How Progress Ends

Business and Economics

Audio only

How Progress Ends

Technology, Innovation, and the Fate of NationsBy Carl Benedikt FreyNarrated by Richard Lyddon

How Progress Ends

Length17h 54m

About this audiobook

Shortlisted for the Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year Award This audiobook narrated by Richard Lyddon spans 1,000 years of global history to show why technological and economic progress is often followed by stagnation and even collapse In How Progress Ends, Carl Benedikt Frey challenges the conventional belief that economic and technological progress is inevitable. For most of human history, stagnation was the norm, and even today progress and prosperity in the world's largest, most advanced economies—the United States and China—have fallen short of expectations. To appreciate why we cannot depend on any AI-fueled great leap forward, Frey offers a remarkable and fascinating journey across the globe, spanning the past 1,000 years, to explain why some societies flourish and others fail in the wake of rapid technological change. By examining key historical moments—from the rise of the steam engine to the dawn of AI—Frey shows why technological shifts have shaped, and sometimes destabilized, entire civilizations. He explores why some leading technological powers of the past—such as Song China, the Dutch Republic, and Victorian Britain—ultimately lost their innovative edge, why some modern nations such as Japan had periods of rapid growth followed by stagnation, and why planned economies like the Soviet Union collapsed after brief surges of progress. Frey uncovers a recurring tension in history: while decentralization fosters the exploration of new technologies, bureaucracy is crucial for scaling them. When institutions fail to adapt to technological change, stagnation inevitably follows. Only by carefully balancing decentralization and bureaucracy can nations innovate and grow over the long term—findings that have worrying implications for the United States, Europe, China, and other economies today. Through a rich narrative that weaves together history, economics, and technology, How Progress Ends reveals that managing the future requires us to draw the right lessons from the past.

Audiobook details

GenreBusiness and Economics

Length17 hrs 54 mins

Narrated byRichard Lyddon

FormatAudiobook

Publish dateSep 16, 2025

LanguageEnglish

Table of contents

1Opening Credit

13Chapter 7 Continued - War Peace and Progress

2Preface - Preface: Planning and Progress

14Chapter 8 - The Age of Planning

3Chapter 1 - The Mechanics of Pro gress

15Chapter 8 Continued - The Age of Planning

4Chapter 2 - Chinas Reversal of Fortune

16Chapter 9 - Growth with Gulags

5Chapter 3 - The Rise of Europe

17Chapter 10 - Centralization Crumbles

Show all chapters

6Chapter 3 Continued - The Rise of Europe

18Chapter 11 - The Great Flattening

7Chapter 4 - Prussias Visible Hand

19Chapter 12 - The Great Leap Backward

8Chapter 4 Continued - Prussias Visible Hand

20Chapter 12 Continued - The Great Leap Backward

9Chapter 5 - Tsars and Zaibatsus

21Chapter 13 - The Veneer of Pro gress

10Chapter 6 - Innovation in America

22Epilogue - Moravecs Paradox

11Chapter 6 Continued - Innovation in America

23End Credit

12Chapter 7 - War Peace and Progress

About the author

Carl Benedikt Frey

View all by Carl Benedikt Frey

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