Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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96 of 101 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thorough historical case for Capitalism, October 3, 2005
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.
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71 of 79 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Everything you ever wanted to know about Capitalism ..., November 2, 2005
... 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.
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42 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Mind and Body of Capitalism, September 3, 2005
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.
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