After decades of market fundamentalism, industrial policy—deliberate government action to shape the economy—is back. The conversation about what goals it should serve and how to make it work has moved at record speed. Public Purpose reflects that sea change.

Leading the book’s first forum, economist Mariana Mazzucato and colleagues lay out an industrial policy agenda organized around ambitious, cross-sector “missions,” designed around important national goals. But ambitious national policies can leave out lots of people and places. So the book includes a second forum, led by innovation expert Dan Breznitz, on how local economic development might foster long-term, inclusive prosperity.

Respondents from across the political spectrum press for more details and offer their own: What goals? Who sets them? What are the cautionary tales of failure, and how do we measure success? Together they argue—with passion and a compelling sense of urgency—for putting public purpose at the center of our politics and policy.