{"product_id":"from-steam-to-silicon-robert-geissler-9798242342958","title":"From Steam to Silicon: The Return of the Victorian Economic Order: Empire, Finance, and Inequality in Two Dominant Economies","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eBritain ruled the nineteenth century. America rules the twenty-first.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBoth believed their dominance was permanent.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eGilded Again\u003c\/i\u003e, this book makes a stark and unsettling case: the modern U.S. economy is not unprecedented-it is a \u003cb\u003estructural revival of the Victorian economic model\u003c\/b\u003e that once powered, then constrained, the British Empire.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eVictorian Britain pioneered industrial capitalism, global finance, and economic dominance. It also normalized extreme inequality, financialized growth, weakened labor, managed crises through elite intervention, and relied on external power to stabilize internal imbalances. These were not failures. They were features of a mature system.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAmerica has rebuilt that system-digitally.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThrough a clear, historically grounded comparison, this book traces how financialization replaced production, how asset ownership eclipsed wages, how labor insecurity became normalized, and how boom-bust cycles consolidated power rather than corrected excess. It shows why inequality persists despite awareness, why crises no longer reform systems, and why technological progress has failed to deliver broad economic security.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is not a book about nostalgia or ideology. It is a \u003cb\u003ediagnosis of structure\u003c\/b\u003e-how dominant economies actually function when they reach maturity, and why they become rigid precisely when flexibility matters most.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eVictorian Britain did not collapse overnight. It delayed reform, managed discontent, and preserved elite stability-until external shock forced transformation at enormous cost.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAmerica is not doomed to repeat that history. But history suggests that \u003cb\u003esuccessful systems resist change until choice is taken away\u003c\/b\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eGilded Again\u003c\/i\u003e is a warning written before the reckoning-not after.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Robert Geissler\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9798242342958\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Independently Published\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 01\/02\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 180\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.55lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.38d","brand":"Robert Geissler","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":48874541383935,"sku":"9798242342958","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/from-steam-to-silicon-robert-geissler-9798242342958","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}