This collection comprises fourteen fascinating essays focused on different aspects of the history of capitalism. Growing out of a series of workshops on the “Political Economy of Modern Capitalism” conducted at Harvard University by the editors, Sven Beckert and Christine Desan, the volume is offered not as a “manifesto” nor as a “comprehensive interpretation of the history of American capitalism” but rather as a “sampling” of “themes and topics . . . approaches and methods” (5). As such, a descriptive review of the contents will prove useful to readers.
First up is Woody Holton with “The Capitalist Constitution.” This essay reprises Holton’s treatment of the “miracle at Philadelphia” as a coup by the investing classes to limit democratic threats to property. He concludes: “More than anything else, the U.S. Constitution was a grand effort . . . to mobilize the power of government to fundamentally transform the American economy, primarily...
