"Economics for the Many - a new collection of essays edited by Labour’s shadow chancellor John McDonnell - is simultaneously an intervention into these realities and a programmatic sketch of radical left thinking for the twenty-first century. As its title suggests, the book is also an effort to reclaim economics for the Left, an easily stated though admittedly daunting task amid neoliberalism’s persistence as the economic lingua franca. Simultaneously localist and internationalist in scope - and encompassing everything from trade, the environment, and alternative models of firm ownership to fiscal policy and the challenges posed by platform monopolies and the data economy - the essays are accessible and minimally abstract, both in their concern with the practicalities of policy and their awareness of the difficulties of implementation in the face of political constraints. This, however, makes them no less innovative. [...] If a single theme unites the book’s various essays it is, simply stated, a belief in democracy as a moral but also a practical necessity."

"Economics for the Many is the book Theresa May misquoted in the House of Commons to ridicule Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor. ‘Endorsed by more lies from the UK Prime Minister’ is not a bad advertising slogan. But is it worth buying and reading? The answer is yes. Edited and introduced by McDonnell, it has sixteen short and often sharp chapters that take us through what is wrong with modern Britain. Only one is by a politician, Barry Gardiner MP – the shadow trade secretary – it is one of the few irritating chapters. But it is also a profoundly unsatisfactory book. This is partly because of what it leaves out: there are no chapters devoted to issues like health, education, social welfare and the specific policies needed. But it is also because there is little attempt in the areas that are discussed to show in any detail what viable policies might look like. This points to the deep problems that exist in Corbyn’s Labour and it is helpful to read it to see these too. This is not a manifesto for revolution. The word socialism is used a few times (it did not appear in the 2017 Corbyn manifesto at all). But the general aspirations are vague – 'radically fairer, more democratic, and more sustainable in which the wealth of society… shared by all'. Who could disagree?"