Economic growth is the religion of the modern world. It promises a solution to the most basic drama of our human existence: wanting what we don’t have. But we live in a time when the frenzied pursuit of economic growth is jeopardizing the planet’s viability and our very survival as a species. How did we get to this point in human history? How did we allow the pursuit of growth to become the apotheosis of human development?

To answer these questions, the distinguished economist Daniel Cohen takes us on a journey to understand human desire and the different registers on which it has expressed itself throughout history. He brings his panoramic grasp of the subject to bear on the key stages of social and economic development, from the Neolithic revolution to the digital age. The ideas of the great economists – from Adam Smith and Karl Marx to Joseph Schumpeter and John Maynard Keynes – are situated in their historical contexts and explained clearly and concisely. The result is a triumph of ambition and brevity: a history of the economy in 100 pages.

This book – the final work written by Daniel Cohen – will appeal to anyone interested in the economy and in the tension between a limited world and unlimited desires that lies at the heart of the great challenges we face today.