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The Capitalist Manifesto: The Historic, Economic and Philosophic Case for Laissez-Faire

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The Capitalist Manifesto particularly excels in its historical analyses of various aspects of the pre- and post-capitalist world. For example, it analyzes in detail the idea that the Industrial Revolution led to a decrease in the standard of living of poor people and shows that the opposite is the case. This book is really a must read for anyone who wants to understand the true history of capitalism, including its intellectual origins in the Enlightenment and its materials results. The polemical sections are also a gem, as the idea that capitalism leads to imperialism, war, and slavery is thoroughly debunked. In addition, the book relies on Ayn Rand's Objectivism as a moral and philosophical framework within which to evaluate and understand capitalism. While the moral justification for capitalism will be familiar ground to Objectivists, Dr. Bernstein keeps the reader engaged with numerous concrete examples. Also, don't miss the appendix, in which the lives of the great industrialists are described in exciting detail.

What makes The Capitalist Manifesto such a valuable addition to the pro-capitalist literature, is that it targets precisely the existing gap between the practical case for capitalism--provided in abundant detail by historians and economists-and the moral and philosophical case.

The goal of the book is to present an integrated case for capitalism, one that connects the economic and historical facts with the wider moral and philosophical case for capitalism.

That integration is made possible by Bernstein's identification of the unifying principle that explains all of the virtues of capitalism: "Regarding the enormity of capitalism's success, both morally and practically, in different centuries, on far-flung continents, involving a hundred issues, the explanatory principle that will emerge is: capitalism is par excellence the system of liberated human brain power." Capitalism as "the system of the mind" is a theme that is capable of uniting every element of the case for capitalism: its economic mechanisms, its political principles, its history, its heroes, its moral code-all the way down to the epistemology that capitalism encourages and institutionalizes.

Above all, this volume achieves something no other history of capitalism has yet done: it provides the solution to today's cultural and political mind-body dichotomy, showing how the material achievements of capitalism's innovators flow from the highest moral and intellectual ideal: the commitment to the liberation of the individual mind. In doing so, The Capitalist Manifesto makes a valuable addition to the growing foundation for a secular moral case for liberty.

... but were afraid to ask your liberal economics professors!

Dr. Bernstein has written the book which bridges the gap between Ayn Rand's collection, "Capitalism - The Unknown Ideal," and George Reisman's magnum opus, "Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics."

This is a book which is both accessible and inspiring to the layman, authoritative enough for the scholar.

When Bernstein's "The Capitalist Manifesto" becomes a text at even a small percentage of America's schools, socialism/communism/fascism is done for.

In this phenomenal work, Dr. Bernstein not only provides an abundance of factual information demonstrating the economic and moral superiority of capitalism, he also lays out the introductory framework of the philosophical theory that explains it. He begins by putting the advent of capitalism in its proper historical perspective, and includes chapters explaining the economic theory behind its enormous practical success as well as refuting common (yet clearly silly, after Dr. Bernstein is through with them) charges against capitalism (such as that it causes war, imperialism, and slavery).

But by far the most interesting and valuable chapters are those at the heart of the book, in which he provides a *moral* defense of capitalism, based on Ayn Rand's ethical theory of rational egoism. Dr. Bernstein understands that the system that promotes individual success and happiness on this earth (and who else's success and happiness is there to promote?) cannot be logically defended on altruistic grounds, and more: that it doesn't need to be, because egoism, as the system that does just that, is the only proper morality for mankind.

If any active-minded person reads this book and is not convinced by the wealth of information it provides, the only explanation is that they're suffering from a 'great disconnect' of their own (see Dr. Bernstein's introduction and afterword).

Highly recommended.

Bernstein does an excellent job, and The Capitalist Manifesto is now my favorite book to hand to friends who, most likely due to cultural osmosis, happen to think that the mixed economy is a nice idea. (It is probably too much to handle for those with the authoritarian impulse who gravitate to socialism, communism, and fascism.) His case is fresh, thorough, and delightfully crushing, drawing on diverse sources all through history and all over the planet for the historical and factual evidence, from which he then extracts the important principles to lay out the philosophical case for laissez-faire.

Reading The Capitalist Manifesto and coming face-to-face with the facts and their implications, I expect most honest people will be left wondering how the vast majority of intellectuals got it (and continue to get it) so tragically wrong: supporting and defending ideas that have caused the brutal deaths of hundreds of millions of people and held down billions in conflict and grinding poverty -- while evading and maligning what has lifted billions of people out of a truly Hobbesian existence ("poor, nasty, brutish, and short").

That stands as the most outrageous disconnect in human history, and Bernstein makes it viscerally real.

As an African-American, I've been raised on the standard anti-capitalist doctrines that capitalism was responsible for slavery, exploitation and the impoverishment of minorities, and that only socialist style welfare programs could improve that.
Several years ago, I took some econ courses in college that started to teach me that capitalism generates wealth, not poverty, and that it is a good thing.
But nothing prepared me for Bernstein's book. It blew me away. It showed me that in every way, capitalism is the best system. That historically, it raised the West, including the starving workers, to middle class comfort, that economically, it is the only system that provides freedom and prosperity, and that morally, it protects the right to life of every individual human being. Bernstein's obvious hostility to religion grates on me, but it's a testimony to his book's superior arguments in support of his main point, glorifying capitalism, that it never deterred me from learning an enormous amount.
Every teacher in the country should read this book, and then teach it to his students.

I was raised in Canada, steeped in socialist doctrine by my upbringing and education. I had no idea regarding the true nature and history of capitalism until I read Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged 5 years ago. Rand gave a moral and philosophical validation of capitalism. But nowhere had I been able to find an author who could do for the history of capitalism what Rand has done for its philosophy. Until now. Wow! The Capitalist Manifesto is an unanswerable refutation of every myth perpetrated for centuries by leftist, anti-capitalist intellectuals. Read it yourself if you want to discover the real heroes and achievements of capitalism. Just the section showing the Industrial Revolution as a direct outgrowth of the Scottish Enlightenment is an eye-opening education worth far more than the total price of the book. But there's much more. This book is an instant classic that should be read for generations to come. It is a great achievement.

[...]

Having read nearly all material relating to objectivism, and a large portion of the works dedicated to Capitalism, I consider myself qualified to say that this book is easily the most well conceived and well researched treatise on the subject - bar none.

I'll even go as far as to say that if this book were required reading in our nations schools, within a generation this country would abolish any anti-capitalist principals inherent in our government, and expel the idea of socialism under a rock in the east where it belongs.

As the title implies, the book is broken into three categories: historic, economic and philosophic.

While a reader of economics or Ayn Rand might know what to expect in the economic and philosophic sections of the book, I don't think anyone could prepare themselves for the hard-hitting, concise demonstration of Capitalism's history in America and the world. In the historic section, Bernstein illuminates what has been forgotten by all but a handful of men in this world - and most of those men are not history professors.

Many of this nations founders and greatest inventors, as well as those directly responsible for the enlightenment, are discussed in such great detail and length that their stories of being the first men in the world to achieve greatness are nothing short of inspiring.

But Bernstein didn't stop simply at the praising of histories greatest; he gives a righteous and detailed account of the horrors that permeated mankind's life and mind before the advent of the industrial revolution, and points out such broadly unknown facts as that the poverty level of Europe only 300 years ago was when after a days work, you couldn't afford to by enough bread to eat - quite a contrast with today's poverty level of around $4000 for a single person.

Parts of reading the section are like reading an almanac compiled over three hundred years ago - never have I heard actual statistics about old Europe down to the per capita GDP - but Bernstein provides this and much more.

Another glorious example is his section on Scotland's role during the industrial revolution, or should I say Scotland's contribution. While most scholars mention Scotland infrequently, if at all, in regards to the industrial revolution, Bernstein paints a picture wherein Scotland essentially started the revolution - with many of the founders, including Adam smith who wrote the original Wealth of nations, having attended Edinburgh University.

The philosophic and economic sections lack no luster either; both give a detailed defense of Capitalism, while taking an extreme offensive stance against all forms of Socialism and collectivism.

This book is simply magnificent - anyone who doesn't read it is missing out on what is destined to become an American classic. My only regret is that this book was not written 300 years ago.

I can say with absolute certainty that if Rand were alive today, she would say "It's so wonderful to see a great, new, crucial achievement which isn't mine."

This excellent book should be read by everyone, particularly business professional who don't know how to defend themselves intellectually and college students, who are only taught of the alleged evils of capitalism.
A great example of this is how Dr. Bernstein challenges the Robber Baron type smears and properly categorizes those industrialists as active participants in the Inventive Age.
He demonstrates how capitalism wiped out slavery, poverty and sickness everywhere it has been practiced.
As a hero-worshiper, I found countless examples of great men I'd never heard of, to inspire me for decades to come.
Not to be confused with a previous book with the same title by Louis Kelso, this one is consistent in showing both the morality and practicality of laissez-faire.
If and when this book has one-tenth of the impact that its antipode, The Communist Manifesto, has had, our future of progress, success and happiness will be assured.

The Capitalist Manifesto by Andrew Bernstein should be required reading by everyone, especially by students and journalists. Professor Bernstein has put the pieces together in a way that the general reader cannot but rethink their views on Capitalism. It provides immense ammunition in the form of historical facts and logical arguments to support the premise that Capitalism is the system of freedom. Bernstein documents the immense destruction and harm to human life and well-being caused by political systems that deny the primacy of individual rights, and brilliantly refutes the major Marxist criticisms of Capitalism that have evolved into modern myths. By the time you finish the book, there is nothing left by which to support socialism over capitalism.

Will those who are currently anti-capitalism or capitalist agnostics change their position? For those open to reason, I don't see how the book cannot change the way they look at the world. Bernstein's presentation of the philosophic and moral underpinnings of capitalism based on Ayn Rand's groundbreaking philosophical work is first rate, bringing to the fore the necessity of rational self-interest and individual rights for man to peacefully create wealth and prosper. For those who are religiously anti-capitalistic due to an adherence to mysticism or nihilistic non-conformance to the requirements of civilization, there is no hope.

The mainstream culture may not like this book because it challenges the anti-capitalist mentality from the roots up on both philosophic and empirical grounds, but the challenge they will face is to refute it.

This book will stand as a classic. It is another important arrow shot into the heart of the beast of statism in all its forms and a beacon for a renewed vision of the moral right of each person to live by their own mind in pursuit of their own interests with the right to be free from the initiation of force by others.