The Enigma of Capital: And the Crises of Capitalism - Hardcover

David Harvey

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1846683084 ISBN 13: 9781846683084

Publisher: Profile Books, 2010

Synopsis

Taking a long view of the current economic crisis, eminent academic David Harvey explains how capitalism came to dominate the world and why it resulted in the current financial crisis. For three centuries, the capitalist system has shaped western society, informed its rulers, and conditioned the lives of its people. Using his unrivalled knowledge of the subject, Harvey lays bare the follies of the international financial system, looking closely at the nature of capitalism, how it works and why sometimes it doesn't. He examines the vast flows of money that surge round the world in daily volumes well in excess of the sum of all its economies. He looks at the cycles of boom and bust in the world's housing and stock markets and shows that periodic episodes of meltdown are not only inevitable in the capitalist system but essential to its survival. The essence of capitalism is its amorality and lawlessness and to talk of a regulated, ethical capitalism is to make an error of reasoning of the most fundamental kind. "The Enigma of Capital" considers how crises of the current sort can best be contained within the constraints of capitalism, and makes the case for a social order that would allow us to live within a system that really could be responsible, just, and humane.

About this title

About the Author

'David Harvey provoked a revolution in his field and has inspired a generation of radical intellectuals' - Naomi Klein David Harvey is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the City University of New York Graduate School where he has taught since 2001. His course on Marx's Capital, developed with students over forty years, has been downloaded by over two million people since appearing on the CUNY website in mid-2008. He is the author of Seventeen Contradictions and the End of Capitalism, The Condition of Postmodernity and The Enigma of Capital.

From Publishers Weekly

"At times of crisis," notes eminent Marxist geographer Harvey (Spaces of Global Capitalism), "the irrationality of capitalism becomes plain for all to see." Harvey excels at a revealing and constructive analysis of global capitalism at a moment when its integration--and the attendant widespread susceptibility to its disruptions and downturns--has never been tighter or the post–cold war Western economic model for the world economy more discredited. The narrative delineates with admirable clarity the arcane details of the current financial crisis, while rehearsing the rise of capitalism as a historically specific "process" plagued by fundamental dilemmas. A Marxist perspective comes augmented and nuanced by wide reference to scholarship, close readings of Marx and Engels, and instructive examples of capitalismÖs basic tendencies in episodes like Henry FordÖs notorious Fordlandia venture in the Amazon. While certain to be controversial even on the broad left, HarveyÖs analysis joins other recent attempts (such as Raj PatelÖs The Value of Nothing) to re-think the current economic and political regime from its roots, while identifying and variously championing ready alternatives already manifesting themselves within it.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Profile Books
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1846683084
• ISBN 13: 9781846683084
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256