Allies (Fall 2019) | Boston Review

A Political and Literary Forum

Menu Search
Donate Shop Join

Economics

Class & Inequality

Games Economists Play

The hostile reaction to Binyamin Appelbaum's new book reveals the tensions within the economics profession over some of its most self-serving myths. 

Marshall Steinbaum

Class & Inequality

It's The Gap, Stupid

Three new books draw a disturbing picture of America as a system of compounding inequality driven by a hereditary meritocracy of professional elites.

Archon Fung

Class & Inequality

When Economics Had Ethics

Remembering Kenneth Arrow

Debra Satz

Class & Inequality

Building the Natural Market

Smithian ideas about natural political laws and natural human reason thrived long beyond the Revolution.

Claude S. Fischer

Class & Inequality

The Power of Bad Ideas

A new book on economist Karl Polanyi.

Michael McCarthy

Class & Inequality, Global Justice

Tell Narendra Modi: Human Development is More than GDP

This updated piece was originally published by the Hindu Centre for Politics and Public

Martha C. Nussbaum

Class & Inequality, Politics

The Landscape of Campaign Finance Reform

Lawrence Lessig walked across New Hampshire to put campaign finance reform back on the national agenda.

Andrew Mayersohn

Class & Inequality, Science & Nature

The Fossil Fuel Divestment Movement Can Succeed Where Politics Failed

The divestment movement’s moral clarity entails a risk if advocates shift from demonizing fossil fuels to demonizing the people who dig them up. 

David Keith

Class & Inequality

Giving Kids a Fair Chance

Nobel Prize-winning economist James Heckman argues that early childhood intervention can improve the economic and social mobility of children born into disadvantage. At a time when state and local budgets for early interventions are being cut, Heckman issues an urgent call for action and offers some practical steps for how to design and pay for new programs. 

James J. Heckman

Class & Inequality, Politics

Taxing Away Inequality

Emmanuel Saez and David Grusky discuss why taxation, though a blunt instrument, might be the best available solution.

David B. Grusky, Emmanuel Saez

Arts in Society, Class & Inequality

An Embarrassment of Riches

Writers of the Gilded Age unsettled the comfortable relations between failure and poverty, wealth and success.

Gavin Jones

Class & Inequality, Global Justice

Unfinished Revolution

Dr. King’s Goal Was Full Employment and Universal Health Care

J. Phillip Thompson

Sign Up for Our Newsletter

Vital reading on politics, literature, and more in your inbox

Love Boston Review?

Then you’ll love our new membership program! Join us to support engaged discussion on critical issues. You’ll also enjoy exclusive membership benefits.
Get Started

Copyright © 1993-2019 Boston Review and its authors.

Support Boston Review

Become a Member

Make a tax-deductible donation today

Boston Review Printing Note: For best printing results try turning on any options your web browser's print dialog makes available for printing backgrounds and background graphics.