The origin of capitalism

138 pages

English language

Published Nov. 8, 1999 by Monthly Review Press.

ISBN:
978-1-58367-000-2
Copied ISBN!

View on OpenLibrary

3 stars (1 review)

4 editions

Defining capitalism is hard.

3 stars

This book had a really dramatic fall off for me. For the first couple chapters I was super into it, partly because it did that way of laying out a debate I can sort of situate myself in but don't entirely understand the history of (the debate about the role of imperialism in the birth of capitalism), and then making the opposite camp's argument (capitalism came about due to class relations internal to England, and only after developed imperialism) very compelling.

But then it fell off for me pretty hard, because it seems she has a very pure idea of what capitalism is that is in her brain but not very much given to us and then historical examples are tested against it. When she starts saying the Dutch Republic not being capitalist because so much of their wealth was buying basic necessities from eastern europe where labour was cheaper, …

Subjects

  • Capitalism -- History