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“That shift away from a world in which entrepreneurship is exercised and social power gained primarily by oppressing people and taking their stuff, or making them work for you, to a wealthier, more sophisticated world based much more on win-win exchange is the meat of Hirschman’s book. It’s a look back on how European intellectuals reacted when, all of a sudden, it became possible to run a civilization based not on the passions for those we love and those we hate, but rather on the interests we have in all cooperating, even though we do not terribly care about each other. We’re all useful to each other and so we can live in peace. It’s a great book, a wonderful book.” Read more...
The Best Books on the Classical Economists
Brad DeLong, Economist
“The core question in Hirschman’s book is actually in its subtitle: ‘Political Arguments for Capitalism before Its Triumph’. Like Weber, Hirschman realised that, first, there is nothing natural about capitalism.” Read more...
The best books on Moral Economy
Will Davies, Social Scientist
“When we reflect on some of the horrors of capitalism, we have to consider that things could have been much worse if we didn’t have this system. Our fights would have been on real battlefields, rather than economic battlefields.” Read more...
The best books on Capitalism and Human Nature
Robert J Shiller, Economist
“The notion in the whole book is that it is far better for man to lord it over his bank balance than it is over his fellow man.” Read more...
The best books on How the World’s Political Economy Works
Mark Blyth, Political Scientist
