Book Review: Thinking about Inequality

VISIONS OF INEQUALITY From the French Revolution to the End of the Cold War Branko Milanovic Belknap Press Cambridge, MA, 2023, 368 pp., $32.95 Rising economic inequality in many countries, especially the rich ones, in recent decades has emerged as an important topic of political debate and a major public policy concern. Widening economic disparities and related anxieties are stoking social discontent and are a major driver of the increased skepticism about public institutions, political polarization, and populist nationalism that are so evident today. Visions of Inequality, a new book by Branko Milanovic, a leading scholar of inequality, places today’s concerns and debate in context. It is an absorbing account of how thinking about inequality has evolved.