''A Brief History of Equality'' is a non-fiction book by the French economist
Thomas Piketty
Thomas Piketty (; born 7 May 1971) is a French economist who is Professor of Economics at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, Associate Chair at the Paris School of Economics and Centennial Professor of Economics in the Int ...
translated by Steven Rendall from the original 2021 ''Une breve histoire de l'égalité'',
about
wealth redistribution,
in which Piketty describes why he is optimistic about the future.
Overview
In this 288-page book targeting an audience of citizens not economists, Piketty summarizes his two previous books, his 2014 696-page ''
Capital in the Twenty-First Century''
and his 2019 1150-page book ''
Capital and Ideology
''Capital and Ideology'' (french: Capital et Idéologie) is a 2019 book by French economist Thomas Piketty. ''Capital and Ideology'' follows Piketty's 2013 book '' Capital in the Twenty-First Century'', which focused on wealth and income inequal ...
''.
In ''Capital'', Piketty said that a possible remedy for inequality lay in a "global tax on wealth".
In ''A Brief History'', he developed the concept of a progressive increase in the tax on the wealthy.
Reviews
In her ''
Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...
review economist,
Diane Coyle said that in ''A Brief History'', Piketty advocates for politico-economic change to reduce inequalities but does not describe practical solutions for achieving that goal.
The ''Literary Review'' described the book as "an activist's history"a manifesto as well as an overview of the past.
In his review in the ''
Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'', Tunku Varadarajan, a fellow of the
American Enterprise Institute (AEI), said that he doubts thatwithout capitalismthe erosion of inequality and developments in economics and technology that Piketty described could have happened.
While Piketty did not make predictions about the futurehis work which also includes his previous publications such as ''
Capital in the Twenty-First Century''is "partly responsible" for the move away from the "hypercapitalism" of the twenty-first century, according to
Columbia Journalism School's
Nicholas Lemann in his ''New York Times'' review.
Piketty condensed twenty years of his research into 300 pages with the goal of making it more accessible to a wider readership than ''Capital in the Twenty-First Century'', according to Antoine Reverchon in his ''
Le Monde
''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...
'' book review. Reverchon said that Piketty's effort was worthwhile at a time when the left is mindlessly attempting to bring too many issues together under the same umbrella"environmentalism, reformism, feminism, post-colonialism, anti-capitalism". Piketty calls for the state to increase access to quality health care, education, employment through the progressive implementation of taxation on the most wealthy. He also called for a "decommodification" of certain sectors that have become privatized including education, health, transport and energy. Piketty recognizes the real and historic fears of Soviet socialism and central planninghis socialism is participatory.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brief History of Equality, A
2021 non-fiction books
2021 in economics
Books about wealth distribution
Books about economic history
Political books
French-language books
Belknap Press books