The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order: America and the World in the Free Market Era
by Gary Gerstle
Why read it
It offers an illuminating, big-picture framework for understanding modern political history, defining a 'political order' and explaining how free-market dogmas captured both the American right and left from the late 1970s onwards. If you want to make sense of contemporary polarization, the fracturing of globalized consensus, and why both major parties shifted toward deregulation and market supremacy, this provides an essential, fair-minded, and deeply researched narrative.
Where to get it
For audio listeners in the Netherlands, the unabridged audiobook (narrated by Keith Sellon-Wright) is available on major streaming and retail platforms including Storytel, Nextory, Everand, Audible, and Google Play Audiobooks. Digital library users can check the Online Bibliotheek (or OverDrive/Libby if partnered with local networks). Print and ebook formats are widely stocked at Bol.com, Amazon.nl, and international brick-and-mortar bookshops such as the American Book Center, Waterstones Amsterdam, and Athenaeum Boekhandel.
What to expect
The tone is analytical, objective, and scholarly yet highly engaging and lucid. The pace is steady and structured chronologically, moving through policy shifts, political campaigns, and intellectual movements. While intellectually demanding in terms of the depth of political and economic history covered, it avoids dense jargon. Content includes discussions of wealth inequality, war, deregulation, and contentious modern electoral politics.
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