Karl Polanyi's The Great Transformation is generally
acclaimed as being among the most influential works of economic
history in the twentieth century, and remains as vital in the
current historical conjuncture as it was in his own. In its
critique of nineteenth-century "market fundamentalism" it reads as
a warning to our own neoliberal age, and is widely touted as a
prophetic guidebook for those who aspire to understand the causes
and dynamics of global economic turbulence at the end of the 2000s.
Karl Polanyi: The Limits of the Market is the first
comprehensive introduction to Polanyi's ideas and legacy. It
assesses not only the texts for which he is famous - prepared
during his spells in American academia - but also his
journalistic articles written in his first exile in Vienna, and
lectures and pamphlets from his second exile, in Britain. It
provides a detailed critical analysis of The Great
Transformation, but also surveys Polanyi's seminal
writings in economic anthropology, the economic history of ancient
and archaic societies, and political and economic theory. Its
primary source base includes interviews with Polanyi's daughter,
Kari Polanyi-Levitt, as well as the entire compass of his own
published and unpublished writings in English and German.
This engaging and accessible introduction to Polanyi's thinking
will appeal to students and scholars across the social sciences,
providing a refreshing perspective on the roots of our current
economic crisis.
