Abundance

Reviews / Votes

Forceful, quick-moving ... important * Financial Times * In this polemic, Klein and Thompson reimagine American liberalism away from bureaucratic red tape * New York Times Best Books of the Year * The authors make their case powerfully, and the book is a good read - ambitious, entertaining, and mercifully short * The Times * The blueprint for a more permanent rebuilding of hope and joy * Guardian * I have been giving it to people I know who want to solve political problems -- Ryan Holiday * My Favourite Books to Gift for Every Person in Your Life * A necessary book * New Statesman * A must-read for progressives who want a blueprint for reforming government so it can deliver for working people -- Barack Obama Spectacular ... Offers a comprehensive indictment of the current problems and a clear path forward * New York Times * The most discussed political book of the season * London Review of Books * This is an important book that is just as relevant to the politics of Europe (including the UK) as to the US. We have, it argues, abandoned the free-market optimism of Ronald Reagan (and Margaret Thatcher). But what is on offer, in response, is a politics of scarcity: right and left share a desire to stop things happening - immigration and imports, in the case of the reactionary right, and economic growth itself, in the case of too much of the progressive left. What we need instead is a politics of abundance. Governments should be encouraged to make positive things happen -- Martin Wolf * FT Best Books of 2025 * At a time of global realignment and uncertainty, Klein and Thompson offer a bracingly bold basis for a progressive politics and policy that is both radical and realistic. One of the most important political books I have read in the past decade -- Matthew d'Ancona * The New European * Klein and Thompson's analysis focuses exclusively on the US, but their agenda is being put to practice in no major economy apart from Labour's Britain -- Mehreen Khan * The Times * Klein and Thompson's case studies are described with the clarity, accessibility and rigour that characterises their policy journalism * Guardian * Abundance reminds us that the UK isn't the only country that has forgotten how to build [and] there is reassurance here for British readers [on] how to build millions of homes and a new green infrastructure ... Klein and Thompson have sidestepped the current American political horror show to produce something original: a left-liberal manifesto for deregulation, or as they call it, "a liberalism that builds". Only that can create green-fuelled abundance -- Simon Kuper * New Statesman * Klein and Thompson want you to hold space to dream about utopia... We have everything we need to build the future that liberals want, clean energy and affordable housing included, today! Their book explains how * The New York Times * Abundance is one of those books that matter ... filled with chilling examples but also with inspirational stories ... it explains that the scarcities that afflict our economies are scarcities we have actively chosen. Making it easier to build will enable us to build a better future. But it is a future that needs to be not just argued for, but fought for -- Robert Colvile * Sunday Times * The Abundance movement - a cohort of pundits and intellectuals led by the likes of Ezra Klein, Matt Yglesias - traces the party's troubles to too much populism and not enough deregulation, especially when it comes to building up housing and transportation in blue cities and states -- Sohrab Ahmari * UnHerd * A galvanising attack on the over-regulation of the US economy, which could be applied to Britain too. This is an argument that has too often been made by the right; the authors point the way towards a progressive developmentalism -- The Best Summer Reads 2025 * New Statesman * A guide for liberals shaken by an age of factional polarisation ... [Klein and Thompson] are the best in the business at digesting and synthesizing expertise from a host of fields ... Abundance might inspire a demoralised Democratic Party to think big again -- Samuel Moyn * New York Times Book Review * Downing Street's current hot read -- Andrew Marr * New Statesman * Lays out a path for American liberalism focused on building the material and infrastructural conditions of a better society -- William Davies * New Statesman * It's got people talking in environmental circles * Prospect * Klein and Thompson are two of the smartest voices from their generation of policy-oriented journalists, moving beyond horse race coverage of politics and integrating serious social science into political commentary ... [finding] ways to strip back the barriers to effective policy and allow the government to invest efficiently in underdeveloped pockets of society * New Republic * The country is plagued by an affordability crisis, a housing shortage, crumbling infrastructure, and a general sense of diminishing expectations... and in their buzzy new book, [Klein and Thompson] argue that scarcity is a choice, and that "to have the future we want, we need to build and invent more of what we need" -- Sohale Mortazavi * UnHerd * These authors are making an important point about the rigidities of regulation and the cost of procedural sludge -- Sarah Richmond * Times Literary Review * Thoughtful -- Gillian Tett * Financial Times * A potent political manifesto ... Its optimism is also compelling, even joyous ...The book's core lesson, convincingly delivered, is that liberals ought to make it easier to do the things they want to do ... a can-do antidote to blue-state malaise ... the timing of Abundance is extraordinary * Slate * Reeves should recommend her summer reading to Labour backbenchers: Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson. This book by two Democratic-leaning US commentators argues that the left must make it easy to build things again, that an excessive focus on environmental regulation has harmed growth and contributed to the Democrats losing the White House in 2024 -- Rishi Sunak * Sunday Times * Abundance has universal appeal... Klein and Thompson's proposed solutions [are] worth paying attention to...[their] vision is a positive and uplifting one * Irish Independent * Striking...the commonalities in the challenges we face - and some of their causes - can provide insight for those across the political spectrum * Irish Times * What we're trying to do is to help people earn a better life, to give people agency and freedoms that they don't have today. There's a really interesting new book by Ezra Klein [and] the argument he's making is that, actually, there are all kinds of options that are opening up ahead of us. -- Liam Byrne * (as told to) Fabian Society * [Klein and Thompson] crystalise ideas that have been swirling around newspaper columns, think-tanks, city-council initiatives and social media ... that excessive regulation has hurt America by blocking housebuilding, infrastructure and innovation * The Economist * A possible roadmap to a better world * Geographical * The European Union can learn many lessons from this book ... it contains valuable lessons and cautionary tales that should be top of mind for leaders that are striving to keep the European project together amidst geopolitical shifts. The time for incrementalism has passed; Europe must act decisively to build abundance for all -- Elizabeth Kuiper and Pietro Valetto * Social Europe * A sensation among progressives in the US and around the world ... There's no doubt that Klein and Thompson's book offers a manifesto that Democrats could take to the next election -- Patrick Commins * Guardian Australia * Klein and Thompson have started the important work of reframing what seem like neo-liberal economic concerns into political reality. Sooner or later, there really will be no alternative. If Starmer wants to avoid empowering a new Thatcher as his eventual successor, he should take a lead from Klein and Thompson and act now -- Henry Oliver * New Statesman * ...the toast of liberal America when it was published in the spring. It argued that the regulatory environment in American cities dominated by progressives, though well-meaning, had impeded improvements to housing, public services and - most notably - energy -- Gabriel Pogrund * Sunday Times * Why can't governments get stuff done any more? Klein and Thompson's book provide a helpful antidote to the malaise felt in the UK, the US and elsewhere. They argue advanced economies must tear up their regulatory systems and pursue a pro-abundance agenda: more houses. I'm persuaded. -- Simon Hunt * City AM Top Business Books of 2025 * People like Ezra Klein fire me up, because he's absolutely right in his book Abundance -- Cory Booker * (as told to) Rolling Stone * A terrific book ... powerful and persuasive -- Fareed Zakaria * CNN * An absolute must-read -- Stephanie Ruhle * MSNBC * Shortages and growing unaffordability - from housing to the labour market are two of the defining characteristics of the 21st century. Klein and Thompson argue that this is because well-intentioned rules and regulations adopted in decades past have hobbled the present, and they explore how we can move from a liberalism that not only protects and preserves but also builds -- What to Read in 2025 and What To Read This Summer * Financial Times * Very relevant to the UK -- David Stevenson * MoneyWeek * ...a fascinating read if you're interested in how to make the public sector work better -- Janet Hughes DG * Civil Service World * ... A powerfully influential book [that has] hit the moribund centre-left of US politics like a lightning bolt * Resurgence & Ecologist * Praise for Ezra Klein:
'It's been a long time since I learned so much from one book -- Rutger Bregman, author of Utopia for Realists Superbly researched and written' -- Francis Fukuyama * The Washington Post * This book helped me understand modern politics better -- Bill Gates