Capitalism and Its Critics

A History: From the Industrial Revolution to AI

De: John Cassidy

Narrado por: Nathaniel Priestley

A Financial Times Most Anticipated Book of 2025

A sweeping, dramatic history of capitalism as seen through the eyes of its fiercest critics.

At a time when artificial intelligence, climate change, and inequality are raising fundamental questions about the economic system, Capitalism and Its Critics provides a kaleidoscopic history of global capitalism, from the East India Company and Industrial Revolution to the digital revolution. But here John Cassidy, a staff writer at The New Yorker and a Pulitzer Prize finalist, adopts a bold new approach: he tells the story through the eyes of the system’s critics. From the English Luddites who rebelled against early factory automation to communists in Germany and Russia in the early twentieth century, to the Latin American dependistas, the international Wages for Housework campaign of the 1970s, and the modern degrowth movement, the absorbing narrative traverses the globe. It visits with familiar names―Smith, Marx, Luxemburg, Keynes, Polanyi―but also focuses on many less familiar figures, including William Thompson, the Irish proto-socialist whose work influenced Marx; Flora Tristan, the French proponent of a universal labor union; John Hobson, the original theorist of imperialism; J. C. Kumarappa, the Indian exponent of Ghandian economics; Eric Williams, the Trinidadian author of a famous thesis on slavery and capitalism; Joan Robinson, the Cambridge economist and critic of the Cold War; and Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, the founding father of degrowth.

Blending rich biography, panoramic history, and lively exploration of economic theories, Capitalism and Its Critics is true big history that illuminates the deep roots of many of the most urgent issues of our time.

A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Cassidy’s masterful synthesis of history and biography serves to demonstrate that capitalism is in a permanent state of change not just because of its fundamental nature, but because of how it’s continuously being subjected to pushback. The result is a unique and invigorating view of capitalism’s history." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"A sweeping economic history of the to-some-sacrosanct doctrine of capitalism and those arrayed against it over the years . . . dense with information, free of jargon, and a powerful argument against an increasingly
unsustainable economic system." —Kirkus (starred review)

"Capitalism and its Critics is everything that we’ve come to expect from John Cassidy. He weaves an engaging and trenchant discussion of key critics of capitalism over its more than 200 years into a history of capitalism itself. The battle is not only about economic ideas, but about the VERY nature of our society. Especially now, when some see the failures of capitalism as more than a little responsible for the Trumpian oligarchy, while others see its successes as ushering in a new era of AI-led prosperity, this is an illuminating and essential read.” —Joseph Stiglitz, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics and author of The Road to Freedom: Economics and the Good Society

"Fascinating and informative. The history of capitalism is told through the eyes and legitimate concerns of its most articulate critics. This is intellectual history at its best. Essential reading for anyone who wonders how the modern world wandered off course." —Simon Johnson, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics and coauthor of Power and Progress

"John Cassidy’s Capitalism and Its Critics is an impressive history of arguments about capitalism, from the industrial age to our time. Clear and accessible, it is an invaluable touchstone for current debates about economic renewal in our post-globalization moment." —Michael Sandel, author of The Tyranny of Merit

"It’s about time we had a history of capitalism told through the eyes of its critics. For too long the predominant global system for safeguarding the power of the few against the needs of the many has been thought of like the weather: inevitable and eternal, something that cannot be changed, that can only be borne or enjoyed, depending on the day. Cassidy is more storyteller than bomb thrower, and one can only hope this gets the mainstream attention it deserves." —Literary Hub

The scope of the inquiry.

Wasn’t overwrought. Covered much new ground for me. Left me with optimism for the future.

Accessible and accurate overview

Essentially forty New Yorker profiles of heterodox economic critics of capitalism. Some nice unexpected inclusionz along with the familiar names. Good stuff!

History of Lunacy

As an Eastern European who was inoculated with Marxism-Leninism, it was interesting to hear about other lunatics and their current followers. The author reveals the left leaning, which is slightly irritating, but probably makes the book more comprehensive.

A heroic survey of dominant economic theories and their critics, including Friedman, Polanyi, Marx. A must-read for economics

In one book, as capitalism collapses into AI dystopia, this survey of counter-movements and critics from Adam Smith on shows the struggle to understand and tame this alien. Does in one book what took me decades of study. Required reading for anyone interested in politico-economy.
Criticism: Missing anarchists. No estimate of murders by Chicago School.

Comprehensive history

Loved comprehensive history that constitutes too much of the content. Would have enjoyed same comprehensive survey of alternative ideas.
I asked AI to describe society with out property - of course, because the literature is bereft of examples, it would amount to speculation - not a competency of AI

Tedious, leaden

I am most interested in this topic, but the book did not at all work for me. Laden with details, excessive jargon, and an absence of apparent themes to string it together or give it momentum.

I've enjoyed books in the past by Cassidy, but not this one. It seems to me like he read extensively in order to educate himself, took a ton of notes, but was unable to package it into a manageable narrative.

Perhaps this is the kind of book to avoid reading straight through, but instead to read a chapter at a time over a period of a year or so..