Capitalism Takes Command (Paperback)

Michael Zakim

ISBN 10: 0226451100 / ISBN 13: 9780226451107

Published by The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, 2012

About this Item

Paperback. Most scholarship on nineteenth-century Americas transformation into a market society has focused on consumption, romanticized visions of workers, and analysis of firms and factories. Building on but moving past these studies, Capitalism Takes Command presents a history of family farming, general incorporation laws, mortgage payments, inheritance practices, office systems, and risk managementan inventory of the means by which capitalism became Americas new revolutionary tradition.This multidisciplinary collection of essays argues not only that capitalism reached far beyond the purview of the economy, but also that the revolution was not confined to the destruction of an agrarian past. As business ceaselessly revised its own practices, a new demographic of private bankers, insurance brokers, investors in securities, and start-up manufacturers, among many others, assumed center stage, displacing older elites and forms of property. Explaining how capital became an ism and how business became a political philosophy, Capitalism Takes Command brings the economy back into American social and cultural history. Presents a history of family farming, general incorporation laws, mortgage payments, inheritance practices, office systems, and risk management - an inventory of the means by which capitalism became America's revolutionary tradition. This title includes a collection of essays. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9780226451107

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Capitalism Takes Command (Paperback)
• Publisher: The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL
• Publication Date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0226451100
• ISBN 13: 9780226451107
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

Most scholarship on nineteenth-century America’s transformation into a market society has focused on consumption, romanticized visions of workers, and analysis of firms and factories. Building on but moving past these studies, Capitalism Takes Command presents a history of family farming, general incorporation laws, mortgage payments, inheritance practices, office systems, and risk management—an inventory of the means by which capitalism became America’s new revolutionary tradition.

This multidisciplinary collection of essays argues not only that capitalism reached far beyond the purview of the economy, but also that the revolution was not confined to the destruction of an agrarian past. As business ceaselessly revised its own practices, a new demographic of private bankers, insurance brokers, investors in securities, and start-up manufacturers, among many others, assumed center stage, displacing older elites and forms of property. Explaining how capital became an “ism” and how business became a political philosophy, Capitalism Takes Command brings the economy back into American social and cultural history.

About the Author

Gary J. Kornblith is professor of history at Oberlin College and the author of Slavery and Sectional Strife in the Early American Republic, 1776–1821.