The Big Change book club questions

1. 1.

   Allen argues that American capitalism reformed itself between 1900 and 1950. Is that the right framing, or was it more accurately reformed by outside pressure from labor, politics, and government?

2. 2.

   The Big Change was written at the high point of American postwar prosperity. Reading it now, does Allen's confidence about the permanence of the broad middle class seem earned or naive?

3. 3.

   Which of the technological changes Allen describes—car, phone, electricity—had the largest social consequences? Would you assess them the same way he does?

4. 4.

   Allen largely ignores the experience of Black Americans in this period of transformation. What does that omission cost the account? Is the book still useful despite it?

5. 5.

   The New Deal appears in the book as a broadly positive restructuring of American capitalism. How would you assess it now, with another 70 years of evidence?

6. 6.

   Allen describes the professionalization of corporate management as progress. Looking at the subsequent history, was he right?

7. 7.

   The consumer economy Allen describes as emerging in the 1940s and 1950s is now more entrenched than he imagined. What do you think of the bargain: material prosperity in exchange for what?

8. 8.

   Allen wrote for a popular audience at Harper's. Does that journalistic style—accessible, informal, sometimes superficial—serve historical writing well, or does it sacrifice important complexity?

9. 9.

   What parallels do you see between the economic transformation Allen describes and the digital transformation of the past 30 years?

10. 10.

    Allen's sympathies are with liberal democratic capitalism. Does that sympathy make the book more useful or less useful for understanding the period?

11. 11.

    What do you think the equivalent of Allen's Big Change will be for the period 1970–2020, if someone writes a similar book in 2050?

How to run the discussion

• Pick six to eight, not all of them. An hour of real discussion covers fewer questions than anyone expects, and racing the list is what makes a book club feel like homework.
• Open with what people noticed, not what they concluded. Asking for a verdict first hardens opinions before anyone has heard each other.
• Let the disagreement run. The questions below that split a room are the ones worth the time; the ones everyone answers the same way can be skipped.
• Ask the quiet person a specific question. A direct, narrow question is far easier to answer than an open invitation to contribute.