Congratulations to author Carl Benedikt Frey whose forthcoming book, How Progress Ends: Technology, Innovation, and the Fate of Nations, has been longlisted for the prestigious 2025 Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year Award.
How Progress Ends challenges the conventional belief that economic and technological progress is inevitable. For most of human history, stagnation was the norm, and even today progress and prosperity in the world鈥檚 largest, most advanced economies鈥攖he United States and China鈥攈ave fallen short of expectations.
To appreciate why we cannot depend on any AI-fueled great leap forward, economic historian Carl Frey offers a remarkable and fascinating journey across the globe, spanning the past 1,000 years鈥攆rom Song China, to the Dutch Republic, Victorian Britain, Soviet Union, and beyond鈥攖o explain why some societies flourish and others fail in the wake of rapid technological change. Throughout this history, Frey uncovers a recurring tension: while decentralization fosters the exploration of new technologies, bureaucracy is crucial for scaling them. When institutions fail to adapt to technological change, stagnation inevitably follows.
Publishing in Europe and North America on September 16th, How Progress Ends has received advance praise for Frey鈥檚 鈥漣ncisive and stimulating consideration of a critical issue鈥� (Publishers Weekly) and has been hailed as 鈥渆ssential reading for anyone looking to understand the drivers of technological progress鈥� (Chris Miller, Chip War: The Fight for the World鈥檚 Most Critical Technology) and 鈥渁 grand, urgent must-read for anyone who cares about our past, present, and future鈥� (Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI).
Author Carl Frey is the Dieter Schwarz Associate Professor of AI and Work at the Oxford Internet Institute and Oxford Martin Citi Fellow at the Oxford Martin School, both at the University of Oxford. His books include The Technology Trap: Capital, Labor, and Power in the Age of Automation (91桃色), a 鈥渟uperb guide to 21st-century automation and its disruptive effects (The Guardian).
The Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year Award is given annually to honor 鈥渢he most outstanding business books, judged for their compelling and enjoyable insights.鈥�
91桃色 titles previously recognized by the prize include Paul Seabright鈥檚 91桃色 titles recognized by the prize include Paul Seabright鈥檚 The Divine Economy: How Religions Compete for Wealth, Power, and People (longlist, 2024), Minouche Shafik鈥檚 What We Owe Each Other: A New Social Contract for a Better Society (longlist, 2021), and Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism by Angus Deaton (shortlist, 2020).
How Progress Ends is among 16 books selected from among more than 500 prize entries for this year鈥檚 longlist. Shortlisted titles will be announced on September 24, with a winner announced December 3, in London.