Building the Future the Past Promised

My latest book review, “Building the Future the Past Promised”, was published last week in AIER’s The Daily Economy.

It is a review of James Pethokoukis’s The Conservative Futurist: How to Create the Sci-Fi World We Were Promised. It offers convincing explanations for the Great Stagnation, and an interesting set of policy proposals to unleash economic growth, fueling technological progress. Whether it is a truly conservative vision is a more complicated question:

The American experiment has produced and sustained the earth’s most enduring classical liberal institutions. In this sense, the book will find a receptive conservative audience as well. Traditionalist and religious conservatives will find it a less natural fit. The first of Russell Kirk’s “Ten Conservative Principles” is that “the conservative believes there is an enduring moral order. The order is made for man, and man is made for it: human nature is a constant, and moral truths are permanent.” The notion of a transcendent moral order and fixed human nature is an integral part of what makes many conservatives, well… conservative. The belief in both was also shared by the American founders, who were followers and then pioneers among giants of the liberal tradition.  

The full review is available here. Enjoy!