The Relentless Revolution: A History of Capitalism [Hardcover]

Joyce Appleby (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 4, 2010

The unlikely development of a potent historical force, told with grace, insight, and authority by one of our best historians.

With its deep roots and global scope, the capitalist system provides the framework for our lives. It is a framework of constant change, sometimes measured and predictable, sometimes drastic and out of control. Yet what is now ubiquitous was not always so. Capitalism took shape centuries ago, starting with a handful of isolated changes in farming, trade, and manufacturing, clustered in early-modern England. Astute observers began to notice these changes and consider their effects. Those in power began to harness these new practices to the state, enhancing both. A system generating wealth, power, and new ideas arose to reshape societies in a constant surge of change.

The centuries-long history of capitalism is rich and eventful. Approaching capitalism as a culture, as important for its ideas and values as for its inventions and systems, Joyce Appleby gives us a fascinating introduction to this most potent creation of mankind from its origins to now.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Arguing that capitalism is a cultural—rather than purely economic—phenomenon, Appleby (Liberalism and Republicanism in the Historical Imagination) traces its trajectory through European, American, and Asian successes and setbacks, its unhappy experiments in colonization, the world wars, and into contemporary India and China. She narrates the rise of capitalism as a process of accretion, starting with Dutch agricultural innovations that were adopted and improved upon by the British. This set England on the path to controlling famine and, ultimately, freed capital and labor for trade. Appleby turns Marxism on its head as she proposes that the new social relations introduced in England as a result of converting common land into freeholds were the consequence, not the cause, of the transformation in English farming. If this sounds like breathless global time travel, it is still a laudable effort at demonstrating that there was nothing inevitable about the rise of capitalism. Both scholarly and accessible, this book unpacks a complex web of seemingly unrelated events; its dazzling achievements are tarnished only by multiple misnomers: there is no city called Calico in India (there's a Calicut) and no language called Hindu (it's Hindi). (Jan.)
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From Booklist

Historian Appleby traces capitalism (a system based on individual investments in the production of marketable goods) from early industrialization to the present global economy. She explores the benchmarks in capitalism’s ascent, looking at how this system transformed politics while churning up practices, thoughts, values and ideals that had long prevailed within the cocoon of custom. It changed the way people thought and planned, and the author shows how different societies respond to its challenges up to the twenty-first century and the world recession of 2008–09. She explains that the 2008 financial crisis was caused by the era of deregulation from the late 1970s to 1999, while vast sums of money circulated through global markets and the growth in financial assets outpaced real economic activity. Appleby concludes that since capitalism is a set of practices and institutions that permits billions of people to pursue their interests in the marketplace, it is highly likely that panics and bubbles will occur again. This is an excellent book. --Mary Whaley

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 494 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; First Edition; First Printing edition (January 4, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393068943
• ISBN-13: 978-0393068948
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #297,699 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Joyce Appleby, Professor of History Emerita at UCLA, was awarded the 2009 Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. Prize for distinguished writing in American history from the Society of American Historians. She lives in Los Angeles.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Intermittently interesting, March 22, 2010

By 

Jay C. Smith (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Relentless Revolution: A History of Capitalism (Hardcover)

As I was reading The Relentless Revolution I struggled a little thinking how best to characterize its purpose and content. On the surface it is as advertised, a history of capitalism. It covers several centuries globally, though with the Western emphasis inherent in the subject, and touches on most of the topics one would expect in a standard survey of modern economic history. However, it is not quite suitable for a college-level introductory text, because it is a little too personal, too up-front with the author's own convictions and interests. On the other hand, only occasionally does it penetrate deeply enough and present sufficiently sustained arguments to constitute much more than an introduction.

The most telling way to encapsulate the book, I concluded, is that it represents Joyce Appleby's attempt through historical reflection to sort out her own attitudes about capitalism. Since Appleby is a distinguished scholar, a past president of both the American Historical Association and the Organization of American Historians, one would expect her ruminations to be of some interest, and they often are, although not relentlessly so.

Most parts of Appleby's story have been told many times before: European exploration and commercial expansion, the advance in agricultural productivity, industrialization, the ascent of corporations and big business, the tribulations of depression, post World War II prosperity, the rise of Asian economies, the challenges and opportunities of contemporary globalization, and so on, right up to our most recent near meltdown. Where Appleby adds value, I believe, is through certain of her thematic insights, especially those rooted in topical ground where she herself has contributed to the primary research.

Appleby rightly treats capitalism as a cultural phenomenon, not simply some "system" that is driven by inexorable laws. There is no single development formula, she believes; history shows that capitalism must follow its own path in each society. She organizes much of her material around Joseph Schumpeter's notion of "creative destruction." The most striking feature of capitalism, she says, is change.

Men and women do not innately desire change and, if anything, tend to resist it. Thus the take-off of capitalism required, in part, a shift in the orientation of human motivations. Appleby has previously focused on seventeenth-century economic thought, and here she underscores the importance of that period in Britain, in particular, as the idea began to take hold that stimulating wants could contribute to prosperity. For the first time emulation, love of luxury, and vanity began to look positive, and this transformation helped boost consumption and create markets.

I found Appleby to be quite good on these particular points. Yet through much of the book I was frustrated by debatable claims that she raised but did not develop, by unsupported generalizations, or by the superficiality of the discussion. Then, just as I was ready to lose patience, I would stumble across either a plausible provocative assertion or some striking fact that would re-capture my interest.

Overall, Appleby's assessment of capitalism's strengths and weaknesses seems fair and balanced. While she demonstrates how capitalism has brought prosperity, she also stresses how it has constantly upset the status quo and created social problems. She remains confident that societies can learn from history and continue to adjust.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent historical survey of the development of capitalism, April 10, 2010

By 

Robert Moore (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Relentless Revolution: A History of Capitalism (Hardcover)

If you want a solid historical survey of the history of capitalism from someone who has no ideological axes to grind, this will fit the bill. In fact, because so many books written about capitalism are written either by principled debunkers or impassioned boosters, it is important to read multiple accounts. The notion that capitalism has a history is for some a radical claim. Some libertarians insist on the primacy of capitalism in a way that would suggest that capitalism is a natural, primordial economic system to such a degree that it is pretty much inevitable. Appleby, on the other hand, sees the development of capitalism as a highly contingent, event, something that might not have happened had not the right cultural preconditions existed (such as advances in agriculture that made it possible for a large number of the populace to leave farms for factories.

Appleby is primarily a historian who has focused on the 18th and early 19th centuries, so it is not a surprise that these are some of the most interested chapters in the book. The 19th century chapters were also quite good, but I felt that the book became a bit free ranging in the final chapters. The topics discussed were valid and important, but the connections between these chapters were not always clear.

One think I liked about Appleby's book is that she made it clear both what she sees as capitalisms undeniable strengths (its ability to generate large amounts of wealth, to raise the quality of life for many, and provide recreation time for many workers) and its lamentable and hopefully correctable weaknesses (its tendency towards exploitation such as with slavery or sweatshops, the way it creates vast economic inequality, and its failure to spread the wealth to everyone, even though there is an adequate supply of food and other resources to do so). As a historian rather than an ideologue, she is able to take a more sober and balanced look at the history of the economic system than most. While I recommend that one reason several books on the subject, this is definitely one of the books that I recommend.

21 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars good on basics, February 23, 2010

By 

Gaunilon - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Relentless Revolution: A History of Capitalism (Hardcover)

Factually accurate, good on the basics, but really nothing new whatsoever. Most exasperating was the failure to control the hurdle above which materials became suitable for the book. In other words, she doesn't know how much a reader might know. So she writes for Martians in many places - explaining what's obvious to every human being. And then she lopes off into the jungle with Stanley and Livingston which has nothing to do with capitalism.

Niall Ferguson should be your first stop on this subject, unless you are getting your arms around the basics.

She writes well, and probably is the sort of teacher one might have wished to have had...