The Origin of Capitalism

A Longer View

Ellen Meiksins Wood

Paperback

9789350022412

Aakar Books,

INR 395.00

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pro_931

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In this original and provocative book Ellen Meiksins Wood reminds us that capitalism is not a natural and inevitable consequence of human nature, nor is it simply an extension of age-old practices of trade and commerce. Rather, it is a late and localized product of very specific historical conditions, which required great transformations in social relations and in the human interaction with nature.

This new edition is substantially revised and expanded, with extensive new material on imperialism, anti-Eurocentric history, capitalism and the nation-state, and the differences between capitalism and non-capitalist commerce. The author traces links between the origin of capitalism and contemporary conditions such as ‘globalization’, ecological degradation, and the current agricultural crisis.

Ellen Meiksins Wood

Ellen Meiksins Wood, for many years Professor of Political Science at York University in Toronto, Canada, was an editor of the New Left Review from 1984 to 1992, and, co-editor of Monthly Review from 1997 to 2000. She is the author of numerous books, including The Retreat from Class (1986; reissued in 1998, with a new introduction by the author), which won the Deutscher Prize; The Pristine Culture of Capitalism: A Historical Essay on Old Regimes and Modern States (1992); Democracy Against Capitalism: Renewing Historical Materialism (1995), andThe Origin of Capitalism: A Longer View (2002), as well as several others on the history of Western political though and ancient Greek democracy. Her work has been translated into many languages, European and non-European.