The Trust Revolution

M. Todd Henderson and Salen Churi take on the common view that trust in government, corporations and one another is at a historic low, and argue that the internet is creating new ways to rebuild it. They single out Uber as perhaps the best example, a company that on the surface connects smartphone users with strangers for rides but underneath is a business built on trust. The authors place such companies in a long history of trust and innovation, running from medieval guilds and early corporations to New Deal agencies and self-regulatory organizations. They suggest digital trust could widen human cooperation while shrinking government and corporate control.

Cass R. Sunstein, former administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, endorsed it as a lively book on a subject of great importance today, and economist John A. List praised how it shows that every transaction involves trust.