A polemic rather than a historical account

I was hoping for a historical account of capitalism's emergence, or at least enough information to be able to make up my own mind. In fact, this is an argument in favour of an interpretation of capitalism rise rooted in the English agrarian economy from the 16th to 18th centuries, one apparently drawn substantively from the historical work of Robert Brenner. It argues against non-Marxist accounts rooted in commerce, and Marxist accounts centring the urban bourgeoisie or the role of colonialism.

The first of three parts is fairly dry and skippable, summarising contending theoretical viewpoints, but without enough detail to make them come to life. The third part ends with an argument connecting capitalism to post modernism, and the conclusion inveighs against so-called "market socialism". Both feel out of place, and more a product of things the author wanted to say about contemporary politics than anything else.

In between, the argument is developed well, albeit without the factual context and detail to make me really feel like I grasp the subject as a whole. The argument is that what is distinctive about capitalism is innovation in the direct process of mass commodity production, motivated by the desire to maximise profit in a competitive market, and drawing on "free" wage labour. Other candidates for the position of first capitalist economy, particularly the Dutch Republic, are considered and rejected for reasons that seem sound given the definition at work. There are some interesting discussions on the relation to each of political ideas (Locke, Petty), colonialism, and the emergence of the modern state.

Overall, it is pretty interesting, albeit light on detail. I was left wanting to know more, so perhaps it works well as an opinionated introduction.

The performance isn't amazing, a bit flat and sometimes loses the rhythm of the sentence, but fine if you're willing to concentrate a bit.

2 people found this helpful

Clear, cogent review of the origins of capitalism

Well paced and structured, with a clear line of argument throughout and quality narration. I'd recommend for anyone interested in tracing the historical specificity of capitalism, and hence its lack of inevitability.

Insightful socialist work on the origin of capitalism

The book dives into the details of the debates on how capitalism found its origin in England. The author does away with the idea that feudal societies were already forms of proto capitalism and instead sees the birth of capitalism as unique to the circumstances of England.

The person hired to read for the audio book doesn’t seem to fully understand what they are reading as they put the emphasis in weird places in a sentence which made the book slightly more difficult to understand