Peter H. Lindert is Distinguished Professor of Economics at the University of California, Davis. His previous publications include the prize-winning book Growing Public: Social Spending and Economic Growth since the Eighteenth Century (2004) and Unequal Gains: American Growth and Inequality since 1700 (2016, with Jeffrey Williamson).

List of Figures; List of Tables; Part I. Overview: 1. Enduring Issues; 2. Findings and Lessons; Part II. The Long Rise, and its Causes: 3. Why Poor Relief Arrived So Late; 4. The Dawn of Mass Schooling before 1914; 5. Public Education since 1914; 6. More, but Different, Social Spending in Rich Countries since 1914; 7. Is the Rest of the World Following a Different Path?; Part III. What Effects?: 8. Effects on Growth, Jobs, and Life; 9. Why No Net Loss of GDP or Work?; 10. Do the Rich Pay the Poor for All This?; Part IV. Confronting Threats: 11. Do Immigration Tensions Fray the Safety Nets?; 12. Pensions and the Curse of Long Life; 13. Approaches to Public Pension Reform; 14. Borrowing Social-Spending Lessons; Appendix A. Sources and Notes for Chapters 3 and 4; Appendix B. Sources and Notes for Chapter 10; Appendix C. Chapter 12's Pension Accounting - Equations and Forecasts; Acknowledgements; Notes; References; Index.