Introduction: the ascent and descent of growth
Part I. 1870-1940
The great inventions create a revolution inside and outside the home. The starting point: life and work in 1870
What they ate and wore and where they bought it
The American home: from dark and isolated to bright and networked
Motors overtake horses and rail: inventions and incremental improvements
From telegraph to talkies: information, communication, and entertainment
Nasty, brutish, and short: illness and early death
Working conditions on the job and at home
Taking and mitigating risks: consumer credit, insurance, and the government
Entr'acte. The midcentury shift from revolution to evolution
Part II. 1940-2015
The Golden Age and the early warnings of slower growth. Fast food, synthetic fibers, and split-level subdivisions: the slowing transformation of food, clothing, and housing
See the USA in your Chevrolet or from a plane flying high above
Entertainment and communications from Milton Berle to the iPhone
Computers and the internet from the mainframe to Facebook
Antibiotics, CT scans, and the evolution of health and medicine
Work, youth, and retirement at home and on the job
Entr'acte. Toward an understanding of slower growth
Part III. The sources of faster and slower growth. The great leap forward from the 1920s to the 1950s: what set of miracles created it?
Innovation: can the future match the great inventions of the past?
Inequality and the other headwinds: long-run American economic growth slows to a crawl
Postscript: America's growth achievement and the path ahead.