The Great Transformation
The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time
One of the twentieth century’s most important pieces of social and economic theory, highlighting the rise and reality of capitalism as it shaped our world
A limited Beacon Classics edition
In this classic work of economic history and social theory, Karl Polanyi tracks the economic and social changes brought about by the “great transformation” of the Industrial Revolution. He pays particular attention to capitalism’s rise and its role in fundamentally altering life after the Industrial Revolution. While previous economic arrangements were embedded within social relations, capitalism reverses this: social relations are defined by economic relations. This seminal analysis explains not only the deficiencies of the self-regulating market, but the potentially dire social consequences of untempered market capitalism.
In an era of ever-increasing…