The Reading Room

Living author

Thomas Piketty

1971-

A French economist whose data-driven study of inequality became one of the most discussed economics books of the century. Capital in the Twenty-First Century assembles centuries of records to argue that wealth, left alone, tends to concentrate faster than economies grow, with consequences for democratic equality. He writes inequality as a measurable historical force rather than a matter of opinion.

In the library

  • Capital in the Twenty-First Century

    The defining modern work on inequality, built on centuries of records rather than theory. Piketty's central finding is uncomfortable and durable: that wealth, left to itself,...