"A superb guide to 21st-century automation and its disruptive effects."鈥擩ohn Harris, The Guardian
"The Technology Trap may well ensnare doom-seekers鈥� attention with its ominous-sounding title. But it should ultimately hearten anyone who reads it."鈥�The Economist
"Anybody interested in the economic impact of digital and AI, in particular on jobs, will want to read [The Technology Trap]."鈥擠iane Coyle, Enlightened Economist
"[Frey] takes a provocative, original long view on current concerns, examining the fallout from past technological advances . . . to mass production and artificial intelligence."鈥擜ndrew Hill, Financial Times, Summer Books of 2019
"I have been lost in [The Technology Trap] for the last 10 days."鈥擩ohn Harris, The Guardian
"Frey鈥檚 analysis is worth taking seriously because the Oxford economic historian and economist has researched his subject deeply and has co-authored one of the most widely cited studies on automation . . . . Frey鈥檚 story is well argued and 鈥� at times 鈥� deeply alarming about the stability of western democracies given he predicts the further concentration of wealth in a few hands and in even fewer locations"鈥擩ohn Thornhill, Financial Times
"An excellent analysis of past industrial revolutions, the technologies that emerged within them, and the way societies adapted to those changes."鈥擜di Gaskell, Forbes
"As [Frey] points out in his new book The Technology Trap, for all that the robots may make the world more local, they may have other painful side-effects, putting millions of people out of work and sparking an almighty backlash."鈥擡d Conway, The Times
"The Technology Trap is the perfect book for higher ed people to read . . . . deeply researched and [convincingly] argued."鈥擩oshua Kim, Inside Higher Education
"If you're an optimist about the robotic future, you likely hear talk that we're all going to lose our jobs or suffer a big pay cut, and tell friends to relax 鈥� the new technology revolution is going to turn out like all the others since the dawn of the Industrial Age. But if history is your best hope, you should probably think again: [The Technology Trap has] a strong case."鈥擲teve Levine, Axios
"Anybody interested in the economic impact of digital and AI, in particular on jobs, will want to read Carl Frey鈥檚 new book."鈥擠iane Coyle, Enlightened Economist
"In his bracing new book The Technology Trap, Carl Frey extrapolates from the history of the industrial revolution to offer a vision of the future in which Amazon Go, AI assistants and autonomous vehicles are 'worker replacement' technologies."鈥擥reg Williams, Wired
"A fascinating history of technical change."鈥擟hris Dillow, Stumbling and Mumbling
"One of Frey鈥檚 most salient points is that our attitudes and actions toward technology can play a pivotal role in how it impacts us. A lot of stock has been put into Frey and Osborne鈥檚 prediction of 47 percent automation. But if Frey鈥檚 book gets even half the attention the paper got, it should serve to quell some of our fears around a bleak machine-dominated future."鈥擵anessa Bates Ramirez, Singularity Hub
"Carl Benedikt Frey has written an important and timely book . . . . A great deal of effort, thought, and scholarship went into its writing, and it shows. There is much food for thought here and I can envision this assigned in upper division economics classes as well as some graduate courses."鈥擜lexander Field, EH.net
"Frey offers a refreshingly human-centered analysis of technological progress."鈥擮scar Schwartz, Stanford Social Innovation Review
"It鈥檚 clear The Technology Trap has plenty to teach us, and should automatically be on the reading list of any serious policy maker or politician."鈥擝en Ramanauskas, Cap X
"Frey explores automation and its consequences, taking the reader on a long sweep of UK and US industrial history that demonstrates the distinction between labour-enabling and labour-replacing technologies. . . As arguably the most comprehensive account of automation to date, this book deserves to be read widely"鈥擫iam Kennedy, London School of Economics Review of Books
"[The Technology Trap] offers a fascinating history of technology鈥檚 effects on employment from the Industrial Revolution to today and attempts to tackle how we might avoid a repeat of past social ills, as the Computer Revolution sweeps away a majority of human jobs."鈥擱obert Elliott Smith, Medium
"Narrator Richard Lyddon performs an almost impossible feat鈥攎aking a very theoretical audiobook sound absorbable in a truly entertaining way . . . . Cheers to both Frey and Lyddon, a pairing that listeners may wish to hear again."鈥�AudioFile Magazine
"An extremely useful history of the effect of technology on jobs and income inequality."鈥擩ohn Judis, The National Interest
"[E]rudite and thoughtful, and the questions [The Technology Trap] raises are important and pertinent."鈥擩oel Mokyr, Journal of Economic History
"[Frey] investigates the short, medium, and long-term consequences of the Industrial Revolution on workers, finding that in fact the changes had extraordinarily negative consequences in the short term. His lessons from this pivotal moment in history can help technology leaders avoid the biggest risks today in how we design human/AI systems in the coming age of automation."鈥�TechCrunch
"I highly recommend [The Technology Trap]."鈥擱andal C. Picker
"There is little reason to doubt the contemporary relevance of Frey鈥檚 analysis into the consequences of automation on the labour market, and the broader socio鈥恜olitical implications of those technological changes which are highly anticipated to reshape our working lives and economic existence as we know it. The voluminous public commentary about technology, and public protests against the ramifications of technology change (such as taxi drivers decrying peer鈥恡o鈥恜eer ride鈥恠haring services which rely on smartphone apps), serve as sufficient warrant to pay attention to Frey鈥檚 contribution."鈥擬ikayla Novak, Economic Record
"Excellently written, full of examples and studies I hadn't previously encountered, and I learned a lot."鈥擳im Harford
"[The Technology Trap] is a reminder that the future of work depends on policy choices. It is well worth reading."鈥擱avi Venkatesan, Book Review Literacy Trust
"A . . . danger is that Luddite efforts to avoid the short-term costs associated with a new technology will end up denying access to its long-term benefits鈥攕omething Carl Benedikt Frey, an Oxford academic, calls a 'technology trap'."鈥�The Economist
"Excellent."鈥擬asood Ahmed, CGD Policy Blog
"Magisterial."鈥擟hris Gibbons, Acumen
"Frey鈥檚 observations and detailed historical analysis are useful for even those of us who cling to a more optimistic view of the long run."鈥擬icheal Munger, Law & Liberty
"[A] historical odyssey."鈥擩ane Humphries and Benjamin Schneider, Project Syndicate
"Frey provides a longue dur茅e examination of the economic, social, and political interplay that drives technological change. Careful, erudite, elegantly written, and full of insight, the book sets the current overwrought debate about automation and AI on a firm contextualized footing."鈥擩ayati Ghosh, Project Syndicate
"Frey鈥檚 book is a history with a policy purpose . . . the book reveals an enormous scope of reading."鈥擪enneth Lipartito, American Historical Review
"I was hugely impressed by this well-researched book, which provides a fascinating historical analysis of the interplay between government policy and technical change around the world. At the same time, it provides clues about how similar dynamics may shape the ongoing wave of automation, and what that might mean for wealth distribution within and among countries."鈥擲ami Mahroum, Project Syndicate
"Even when we learned enough about how the world works to change and manipulate it 鈥� to disrupt the status quo 鈥� stasis had its defenders. And it still does today. So many historical examples of this in the great 2019 book, The Technology Trap."鈥擩ames Pethokoukis, AEI
"The Technology Trap offers a rich account of the history of automation. . . . If anything, the corona-crisis has made this 2019 publication even more relevant. The lockdowns will likely accelerate automation in the workplace, and in the wake of the resulting economic decline and rising unemployment, questions around jobs and automation will become more politically fraught than they had been up to now."鈥擩ustin Nogarede, The Progressive Post
"鈥橳he Technology Trap鈥� . . . made me look at the industrial revolution, invention, sleeping beauties, contexts and the forces that shape our societies differently. . . . Techies and economists love to point out that the textile machines the Luddites opposed in the 19th century brought greater prosperity to all 鈥� but it took three generations before the benefits kicked in, and there was a lot of pain and suffering in the meantime. And as Frey points out, history is made in the short term."鈥擠avid Byrne, New York Times Book Review
"A powerful historical synthesis on the question of the relationship between man and machine."鈥�Wall Street Journal
"Will machines equipped with artificial intelligence render the human race redundant? Is work as we know it about to end? The Technology Trap draws on the experiences of the first and second Industrial Revolutions, and the first Computer Revolution, to answer some of the burning questions of our time. Frey鈥檚 key point鈥攖hat technological disruption of the labor market is usually painful in the short run, whatever innovation鈥檚 long-run benefits鈥攊s of vital importance to voters and policymakers alike." 鈥擭iall Ferguson, author of The Square and the Tower
"The Technology Trap is a subtle, wide-reaching exploration of the relationship between technology and labor over centuries of history. Frey shows how the impacts of automation upon the British and American workforce have been shaped by changing power structures. In its attention to the detailed determinants of change, his book is a hugely welcome antidote to today鈥檚 surfeit of sweeping predictions about the future of work."鈥擱obert Skidelsky, University of Warwick
"In this book, Carl Frey brings a new perspective, that of historical experience, to tackle some of the most important issues of our time. Offering the clearest account that I have read in quite a while regarding current problems around employment, technology, economic performance, and globalization, Frey provides the technological background to Thomas Piketty鈥檚 analysis of inequality, Capital in the Twenty-First Century."鈥擩ane Humphries, University of Oxford
"Carl Frey鈥檚 highly original, admirably engaging, and deeply researched book should be read by anyone interested in how technological change will disrupt not only our jobs, but also our politics and society. By comparing the current age of disruptive technological change with the Industrial Revolution, The Technology Trap provides unique and timely insights which we ignore at our peril."鈥擨an Goldin, coauthor of Age of Discovery
鈥淗ow will artificial intelligence affect the future of work? In The Technology Trap, Frey answers this question through a comprehensive, insightful analysis of the relationship between technological advances and work, from preindustrial society through the Computer Revolution. He predicts that intelligent machines will reduce the demand for human labor while yielding significant productivity gains. Societies will differ in how they choose to distribute these gains."鈥擫aura Tyson, University of California, Berkeley
