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Title: The Origin of Capitalism: A Longer View by Ellen Meiksins Wood ISBN: 1-85984-392-1 Publisher: Verso Books Pub. Date: July, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (3 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Great historical context - disappointing conclusion
Comment: I read this book to obtain a historical overview of capitalism versus an economic treatise or philosophical debate over its political context. The first six chapters did a good job of providing that context but the conclusion was extremely disappointing. She should have stuck with a summary of the historical context and left out what I perceived to be her political commentary on the benefits/detriments of capitalism.
Rating: 4
Summary: Origins of Capitalism
Comment: There is a very interesting thesis residing in this short, easy-to-read book. The author maintains that the conventional theory of the origin of capitalism, the "commercialization model," makes a mistake by equating common trading tactics practiced from ancient times with capitalistic intent. The tendency to see modern capitalism as a combination of such trading techniques and a certain type of technological economy has, the author argues, hidden the real history of the origins of capitalism.
How did capitalism originate? The author says it first occurred in the 17th century English countryside. New conceptions of production and property rights were introduced, and both the landlords' and the producer-tenants' viability became dependent on the activity of a single domestic marketplace. The notions of profit and economic improvement became paramount: the tenant who could produce more wealth per lot was able to afford the rents and make more profit; the landlord who was able to find more productive tenants was able to raise his rents. Less productive farmers were excluded from the land and forced to move or work for a wage. The beginnings of capitalism thus lie not in the trading urge but in the urge toward economic improvement.
The argument seems to me interesting and plausible. The only problem I had was that in some sections the theoretical jargon was laid on a little too thickly. Luckily, this problem was minimal.
Rating: 5
Summary: A longer and clearer view!
Comment: In "Origin" Ellen M Wood clarifies precisely capitalism's beginning and development.In the process she creates,in the reader, a better understanding of a number of issues.Particularly the agrarian roots of capitalism,the distinctiveness of capitalist coercion versus the absolutist state,the relationship between capitalism and imperialism and between capitalism and the Nation-State.
In short,to gain a better understanding of the system that currently dominates the globe and why it is not preordained that this should be so,start with this superb book.
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Title: Empire of Capital by Ellen Meiksins Wood ISBN: 1859845029 Publisher: Verso Books Pub. Date: June, 2003 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
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Title: Merchants and Revolution: Commercial Change, Political Conflict, and London's Overseas Traders, 1550-1653 by Robert Brenner ISBN: 1859843336 Publisher: Verso Books Pub. Date: August, 2003 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
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Title: Democracy against Capitalism : Renewing Historical Materialism by Ellen Meiksins Wood ISBN: 0521476828 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 09 March, 1995 List Price(USD): $27.00 |
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Title: Debating Empire (New Left Review Debates) by Gopal Balakrishnan, Stanley Aronowitz, Giovanni Arrighi ISBN: 1859844529 Publisher: Verso Books Pub. Date: 04 December, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
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Title: Contours of Descent: US Economic Fractures and the Landscape of Global Austerity by Robert Pollin ISBN: 1859846734 Publisher: Verso Books Pub. Date: September, 2003 List Price(USD): $21.00 |
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