Regular reader Rob Gray sent me this review of Sven Beckert's new global history of capitalism, which I thought worth sharing. Capitalism – A Global History (2025)By Sven Beckert, History Professor at Harvard University and author of Empire of Cotton (2015)Published by Allen LaneLength: 1087 pages, plus 150 pages of detailed notesDescriptionAs the title says, the book describes a history of capitalism from c1500 AD to the present, spread across the entire world. Innovative, energetic and radicalbut alsoExploitative, ruthless and predatory – There are both positive and negative characteristics of capitalism — “Good capitalism: Bad capitalism”. History may be “one fucking thing after another” (Alan Bennett), but although history took place in the past, it still exists in the present. I am more interested in the macroeconomics of money and monetary systems, finance, financialisation and financial crises, rather than the study of the history of capitalism.

Source: The Guardian March 15, 2026 13:24 UTC