"Richard Bronk asks some fascinating questions about the nature of human progress. ... (T)here is much for philosophers, economists and general readers to savour." -
The New Statesman, 31 July 1998,
'Wide ranging and thought-provoking, of absorbing interest not only to economists and philosophers but also to the man and woman in the street worried about the direction in which society is moving." - John Gray, author of False Dawn
"One of the best things about Progress and the Invisible Hand
by Richard Bronk, a City economist and part-time academic, is that it charts the history of the notion of progress back to classical times (the author is a classicist and philosopher too). For centuries mankind was equivocal about the idea. ... Mr Bronk next asks whether faith in progress, and specifically market-driven material progress, is as well-grounded now as it was in the 18th century. He thinks not. .... This is well-trodden ground, but Mr Bronk makes his case more persuasively and much more elegantly than his predecessors. A great deal of what he says is right, and deserves to be noted as a proper check on capitalist triumphalism. In many ways the connection between growth and well-being in the West is indeed more tenuous than it was even a few decades ago. Mr Bronk ably reviews the factors that drive a wedge between the two". - Economic Focus column, The Economist, 31 July 1999.
"There are many insights. Bronk is very good on Adam Smith and drawing out the appropriate balance between the Smith of Theory of Moral Sentiments
and the Smith of The Wealth of Nations. ... When it comes to his discussion of utilitarianism Bronk is clear. ... One original feature of the book is the coherent discussion of 'the rat race' in modern times examining reasons for its intensification in Britain in the last 20 years. ... Disillusion with progress as we approach the millennium is by no means original. That said, Bronk has produced a very thoughtful and well-crafted elaboration of where the idea of progress may now seem over-optimistic in modern societies. He is by no means negative regarding all that he surveys. On balance, though, his is a pessimistic conclusion as to the future of our market-dominated society." - The Business Economist,
Vol 30. No 1, 1998.
"Richard Bronk's fascinating and important book is a sustained, beautifully argued and compelling indictment of the idea that man is merely an economic animal." - Charles Foster,
Contemporary Review, December 1998.
"I have just re-read a fine book, Progress and the Invisible Hand, by the economist Richard Bronk, written ten years ago. He explores the contradictory 'surface swells of contemporary optimism and pessimism', and a vanishing ethical consensus. We were on our way to disintegration then; we are there now." - Yasmin Alibhai Brown, The Independent, 16 June 2008.
The book was also discussed in 'Dropping out of the rat race has become a class act' by Richard Tomkins, Financial Times, 9 January 2004.