Matt O'Brien

An instant New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller from one of the world’s leading economists, offering a grand narrative of the century that made us richer than ever, yet left us unsatisfied. "A magisterial history."—​Paul Krugman Before 1870, humanity lived in dire poverty, with a slow crawl of invention offset by a growing population. ...

How climate change and disease helped to bring down the Roman EmpireHere is the monumental retelling of one of the most consequential chapters of human history: the fall of the Roman Empire. The Fate of Rome is the first book to examine the catastrophic role that climate change and infectious diseases played in the collapse of Rome's power--a story...

A provocative look at how today’s trade conflicts are caused by governments promoting the interests of elites at the expense of workers Trade disputes are usually understood as conflicts between countries with competing national interests, but as Matthew C. Klein and Michael Pettis show in this book, they are often the unexpected result of domestic...