The Mind and the Market: Capitalism in Modern European Thought [Hardcover]

Jerry Z. Muller (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 12, 2002

A remarkable history of the idea of capitalism in Western thought–—from its origins in classical Greece and Rome and in medieval Christianity, through its flowering from 1700 to the present day—that examines the most significant thinkers who have influenced our views on how the market can (and should or should not) affect the way society is organized.

Capitalism is too complex a subject to be left to economists, and achieving a critical comprehension of it requires perspectives beyond those characteristic of modern economics. European thinkers have debated the cultural, moral, and political effects of capitalism for centuries, and their claims have been many and diverse. Historian Jerry Muller tracks this fascinating thread, setting out what the best and brightest—from Hobbes to Hayek, and across the ideological spectrum, including Voltaire, Adam Smith, Edmund Burke, Hegel, Marx, and Matthew Arnold, as well as twentieth-century communist, fascist, and neoliberal intellectuals—have thought about the ramifications of capitalism and its future implications. In doing so, he also shows how antisemitic stereotypes about Jews and their relationship to money have played an ongoing role in the interpretation of capitalism.

The result is a compelling history of ideas and a riveting exploration of questions—about wealth and poverty, capitalism and culture, the individual and the state, and the role of intellectuals within market societies—that still compel our attention.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Global markets destroy local cultures. Corporate greed breeds poverty wages. Slogans shouted at a demonstration against the World Trade Organization? Not exactly. As Catholic University history professor Muller argues, these were the concerns of European intellectuals as they witnessed the rise of modern capitalism. Even the market's great advocates, from Adam Smith to Joseph Schumpeter, feared its effects, Muller says. The market promoted individual liberties, self-interest and wealth accumulation. But the market also threatened to unleash avarice, wreak havoc on traditions, and destroy any sense of the common good. In clear if not inspired prose, Muller provides trenchant analyses of obscure and well-known students of capitalism. None of his subjects was an economist narrowly defined; all were "moral philosophers" concerned with the orderly and positive development of human society and the efficient production and distribution of goods. Left and right, they shared many ideas. Few Americans have heard of Justus M"ser, but his defense of fixed inequalities and locally based production contributed to a powerful conservative critique of capitalism. On towering figures like Smith and Marx, Muller manages to provide fresh insights, and the chapter on Hegel, a notably difficult philosopher, is remarkably lucid. Some of the later chapters are less compelling, and the author's conclusions are rather too restrained. He is content to delineate the "vital tensions" that have accompanied the rise of capitalism and refrains from openly championing the ideas of one or another of his intellectuals. Still, this study illuminates the long lineage of engagement with the social consequences of capitalism.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

The author, a professor of history at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., examines the moral, social, and political implications of capitalism through the eyes of more than a dozen European thinkers. Some--such as Adam Smith, Joseph Schumpeter, and Friedrich Hayek--are conventionally regarded as economists, while others--including Voltaire and Karl Marx--were philosophers who wrote in either support or criticism of the market-based society. A recurrent theme is the early Christian belief that commerce (the trading of goods produced by others for profit) and finance (profiting from money itself) were immoral. However, once these activities became a necessary part of society, the anti-Semitic environment of Europe forced the Jews, who were traditionally farmers and craftsmen, into the roles of money handlers. This work is an in-depth study of the origins of thought about markets and their effects on people, when thinking men easily questioned whether capitalism is good for people. It is a wonderful contrast to today's blind worship of materialism and economic progress. David Siegfried
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 512 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; 1 edition (November 12, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375414118
• ISBN-13: 978-0375414114
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.7 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #847,162 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I read every word, January 6, 2003

By 

MARK SKOUSEN, (IRVINGTON, NEW YORK United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Mind and the Market: Capitalism in Modern European Thought (Hardcover)

It isn't often that I find myself reading an entire book, or taking notes on every page, but that's how intriguing I found Jerry Muller's easy-to-read and profound new book. I am an admirer of his previous work, Adam Smith in His Time and Ours, which I cited several times in my own history, "The Making of Modern Economics." But this book outperforms all previous efforts. It is essentially an historical commentary on the long-standing debate over the cultural effects of capitalism, a debate between the advocates (Voltaire, Adam Smith, Burke, Hegel, Weber, Schumpeter, and Hayek) and the critics (Rousseau, Marx, Arnold, Sombart, Lukacs, Keynes, and Marcuse). I learned a great deal, especially Voltaire's fraudulent business practices, Burke's long fight against the East India Company, Hegel's surprising defense of individualism and the market, the brilliant insights of Georg Simmel, Schumpeter's subtle subterfuge of intellectuals, and Muller's extensive coverage of anti-semitism and capitalism. (One surprising omission is Veblen, whose cultural criticisms of capitalism are well-known, but frankly, it is refreshing to read a book without a reference to the conspicuous Veblen). I won't give away author's perspective on this never-ending debate, but one can only be awe-struck by Muller's achievement.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The course you always wanted to take, March 9, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Mind and the Market: Capitalism in Modern European Thought (Hardcover)

THE MIND AND THE MARKET is a compulsively readable history of economic thought which deserves to be a best-seller. I am not an economist or a political philosopher but rather a writer about the arts and culture, and I am devouring this book. The chapters on Hegel, Marx, and Matthew Arnold are each alone worth the price of admission. Muller carries his erudition lightly, and his prose has the calm, effortless, sparkling lucidity of a great teacher lecturing in his prime.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars some of "the best that had been thought and said in the world", June 4, 2008

By 

balyzu (Princeton, NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Mind and the Market: Capitalism in Western Thought (Paperback)

This is a remarkable book. Besides the usual variety that appears in most books on economic thought (Smith, Marx, Keynes, Hayek, Schumpeter) it includes a nice selection of non-economists such as Voltaire, Burke and Marcuse. Muller is a master of situating intellectuals in their respective context and presenting them in lively detail. Having read Voltaire's "Candide", it was remarkable to find out about his personal adventures with financial speculation. When dealing with Smith, Muller takes pains to retain all the nuances, such as Smith's claim that division of labor, no matter how productive, could make human beings "as stupid and ignorant as it possible for a human creature to become". As Muller is a specialist on conservative thought, his treatment of a variety of criticisms of the market by conservatives is very intriguing. Furthermore, although chapters are written in a way to make them independent of each other, Muller links them nicely using common themes and referring back to already discussed, older ideas. One of such themes is the identification of capitalism with Jews. One might find it surprising how old and often recurring this identification was in European thought.

My main qualm regards Muller's treatment of the left. Although all of the selections are understandable (Marx is a must, Lukacs is representative of 20th century communism and easy to juxtapose with Freyer, while Marcuse is representative of the New Left), large strands of interesting left-wing thought are omitted. Karl Polanyi who wrote the classic about the industrial revolution and the nature of the market ("The Great Transformation") and who seems like a perfect addition to such a book is only mentioned in one of the hundreds of footnotes. Anarchists seem non-existent. The reader might walk away with the feeling that the only things the left has to offer are nagging and central-planning. In the meantime, Hayek and Schumpeter - classical liberals with overlapping ideas (e.g. the role of the entrepreneur) are both given separate chapters. On an unrelated note, some might find the treatment of Keynes inadequate as well. In the first page of the Keynes/Marcuse chapter, Muller states that "[Keynes] provided an economic rationale for governments to try to actively combat unemployment by raising the level of government spending" (p. 317). You will hear the same reductionism in an intro to macro college course, but Keynes' insights were way more nuanced (the role of uncertainty - see: Duncan Foley's "Adam's Falalcy"; the need for a fundamentally different monetary policy - see: Allan Meltzer's and Geoff Tily's work) and often cannot be described as "Keynesian" (or rather, what came to be viewed as "Keynesian").

Despite these flaws, this is a very well-written, insightful and stimulating book. If you are interested in the history of economic thought and more broadly - the different attitudes toward the market economy, make sure to check it out.