The Origin of Capitalism

Few questions of history have as many contemporary political implications as this deceptively simple one: how did capitalism come to be?

In this clarifying work, Ellen Meiksins Wood refutes most existing accounts of the origin of capitalism, which, she argues, fail to recognize capitalism's distinctive attributes as a social system, making it seem a culmination of a natural human inclination to sell and buy.

Wood begins with searching assessments of classical thinkers ranging from Adam Smith to Max Weber. She then explores the great Marxist debates among writers such as Paul Sweezy, Maurice Dobb, Robert Brenner, Perry Anderson, and E. P. Thompson. She concludes with her own account of capitalism's agrarian origin, challenging the association of capitalism with cities, the identification of "capitalist" with "bourgeois," and conceptions of modernity and postmodernity derived from those assumptions.

Only with a proper understanding of capitalism's beginning, Wood concludes, can we imagine the possibility of it ending.

Challenges most existing accounts of capitalism's origins, arguing that they fail to recognize its distinctive attributes as a social system by making its emergence seem natural and inevitable. Assesses the ideas of classical thinkers ranging from Adam Smith to Max Weber, then explores the great Marxist debates among writers such as Paul Sweezy and Maurice Dobb. Gives an original account of capitalism's agrarian origin, challenging conceptions of modernity and postmodernity, the association of capitalism with cities, the identification of "capitalist" with "bourgeois."
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Includes bibliographical references (p. 123-131) and index.

Ellen Meiksins Wood is co-editor of Monthly Review; author of many books, including The Pristine Culture of Capitalism (1991) and Democracy Against Capitalism (1995); and co-editor of In Defense of History (1995).

Histories of the transition. The commercialization model and its legacy ; Marxist debates ; Marxist alternatives — The origin of capitalism. The agrarian origin of capitalism ; From agrarian to industrial capitalism ; A brief sketch ; Modernity and postmodernity — Conclusion.