Reviews for Capitalism

The average rating for Capitalism based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-07-17 00:00:00 Victor Gomez This serves as a lovely discussion about capitalism: its types, variations across countries and eras, its historical evolution, its ideological evangelists and critics. If you read chapters at random, you may fall into the trap of judging Paul Bowles as, in turns, a reformist, a radical, a market fundamentalist and a welfare state corporatist. My concerns probably are well aligned with those expressed by the author here, but I guess that it would've made things better if more data had been explicated across the pages of this book. To be fair, Paul Bowles provides suggested readings at the end of each chapter and a detailed reference list at the end, but the utility of this book with respect to (possibly) raising humane concerns within the "other side" (market fundamentalists or neoliberals, for one) is restricted by the lack of thorough empirical analyses. Though I am sure that that was not the point...

Review # 2 was written on 2007-09-13 00:00:00 Tomek Zachadzki The first half tries to figure out what capitalism is, and Bowles makes it pretty clear only what it's not: "natural" or "eternal". Second half covers the recent history of capitalism in all its abundant varieties, including a frightening chapter on neoliberalism. Though he gives a fair hearing to clowns like Hayek and Friedman, it's pretty obvious he's on the side of us lefties. Concise and essential.