Capital in the Twenty-First Century
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Hardcover edition
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| Author | Thomas Piketty |
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| Original title | Le Capital au XXIe siècle |
| Translator | Arthur Goldhammer |
| Language | French |
| Subject | Capitalism, economic history, economic inequality |
| Genre | Non fiction |
| Publisher | |
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Publication date
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August 2013 |
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Published in English
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April 15, 2014 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 696 pp. |
| ISBN | |
Capital in the Twenty-First Century is a 2013 book by French economist Thomas Piketty. It focuses on wealth and income inequality in Europe and the United States since the 18th century. It was initially published in French (as Le Capital au XXIe siècle) in August 2013; an English translation by Arthur Goldhammer followed in April 2014.
The book's central thesis is that when the rate of return on capital (r) is greater than the rate of economic growth (g) over the long term, the result is concentration of wealth, and this unequal distribution of wealth causes social and economic instability. Piketty proposes a global system of progressive wealth taxes to help reduce inequality and avoid the vast majority of wealth coming under the control of a tiny minority.
On May 18, 2014, the English edition reached number one on the New York Times Best Seller list for best selling hardcover nonfiction and became the greatest sales success ever of academic publisher Harvard University Press. As of January 2015, the book had sold 1.5 million copies in French, English, German, Chinese and Spanish.
At the 2016 Cannes Film Festival it was announced that the book is to be made into a feature documentary film, directed by New Zealand filmmaker Justin Pemberton.
When initially issued in French in August 2013, it was characterized by Laurent Mauduit as “a political and theoretical bulldozer.” As news spread of its thesis in the English-speaking world, it was hailed by Paul Krugman as a landmark, while former senior World Bank economist Branko Milanović considers it "one of the watershed books in economic thinking". In response to widespread curiosity abroad aroused by reviews of the original French edition published by Seuil in September 2013, it was translated rapidly into English and its publication date was pushed forward to March 2014 by Belknap. It proved an overnight sensation and ousted Michael Lewis’s financial exposé, Flash Boys: Cracking the Money Code, from the top of the US best-seller list. Within a year of its publication, Stephanie Kelton spoke of a "Piketty phenomenon", and in Germany three books had been published specifically dealing with Piketty's critique.
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