The book analyses trends in inequality related to education, family structure, income, wealth, and employment, considering how race, gender, and region influence these outcomes. The book explores mechanisms of stratification, including the role of wealth, managerial occupations, and joblessness, and investigates the impact of discrimination within the labour market. Furthermore, it addresses the criminal legal system, hate crimes, and mass incarceration, highlighting their profound effects on African American families and economic well-being, ultimately arguing that structural racism remains a permanent feature of the U.S. political economy.

From the reviews: This book is a groundbreaking contribution that clearly aligns with EAEPE’s theoretical perspective and the decolonisation of economics. Employing a stratification approach offers methodological clarity and extends stratification economics into decolonial literature, generating new insights and enabling comparative examinations of racialised economic structures. Its integration of stratification economics, labour economics, and critical race theory provides a powerful framework for understanding the origins, persistence, and consequences of structural racism in the United States. While its deep U.S. focus limits global applicability, the scale and scope of its empirical data invite replication in other colonial and racialised contexts, opening significant research agendas for the future. Groundbreaking, timely, and methodologically innovative, the book fully embodies the critical and heterodox spirit of the Joan Robinson Prize.

This book is volume one of a five volume set of books developing the principles of institutional and evolutionary political economy and applying them to a multitude of world problems. This volume (chs 1-3) investigates 64 principles but concentrates on eight core principles of (1) historical specificity and evolution, (2) hegemonic power and uneven development, (3) circular and cumulative causation (CCC), (4) heterogeneous groups and agents, (5) contradiction and destructive creation, (6) risk and uncertainty, (7) innovation and novelty, and (8) policy and governance. It then variously applies most of these principles to nine world problems such as (ch 4) the coronavirus crisis, (ch 5) climate change, (ch 6) corruption, (ch 7) artificial intelligence and robotics, (ch 8) policy and anomalous socioeconomic performance, (ch 9) money and financial crises, (ch 10) terrorism and the war on terrorism, (ch 11) HIV and AIDS, and (ch 12) love capital and the nurturance gap. Its overarching aim is to deepen an understanding of institutional and evolutionary principles and propose policy interventions for these interconnected global anomalies.

In his acceptance reply, the author explained that volume two in this series has just been published, and he presented an outline of its key themes in person at the Athens Conference (Long Waves of Growth, Hegemonic Power and Climate Change in the World Economy). Volume three extends the principles and applies them to anomalies such as planetary colonization, crime and injustice, free trade and protection, cascading global tipping points of climate change; global and regional socioeconomic performance 1980s-1920s, etc; volume four is a Global History of the World (from before the Big Bang to the present and future); while he is writing volume five on an Encyclopedia of Political Economy, Policy and Governance.                                                                                                                                                                       

From the reviews: The work sets a new benchmark for institutional and evolutionary political economy, providing crucial reading for contemporary scholars and leaving a lasting intellectual legacy for future generations. While its breadth and depth may challenge some readers, its originality, richness, and vision embody the spirit of EAEPE and values of the Joan Robinson Prize.