It is a powerful statement of the problem of the elites vs. the masses, the insiders vs. the outsiders. Ironically, The Levelling itself and the genre to which it belongs highlight the problem rather than solve it. Often condescending, supposedly expert solutions are offered to a crisis that is so broadly defined that it includes obesity, videogame addiction, acute attention deficit disorder and the 'hunched form of the texter' ... It is part of the charm of The Levelling that the author confesses the sins of this genre even while he gleefully sins further ... Sometimes the mist clears to reveal solutions, but only those a grandee could love ... There are dubious claims, too ... To be fair, Mr. O’Sullivan, a finance executive and author, sometimes shows more convincing expertise ... But the real attraction of the book is the author’s impish contradictions.

This is a golden age for history-minded authors who want to take the world’s temperature and tell us what’s going to happen next ... Michael O’Sullivan...has produced one of the gloomier and odder, but most thought-provoking books of the lot ... a very short view ... The least satisfactory passages of this book...are about political reform ... when O’Sullivan, clearly a naturally moderate man, tries to produce his own manifesto and models for fresh political parties to replace the current ones, it all sounds blandly familiar, even pious. His concern about inequality requires a hard-edged social-democratic approach to tax, but that hardly features. He doesn’t really sound like a politician, and there is a certain, albeit charming, naivety about his change agenda ... The best sections in this book by far—perhaps not surprisingly—concern economics and finance. They are really good ... my advice is, study the money chapters closely, then skim the rest.

... I remain unconvinced by the central reverse-globalization thesis of The Levelling ... I found the arguments of The Levelling unconvincing because I had trouble following the book's logic. O'Sullivan has created a mix of trend analysis with anecdotal observation. Rather than developing a hypothesis to be tested with the data, he uses every story as confirmation of his conclusions ... For those wishing to understand the future of higher education through a globalization lens, The Levelling will be a frustrating read ... What the book does do is remind us that succeeding on the global stage is not a foregone conclusion.

Unfortunately O’Sullivan drains the Levellers of any radical content and reduces them to a bland set of ideas aimed at improving governance in an otherwise unchanged socio-economic model of liberalism capitalism ... here lies the central weakness of O’Sullivan’s argument. He makes many interesting observations about the state of the global economy, some I agree with, such as his commentary on the coming debt crisis; and others I would question, such as his advocacy of EU fiscal federalism. But this is his area of expertise, and what he says is always interesting...However, when he strays into history, philosophy and politics he is on very uncertain and unconvincing ground ... The book’s conclusion is also undermined by presenting it as the hypothetical modern-day views of the long deceased US founding father Alexander Hamilton. If you believe in the merit of your own arguments, there is no need to present them as the possible opinions of a man who died more than 200 years ago ... O’Sullivan’s warnings of the growing debt crisis is prescient and should be listened to. His concern for the impact of social and economic inequality is also well argued. But the elephant in the room is the socio-economic model underpinning globalisation, namely neo-liberal capitalism, which O’Sullivan conspicuously avoids discussing ... If the Levellers were with us today they would see the link between these economic dynamics and the polarisation taking place all around us. Unfortunately The Levelling studiously avoids this line of inquiry and is a much weaker book as a result.

With a generous nod to the work of previous authors and experts, the author offers a solid synthesis of prognosis and practical solutions. While the book is somewhat of a structural patchwork, the concept of O’Sullivan’s Levelling presentation is fresh and thought-provoking.