Alan Greenspan is known for his deep understanding of the American economy and his curiosity to know even more. He has made a study of the question of productivity growth and the riddle of innovation. Where does innovation come from? And why does it spread more equally in some societies than in others? In Capitalism in America, Greenspan and the historian and Economist journalist Adrian Wooldridge distill decades of grappling with these questions into a reckoning with the history of the American economy. They unfold a tale of titanic figures and triumphant breakthroughs as well as terrible moral failings. Every crucial debate is here, from the role of slavery in the antebellum economy to America’s mood swings about global trade. But above all, to listen to Capitalism in America is to be stirred by the ordinary Americans who have driven this country to extraordinary heights by accepting the effects of creative destruction, the constant churn of the old giving way to the new. At heart, the authors argue, America’s genius has been its unique tolerance for the effects of creative destruction, the ceaseless churn of the old giving way to new people and ideas. Often messy and painful, creative destruction has also lifted American standards of living to unprecedented heights. Justice demands protection from the pain of change, but the United States has always succeeded by accepting more pain for more gain. There’s no better time to apply the lessons of history to the most pressing question we face—whether the United States will preserve its preeminence or see its global leadership pass to other, less democratic, powers.