Reviews and Comments

Using the development of El Salvador's coffee industry as a jumping off point, Sedgewick convincingly demonstrates how coffee production is inextricably linked to colonialism, technological development, and accidents of history. Sedgewick brings deep research and a holistic approach to this instructive topic, and his extremely engaging writing style makes the entire book that much more enjoyable.

The importance of scientific advances in the mid-1800s was particularly interesting to me, with the discovery of the law of thermodynamics and the fascination with measurement spilling over to the workplace and society more broadly. The examination of its role in facilitating the expansion of scientific management and caloric expenditure measurement, first in the lab and then put in practice on plantations through an elaborate cafeteria and food production system, echoes even today in free corporate lunches. The importance of the human choices made during this period that dramatically shaped working conditions for plantation workers and the growth of the coffee industry was shocking and incredible.

Overall, this book not only highlights the genesis of the industry that produces a staple of the global diet. It also underlines how economic demand and concern for profit alone can create horrible societal outcomes that are hidden from consumer markets. There is so much more covered in this essential book, I can't highly recommend it enough.

Louis Hyman provides an excellent account of the historical players - people and organizations - that have lead to the current dominant modes of management and work in the US. This book is at its strongest when examining that history, revealing the surprising roots of certain now standard management practices and how to view the current wave of gig work as a natural extension of previous forms management and work.

A lot of time is spent on the important influence of management consulting firms, McKinsey in particular, and the genesis of many titles and practices in the consulting industry. One challenge with these sections of the book is a lack of context around some of the numbers provided - saying a firm had 100 people doing something or made $X million doesn't mean a lot if you don't know the scale of the business/industry. This work could also be improved with more integration from the academic literature on management practices - have the practices that were implemented been validated to be effective? Under what metrics?

The last two chapters unfortunately suffer from far too much ungrounded speculation about technology and economics. IMO those chapters should be skipped.

If you avoid those chapters, however, this is a great foray into 20th and early 21st century work and management history.

While a bit too focused on European pre-history than I'd like, this is still an incredible view into the evolving role of women in society. This isn't just about work, especially because economic production before the invention of money is hard to disentangle from social functions. This book dives into the archaeological record to piece together the role of women in society and how technological changes shaped that role - moving from one of child rearing to incorporating other tasks that could be done in the home to eventually full fledged production of complex goods.

I particularly liked how this book draws from various sources, and the author even engages in different types of weaving herself to understand what would have been done in the past. This contrasts sharply with economists of today, who often eschew qualitative and experiential understanding of companies and work and instead focus only on numbers. Overall this is a quick, engaging read.

This is a massive tome on the complex interactions between economics and politics and how these interactions lead to different levels of inequality. Piketty provides a broad survey of economic concepts around inequality, as well as an in depth review of shifting political preferences.

The book shines when it's focused on historical trends, particularly the lasting impact of slavery and colonialism both economically and politically. It suffers a bit from an only cursory examination of countries that avoid many of the issues Piketty identifies, such as South Korea and Japan, and far too much time examining trends in France, the UK, and the US. Given Piketty's background this is understandable, but I would've liked those pages swapped for a deeper examination of other topics.

I really liked the shocking histories of Sweden, which went from being one of the most unequal countries of the world (allocating votes based on land ownership, even giving votes to companies), and the extractive and unequal history of French colonialism in the Caribbean.

Still, Piketty succeeds in identifying the outsized influence of the power of capital and ideology in shaping how inequality develops. Rather than being an iron law of the universe, this book lays out an unassailable case for taking on inequality through ideological and policy changes.

This is a very macro focused book, and the few places where Piketty examines micro and corporate governance issues are fairly poor and uninformed, but thankfully those portions are only a small part of the book.