Reviewed by: Ages of American Capitalism: A History of the United States by Jonathan Levy John Majewski Ages of American Capitalism: A History of the United States. By Jonathan Levy. (New York: Random House, 2021. Pp. xxviii, 908. Paper, $24.00, ISBN 978-0-8129-8518-4; cloth, $40.00, ISBN 978-0-8129-9501-5.) At nearly nine hundred pages of text and notes, Jonathan Levy's massive Ages of American Capitalism: A History of the United States arrives at a propitious historiographical moment. What has become known as "the new history of capitalism" is nearly a decade old, presenting historians with an opportunity for an elaboration and consolidation of key themes. Ages of American Capitalism promises a new, magisterial synthesis. Levy, in fact, provides a compelling analysis of banking, finance, and large-scale enterprises, which he then ties into party politics in important and innovative ways. Using capital as [End Page 819] an analytical framework, however, ultimately proves far too limiting to fulfill Levy's promise of providing a "a new single-volume history of the United States" (p. xiii). In a book so vast, so much feels missing. Levy provides a short but helpful analytical overview of how he defines capitalism. He aims to put capital back into capitalism. Levy considers capital not just as a static factor of production but also as a dynamic process in which capitalists seek to create and modify new forms of money, credit, and finance. The state is never far from this process, but in Levy's model, government is far more than the dictates of capitalists. The desire of capitalists for higher returns, Levy argues, "has always been entangled in complicated ways with larger individual and collective projects" (p. xix). Levy's basic model allows culture, ideology, and contingency to influence politics so as to avoid narrow economic determinism. Levy uses this framework to divide American history into four ages: Commerce (1660–1860), Capital (1860–1932), Control (1932–1980), and Chaos (post-1980). In each of these sections, Levy pays close attention to the changing nature of capital, the economic geography of production, and the relationship between capitalism, finance, and politics. The section on commerce, for example, explicates the imperial designs of British mercantilism, the importance of slavery, and the growing importance of banking. Debates between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson, and Andrew Jackson and Nicholas Biddle, take center stage. Industrialization is the primary focus of the Age of Capital, with the emphasis switching to entrepreneurs and financiers such as Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, and Jay Gould, alongside labor organizations such as the Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor. The New Deal and its regulatory framework defined the Age of Control. The disintegration of the New Deal order under the pressures of globalization, deregulation, and growing financialization is the theme of the Age of Chaos. The New Deal acts as the book's narrative fulcrum. Levy gives a fascinating account of the excesses of the 1920s and the coming of the Great Depression, with the gold standard exacerbating rapid deflation. The Age of Capital came to an end, with the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the advent of the New Deal ushering in an Age of Control, which showed genuinely redistributive promise. World War II solidified the New Deal in important ways, especially by regulating international capital flows under the Bretton Woods agreements. Levy is careful not to romanticize this Age of Control, noting the limits of its egalitarian impulses, including a consumer culture that promised far more happiness and satisfaction than it delivered. At the same time, it is hard for Levy not to look back fondly on this period. The rollback of the era's regulatory apparatus—especially its restrictions on international capital—unleashed far-reaching negative consequences. Incomes for working families stagnated, inequality rose, and increasingly unregulated financial speculation led to the Great Recession. Each section demonstrates an impressive command of both the secondary literature and primary research; there is a wealth of knowledge and detail in each chapter. Levy particularly excels at providing biographical portraits of important capitalists such as Carnegie and Ford, as well as brief forays into [End Page 820...
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Dec 1, 2022
Ferenc Jankó 
Open Access