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Jacob Soll The Reckoning Financial Accou
Jacob Soll The Reckoning Financial Accou
Jacob Soll The Reckoning Financial Accou
line; and why elites still take neoliberal ideology for granted, even
in the wake of events that, some argue, have discredited neoliberal-
ism. On those questions Cahill has nothing at all to say. Cahill’s work
leads to the conclusion that neoliberalism is caused by…neoliberalism.
Certainly policies can be path dependent, but from a book such as
this, one would have wanted to see some investigation of what the
mechanisms of path dependence are. Why did the financial crisis not
lead political elites to rethink their assumptions? In a book with the
subtitle “On the Durability of Embedded Neoliberalism,” we need
some attention to that question.
Moreover, even on its own terms, the book is unconvincing. For
example, Cahill sees the weakness of unions as suggesting a class expla-
nation for neoliberalism. However, Ronald Reagan’s and Margaret
Thatcher’s attacks on labor were wildly popular at the time, including
among wide segments of the working classes. Cahill surely knows
this, as he has read all the literature on neoliberalism, but he does
not try to work through what it implies for his class explanation.
The analysis in most of the book remains at this level.
The book does not feature any new data or historical evidence,
so it must be judged on its ability to deliver convincing new interpre-
tations and arguments—and on that score, it is sorely lacking.
Monica Prasad
Northwestern University
doi:10.1017/eso.2015.26
Published online June 3, 2015
Jacob Soll. The Reckoning: Financial Accountability and the Rise and Fall of
Nations. New York: Basic Books, 2014. xvii + 276 pp. ISBN 978-0-465-03152-8,
$28.99 (cloth).
James Caton
George Mason University
doi:10.1017/eso.2015.28
Published online June 3, 2015