Capitalism: An Introduction

Recent surveys reveal a large portion of the British population to have a dim view of capitalism. And many on the political left, including the current leadership of the Labour Party, are committed to overthrowing it. That would be a disaster because, as Eamonn Butler argues in this introduction to capitalism, it is the foundation of our prosperity and of our liberal, cooperative and dynamic society.

Many criticisms of capitalism are based on common misunderstandings of it, some of them even shared by supporters of capitalism. Written in plain English and assuming no prior knowledge of economics, this book helps readers overcome these confusions. It explains the nature of capital – its creation, preservation and destruction – and the roles played by markets and property rights in making capitalism work.

Eamonn Butler is Director of the Adam Smith Institute, one of the world’s leading policy think tanks. He holds degrees in economics and psychology, a PhD in philosophy, and an honorary DLitt. In the 1970s he worked in Washington for the US House of Representatives, and taught philosophy at Hillsdale College, Michigan, before returning to the UK to help found the Adam Smith Institute. A former winner of the Freedom Medal awarded by Freedom’s Foundation of Valley Forge and the UK National Free Enterprise Award, Eamonn is currently Secretary of the Mont Pelerin Society.

Eamonn is author of many books, including introductions to the pioneering economists and thinkers Adam Smith, Milton Friedman, F. A. Hayek, Ludwig von Mises and Ayn Rand. He has also published primers on classical liberalism, public choice, Magna Carta, the Austrian School of Economics and great liberal thinkers, as well as The Condensed Wealth of Nations and The Best Book on the Market. His Foundations of a Free Society won the 2014 Fisher Prize. He is co-author of Forty Centuries of Wage and Price Controls, and of a series of books on IQ. He is a frequent contributor to print, broadcast and online media.