The Spirit of Capitalism: Nationalism and Economic Growth [Paperback]

Liah Greenfeld (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0674012399 | ISBN-13: 978-0674012394 | Publication Date: September 1, 2003

The Spirit of Capitalism answers a fundamental question of economics, a question neither economists nor economic historians have been able to answer: what are the reasons (rather than just the conditions) for sustained economic growth? Taking her title from Max Weber's famous study on the same subject, Liah Greenfeld focuses on the problem of motivation behind the epochal change in behavior, which from the sixteenth century on has reoriented one economy after another from subsistence to profit, transforming the nature of economic activity. A detailed analysis of the development of economic consciousness in England, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Japan, and the United States allows her to argue that the motivation, or "spirit," behind the modern, growth-oriented economy was not the liberation of the "rational economic actor," but rather nationalism. Nationalism committed masses of people to an endless race for national prestige and thus brought into being the phenomenon of economic competitiveness.

Nowhere has economic activity been further removed from the rational calculation of costs than in the United States, where the economy has come to be perceived as the end-all of political life and the determinant of all social progress. American "economic civilization" spurs the nation on to ever-greater economic achievement. But it turns Americans into workaholics, unsure of the purpose of their pursuits, and leads American statesmen to exaggerate the weight of economic concerns in foreign policy, often to the detriment of American political influence and the confusion of the rest of the world. (20020607)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Beginning in 15th-century northern Europe, unprecedented economic growth spread throughout the world, bringing with it nationalism, technological progress and rationalism in government, religion and justice, as well as eradication of traditional cultures, environmental damage, imperialism and wars of unparalleled destructiveness. Ever since, people have sought to explain these circumstances. Greenfeld (Nationalism: Five Roads to Modernity) joins them here: her thesis is that unrelated historical accidents engendered nationalism in England, France, Germany, Japan and the United States (and almost in Holland), and that competitive nationalism caused sustained economic growth. To defend her proposal, she eschews both the historian's careful study of primary sources and the economist's insistence on rigorously testable models, claiming that both of these paths have led to error. Instead, she relies upon extended excerpts from secondary sources. Since her examples (the five modernizations and one failed modernization) are unrelated, the book consists of straightforward descriptions of each one rather than abstraction or parallels. This method produces a reader in early modernization with just enough theory to segue between the chapters. The obvious use for this book is for a freshman sociology course on the origins of the modern economy; those looking for groundbreaking analysis will be disappointed. Greenfeld's criticism of all aspects of the modern world, from diet to work habits to culture, will engage only readers who are already disgruntled.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Greenfeld (political science, Boston Univ.) offers a riveting follow-up to Nationalism: Five Roads to Modernity (Harvard Univ., 1992). Here she seeks to answer three questions: what caused the emergence of the modern economy, what made the economic sphere so dominant; and what are the reasons for sustained economic growth? Her fundamental proposition is that nationalism is responsible for the reorientation of economic activity toward growth. She strengthens her argument by focusing on the periods of emergence of the modern economy in England, France, Germany, Japan, and the United States. In addition, she adeptly addresses the concerns of critics of her previous work by including an in-depth look at Japanese nationalism and the roles that economics and diplomacy have played in fostering nationalism in her five primary subjects plus the Netherlands and Russia. Although her approach is unorthodox, the quality of her research and the richness of her arguments should be challenging to the various economists, historians, philosophers, and other social scientists who often need to be stimulated by the writing of those outside their disciplines. Highly recommended for both academic and public libraries. Norm Hutcherson, California State Univ., Bakersfield
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 560 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press (September 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674012399
• ISBN-13: 978-0674012394
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #608,360 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Correcting misconceptions, October 27, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Spirit of Capitalism: Nationalism and Economic Growth (Hardcover)

I have read an advance copy of this book, and feel obliged to comment on the erroneous PUBLISHERS WEEKLY review, found in the editorial reviews section of this page. It is apparent that the author of that review did not actually read the book.

The first sentence of the review states as fact a false position, that "beginning in 15th-century northern Europe, unprecedented economic growth spread throughout the world, bringing with it nationalism, technological progress and rationalism in government, religion, and justice, as well as eradication of traditional cultures, environmental damage, imperialism, and wars of unparalleled destructiveness." The book being reviewed argues that it was nationalism which caused the reorientation of the economy towards sustained economic growth. (Nationalism was the motive force behind modern capitalism.) The reviewer is putting the cart before the horse. The opening sentence is a statement of the reviewer's own position, and to contrast it with the central thesis of the book being reviewed (without evidence or counterargument of any kind) was in poor taste. But this is not the worst.

The reviewer asserts that the author "eschews both the historian's careful study of primary sources and the economist's insistence on rigorously testable models." The reviewer claims that instead Greenfeld relies on excerpts from secondary sources. This is plainly false. The majority of the book's evidence is primary-source material, all meticulously documented in the notes, which the reviewer apparently did not have time to read. Indeed, like the author's previous work, NATIONALISM: FIVE ROADS TO MODERNITY, this book is interesting and convincing, in part, because of the quantity and detail of empirical evidence it provides.

Third, the reviewer states that, allegedly according to the author, the 6 cases treated (England, Holland, France, Germany, Japan, and the United States) are unrelated. This is also, quite simply, false. The author draws tight connections between these cases. Indeed, she believes that nationalism (and it's refraction in the economic sphere) is fundamentally an idea. This idea began in one place (England) and was exported to the other cases under consideration (minus the Netherlands, where impressive early economic growth was both not sustained and not caused by nationalism), though it took very different forms in each. Given that so much of the story in each case is of the importation of the idea of the nation, it's reception and transformation, and it's impact upon the economic orientations of the social actors in each nation, it is absurd to claim that these cases are unrelated.

Finally, the reviewer makes the bizarre observation that this book is a "criticism of all aspects of the modern world" which will only have appeal to disgruntled readers. Frankly, I cannot imagine how on earth the reviewer got this impression. The book is not a critique of modernity, it does not issue value-judgements, and it most certainly does not condemn modern diet, work habits, and culture, as the reviewer would have us believe.

This is an excellent book. There is none other like it on the subject, both in terms of theoretical scope and detailed historical evidence. It is a captivating story, written in elegant prose. It should be of interest to economists, historians, political scientists, anthropologists, sociologists, and anyone who wants to understand the world in which we live.

12 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Important work, now more than ever, October 29, 2001

By 

Peter Vok (Dennis, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Spirit of Capitalism: Nationalism and Economic Growth (Hardcover)

During the Clinton years, the foundation of American foreign policy seemed to be that economic growth was a natural phenomenon and that America needed only help other nations 'liberate' their markets. We did not take seriously enough the idea that economic growth is rooted in particular cultural norms, and that 'liberalization' without those norms would frequently lead to nothing but chaos and deep-seated anti-American resentment.

There is no justification for the attacks of September 11th, but one could argue that, under Clinton, America did not do enough to demonstrate that we stand for political as well as economic reform. This book, which I have read in manuscript form, is an important intellectual rebuttal to ideas that have tarnished America's name abroad.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Complementary readings to Greenfeld's book, June 11, 2009

By 

César González Rouco (Madrid, Madrid Spain) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Spirit of Capitalism: Nationalism and Economic Growth (Paperback)

There are already three good reviews so I will only suggest reading the following books in addition to Greenfeld's peculiar work:

General overviews: "Nationalism and modernism" by Anthony Smith; "The Sociology of Nationalism", by David McCrone; in Spain, "Enciclopedia del Nacionalismo", Andrés de Blas Guerrero (Director).

Books that are nowadays "classic" or almost: "Imagined communities", by Benedict Anderson, "Nations and nationalism", by Ernst Gellner; "Nations and Nationalism since 1780", by Eric Hobsbawn, "The Invention of Tradition", edited by Eric Hobsbawn and Terence Ranger (all of them tend to be critic with nationalism).
Focused on a country or countries: Germany, "The nationalization of the masses", by George Mosse; France, "Peasants into Frenchmen" by Eugen Weber; UK, "Britons. Forging the nation 1707-1837" by Linda Colley; Spain, "Mater Dolorosa. La idea de España en el siglo XIX" by José Alvarez Junco; England, France, Germany, Russia and USA, "Nationalism. Five roads to modernity" by the very Liah Greenfeld; Quebec, Catalonia, Scotland, "Nations against the State" by Michael Keating; Basque country, "El bucle meláncolico" by Jon Juaristi.

Others: "Kindoms and communities in Western Europe 900-1300" by Susan Reynolds; "State and nation in Europe" by Hagen Schulze; "The God of modernity. The development of nationalism in Western Europe", by Josep R. Llobera; "Nations and states. An Enquiry into the origins of nations and the politics and nationalism" by Hugh Seton-Watson.

And more and more... There seems to be an almost infinite variety of approaches to the study of nations and nationalism.