PositiveNewsweek... a work of staggering ambition ... offers a stinging critique of Trumpism and capitalism as practiced in America today ... even-handed enough that those from every point on the political spectrum will be able to cite scripture to their particular purpose. The problem, though, is it\'s a hard slog, even for someone who\'s interested in the subject and loved their last book Why Nations Fail ... The great strength and ultimately the great weakness of this book are its piece parts. It is chock full of delightful detours and brilliant nuggets ... The best part is that the authors make their argument by citing the world\'s first economist, Ibn Khaldun from Tunis, famous today for having invented what we know as the Laffer Curve. It\'s this sort of breathtaking erudition, linking ideas and events across geographies and time periods, that makes this book special ... I found myself flipping forwards and backwards—backwards to go back to something that was said earlier, and forwards to see how many pages were left. Many of the arguments are nuanced. It takes reading and rereading to fully understand what the authors are saying. And they don\'t make it easier by using a vocabulary borrowed from Thomas Hobbes and embellished with their own euphemisms ... Using a vocabulary we\'re already familiar with would have made this book a bit easier to digest ... Perhaps it\'s harsh to criticize this book for failing to live up to the absurdly high standard it set for itself, and instead we should appreciate it for what it is: smart and timely book on an important topic.
