Creative Destruction: An Introduction

A short book about economist Joseph Schumpeter’s concept of “creative destruction.”

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John T. Dalton

John T. Dalton is an associate professor of economics at Wake Forest University in Winston-​Salem, North Carolina. His areas of expertise include international trade, growth and development, macroeconomics, economic history, and the life and economics of Joseph Schumpeter. He has been published in leading peer-​reviewed journals, including the Journal of International Economics, Economic Development and Cultural Change, Macroeconomic Dynamics, Southern Economic Journal, the Journal of Economic Education, and others. Dalton has been a visiting scholar at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the Institute for Empirical Macroeconomics at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. He has presented his work at seminars and conferences and in public talks around the world.

He first encountered Schumpeter as a teenage reader of Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy and has been wrestling with the ideas ever since. You can find more about Professor Dalton’s research and teaching here.

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Andrew J. Logan

Andrew J. Logan is a corporate strategy manager at Anduril Industries, a technology startup focused on bringing disruptive commercial products to the U.S. Department of Defense. Previously, Logan was at McKinsey & Company, where he focused on innovation and emerging technologies in the defense industry. and at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, where he worked in the Macroeconomic Research division.

With a deep interest in the life and economics of Joseph Schumpeter, Logan has coauthored four academic articles on the subject, which appeared in the Journal of Economic Education, the Independent Review, the Review of Austrian Economics, and the International Review of Economics Education. Logan first encountered Schumpeter in one of John Dalton’s classes and, profoundly influenced both by Schumpeter’s writings and John’s excellent teaching, has sought to bring creative destruction to life in his professional career.

Creative destruction, what the economist Joseph Schumpeter called “the essential fact about capitalism,” describes change or disruption in the economy caused by innovations that replace traditional technologies and practices. Creative destruction is a force so powerful that it has not only shaped economies but also politics, culture, and social relations. In clear and accessible prose, Dalton and Logan illustrate the nature and varieties of creative destruction, how it is central to innovation and entrepreneurship, and why it is important for economic growth. With in-​depth case studies of how Netflix challenged and displaced Blockbuster, and how Uber and other ride-​sharing companies are disrupting traditional taxi services, this book examines how economies, societies, and cultures change due to the innovation and experimentation that is central to the prosperity of free societies.