Despite moments of political bias and some selective use of data, Abundance excels at what few books attempt: explaining the mechanics of modern economic growth within the tangled realities of politics, culture, and urban life. Klein and Thompson trace how societies build—or fail to build—the physical foundations of prosperity: housing, infrastructure, and industrial capacity.
They move easily from global trends to city-level bottlenecks, showing how ideology, regulation, and social attitudes shape what gets built and what stalls. The book's strength lies in its synthesis: it connects political theory with hard economic outcomes, revealing how values and governance directly determine material progress.
Where Vaclav Smil dissects production from a paleontological view -- purely technical or ecological perspective, Abundance focuses on agency: on the people and policies that choose between creation and constraint. Even when chronicling policy fiascos like California's high-speed rail, the authors maintain a credible optimism rooted in civic will and practical reform.
Addressed primarily to liberal readers, their message is blunt: scarcity is a political choice, not an inevitability. Choosing abundance means reclaiming ambition and capacity for collective improvement.
Clear, timely, and uncommonly coherent, Abundance deserves attention well beyond its partisan audience. 5/5 stars.
