Table of Contents

Introduction (Jürgen Kocka, Social Science Research Center, Germany)
1. Economic and Financial Crises (Youssef Cassis, European University Institute, Italy)
2. Work and Labour Relations (Andrea Komlosy, University of Vienna, Austria)
3. The Crisis of Hyper-Consumerism: Capitalism's Latest Forward Lurch (Victoria de Grazia, Columbia University, USA)
4. Is There a Return of Capitalism in Business History? (Patrick Fridenson, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, France)
5. Finance Capitalism (Harold James, Princeton University, USA)
6. Capitalism and Labour in Sub-Saharan Africa (Andreas Eckert, Humboldt University Berlin, Germany)
7. Capitalism as an Essential Concept to Understand Modernity (Immanuel Wallerstein, Yale University, USA)
8. The Return of Capitalism as a Concept (Gareth Austin, The Graduate Institute Geneva, Switzerland)
9. The New History of Capitalism (Sven Beckert, Harvard University, USA)
Final Thoughts (Marcel van der Linden, International Institute for Social History, the Netherlands)
Selected Bibliography
Index

Promotional Information

Leading scholars explore the resurgence of interest in the term capitalism and debate its usefulness and limits in social and economic history.

About the Author

Jürgen Kocka is Professor Emeritus at the Free University and the Social Science Center, Berlin, Germany, as well as a Permanent Fellow of the Center “Work and Life Course in Global Historical Perspective” at Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany.

Marcel van der Linden is Senior Fellow at the International Institute for Social History, holds a professorship at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands and is President of the International Social History Association.

Reviews

De Grazia brilliantly uses her empirical research into the history of the Italian apparel industry’s commodity chains to illustrate the interaction between the global and the local ... The authors provide useful and insightful overviews.
*European Review of History*

Capitalism, in its various forms, in a central theme of modern and contemporary history, with ramifications for almost every aspect of life. This is an extraordinarily wide-ranging collection of essays by leading historians exploring the remarkable breadth of topics that have been, and ought to be, considered under the rubric of capitalism. Written from a variety of methodological and ideological perspectives, the essays not only survey the rich recent historical literature on the subject, but suggest new paths for future inquiry. A volume that will be a great aid to all those who write and teach about the subject.
*Jerry Z. Muller, author of The Mind and the Market: Capitalism in Western Thought and Capitalism and the Jews*

We cannot understand our world and its past without questioning capitalism. With no preconceptions, and with the greatest clarity and skill, leading world historians come together in this volume to produce a new global history of capitalism. Key topics such as finance, labour, business and enterprise in Europe, the USA, Africa, Asia and Latin America – and the connections between them – are carefully presented. A must-read!
*Alessandro Stanziani, École des hautes études en sciences sociales, France*