Cowen presents an economic history that is much more believable than most. There are no good guys or bad guys, and we all make some good decisions and some bad ones (still some people are more helpful than others). Notably we all do a number of things just because they are easy and "make sense at the time", which is a powerful force in decision-making that economics as a field is just starting to integrate.

One example of his central thesis, is that while The Railroad/Highways/Air freight (as inventions) will level out the price of things throughout an area and create a lot of jobs, Craigslist/Ebay/Amazon (as inventions) have the same effect, but don't create many jobs. Cowen does a good job of exploring and explaining how this distinction lies behind the slow median income growth in the last 30 years, and the persisting unemployment of our current downturn.

He phrases this difference as one in amount of innovation, where I'd simply say the difference is in type of innovation.

Another disagreement with his analysis lies in my being much more of an optimist. I (and apparently David Brooks) think that recent times have seen a great increase in prosperity without a great increase in wealth.

For example, I receive better news coverage now (internet + 1 magazine) than I did in my parent's house in the 90's with 2 newspapers and 3 news magazines. The cost of the internet (or the portion i use for getting news) is somewhat lower than their subscriptions were, while the benefit I receive has gone up significantly.

To sum up, Cowen's arguments are compelling and different enough (and his book is short and cheap enough) that I would recommend it to anyone interested in recent economic history and how to measure and define productivity.