the current American political horror show to produce something original: a left-liberal manifesto for deregulation, or as they call it, ""a liberalism that builds"". Only that can create green-fuelled abundance' - SIMON KUPER, NEW STATESMAN"
