Authors Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson argue that U.S. politics should prioritize the capacity to deliver more housing, transportation, energy and health care, making public delivery a central test of policy.
Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster published the 304-page book on Mar. 18, 2025. The authors describe construction and invention as responsibilities shared by institutions and individuals. They identify housing, transportation, energy and health as foundations for a better future, and argue that people and institutions must create more of what their communities need. They summarize the goal as a need to “build and invent more” of what people need. In that framing, the ability of public bodies to deliver is part of the political debate.
Thompson had set out an earlier version of the idea in a Jan. 12, 2022, essay in The Atlantic. He discussed ways to make housing, health care and energy easier to obtain. In a Mar. 7, 2025, interview published by Publishers Weekly, Thompson said work on the book broadened the agenda to include science and technology.
The book’s account pairs environmental damage associated with postwar construction and infrastructure growth with a separate claim: Some current rules can impede clean-energy development. The authors present this as part of their case for changing how projects get built.
The examples also show how the effects of construction can vary. A solar project may add electricity for a city while affecting residents nearby; new housing may accommodate newcomers while changing conditions for people already in the area. The book keeps those local effects in view alongside the needs a project is meant to serve.
New Yorker reviewer Benjamin Wallace-Wells challenged the book’s emphasis on liberal governance. He argued that wealth and power also shape which projects move forward, and questioned whose judgment should prevail when development brings competing interests into play.
