Table of contents : Introduction -- Part I. The great stagnation : A brief history of preindustrial progress -- Preindustrial prosperity -- Why mechanization failed -- Part II. The great divergence : The factory arrives -- The Industrial Revolution and its discontents -- Part III. The great leveling : From mass production to mass flourishing -- The return of the machinery question -- The triumph of the middle class -- Part IV. The great reversal : The descent of the middle class -- Forging ahead, drifting apart -- The politics of polarization -- Part V. The future : Artificial intelligence -- The road to riches.