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Capitalism

The Story behind the Word
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Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2022

About this book

How the history of a word sheds new light on capitalism and modern politics

What exactly is capitalism? How has the meaning of capitalism changed over time? And what’s at stake in our understanding or misunderstanding of it? In Capitalism, Michael Sonenscher examines the history behind the concept and pieces together the range of subjects bound up with the word. Sonenscher shows that many of our received ideas fail to pick up the work that the idea of capitalism is doing for us, without us even realizing it.

“Capitalism” was first coined in France in the early nineteenth century. It began as a fusion of two distinct sets of ideas. The first involved thinking about public debt and war finance. The second involved thinking about the division of labour. Sonenscher shows that thinking about the first has changed radically over time. Funding welfare has been added to funding warfare, bringing many new questions in its wake. Thinking about the second set of ideas has offered far less room for manoeuvre. The division of labour is still the division of labour and the debates and discussions that it once generated have now been largely forgotten. By exploring what lay behind the earlier distinction before it collapsed and was eroded by the passage of time, Sonenscher shows why the present range of received ideas limits our political options and the types of reform we might wish for.

Author / Editor information

Michael Sonenscher is a fellow of King's College, University of Cambridge. His books include Sans-Culottes and Before the Deluge (both Princeton).

Reviews

"This page-turner book, which is well written and accessible even to a nonspecialist audience, can certainly help to define the capitalist system more clearly through a refined critical approach."---Giampaolo Conte, The Journal of European Economic History --- "Capitalism: The Story Behind the Word, offers a much-needed historical account of the contentious concept and encourages a reframing of current political discussion. The book provides a fascinating backstory by revisiting little-known nineteenth- century debates about commercial society and the division of labour, terms which—though distinct at their conception—were gradually subsumed under the broader ‘problem of capitalism’."---Joel Byman, Politics and Poetics --- "This page-turner book, which is well written and accessible even to a nonspecialist audience, can certainly help to define the capitalist system more clearly through a refined critical approach."---Giampaolo Conte, Journal of European Economic History --- "Sonenscher astutely calls our attention to the original meaning of capitaliste and its implications."---Martyn Ross, Applied Political Theory --- "Provocative. . . . [Capitalism] will provoke much discussion in the fields of modern intellectual thought, political economy and various stripes of global history."---Tom F. Wright, Times Literary Supplement --- "A thorough summary of the Western thinkers who most influenced today's understanding of capitalism."

Topics

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    Frontmatter

    i
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    Contents

    v
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    Preface

    vii
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    Acknowledgements

    xix
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  • Part I. Problems
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    I. Capitalism and Commercial Society

    1
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    II. Capitalism and the History of Political Thought

    21
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    III. Capitalism, War, and Debt

    31
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    IV. Capitalism, Royalism, and the Social Question

    40
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    V. Capitalism and the Right to Work

    52
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    VI. Capitalism in a Divided World

    66
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  • Part II. Solutions
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    VII. Karl Marx—Capitalism, Communism, and the Division of Labour

    75
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    VIII. Adam Smith—Capitalism, Utility, and Justice

    96
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    IX. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel—Civil Society and the State

    117
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    X. David Ricardo—Public Debt and Comparative Advantage

    142
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    XI. Lorenz von Stein—Public Debt and Public Administration

    155
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    XII. Conclusion

    168
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    Notes

    175
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    Bibliography

    203
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    Index

    217
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Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
August 11, 2022
eBook ISBN:
9780691238876
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
View content
https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691238876
eBook ISBN: 9780691238876
Keywords for this book
Capitalism; Comparative advantage; Civil society; Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel; Government debt; Heraldry; Ruler; Tomb; Capita; King's Statue; Louis Blanc; Tariff; Immanuel Kant; Poverty; Third World; Economy; The Rothschilds (musical); Fertility; Philosophy of history; Thomas Hobbes; Dwelling; Social capital; Adviser; The Other Hand; Uniqueness; Writing; Tumulus; Phrase; Babylon; Primary sector of the economy; Concept; Tax revenue; Social order; Negative liberty; Result; Industry; Coat of arms; Quantity; Piety; Imperialism; Grief; Illustration; Lucien Febvre; Muteness; Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling; The Wealth of Nations; Cemetery; Burial; Montesquieu; Marquis de Condorcet; The Various; Institution; Morality; Ossuary; Charles Fourier; Jan van Eyck; Economic policy; Hugo Grotius; Third Position; Leon Battista Alberti; Government; Contradiction; Agriculture (Chinese mythology); Hostility; Ownership; Sociology; Escutcheon (heraldry); Uffizi; Communism; Wealth
Audience(s) for this book
For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research
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