Synopses & Reviews
In this volume, Albert Hirschman reconstructs the intellectual climate of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to illuminate the intricate ideological transformation that occurred, wherein the pursuit of material interests --so long condemned as the deadly sin of avarice --was assigned the role of containing the unruly and destructive passions of man. Hirschman here offers a new interpretation for the rise of capitalism, one that emphasizes the continuities between old and new, in contrast to the assumption of a sharp break that is a common feature of both Marxian and Weberian thinking. Among the insights presented here is the ironical finding that capitalism was originally supposed to accomplish exactly what was soon denounced as its worst feature: the repression of the passions in favor of the "harmless," if one-dimensional, interests of commercial life. To portray this lengthy ideological change as an endogenous process, Hirschman draws on the writings of a large number of thinkers, including Montesquieu, Sir James Steuart, and Adam Smith.
Review
"Hirschman's volume stands as a principal contribution to the growing literature that is beginning to reshape our understanding of the legitimating beliefs undergirding the rise of the modern market economy."
--Robert Wuthnow, American Journal of Sociology
Review
"A fresh and exciting argument of a fascinating thesis."
--Nannerl O. Keohane, Journal of Interdisciplinary History
Review
A fresh and exciting argument of a fascinating thesis. American Journal of Sociology
Review
Hirschman's volume stands as a principal contribution to the growing literature that is beginning to reshape our understanding of the legitimating beliefs undergirding the rise of the modern market economy. Robert Wuthnow
Review
Winner of the 2003 Benjamin E. Lippincott Award
Synopsis
In this volume, Albert Hirschman reconstructs the intellectual climate of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to illuminate the intricate ideological transformation that occurred, wherein the pursuit of material interests --so long condemned as the deadly sin of avarice --was assigned the role of containing the unruly and destructive passions of man. Hirschman here offers a new interpretation for the rise of capitalism, one that emphasizes the continuities between old and new, in contrast to the assumption of a sharp break that is a common feature of both Marxian and Weberian thinking. Among the insights presented here is the ironical finding that capitalism was originally supposed to accomplish exactly what was soon denounced as its worst feature: the repression of the passions in favor of the "harmless," if one-dimensional, interests of commercial life. To portray this lengthy ideological change as an endogenous process, Hirschman draws on the writings of a large number of thinkers, including Montesquieu, Sir James Steuart, and Adam Smith.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 137-146) and index.
Table of Contents
| Foreword | |
| Preface to the Twentieth Anniversary Edition | |
| Acknowledgments | |
| Introduction | 3 |
| Pt. 1 | How the Interests were Called Upon to Counteract the Passions | 7 |
| The Idea of Glory and Its Downfall | 9 |
| Man "as he really is" | 12 |
| Repressing and Harnessing the Passions | 14 |
| The Principle of the Countervailing Passion | 20 |
| "Interest" and "Interests" as Tamers of the Passions | 31 |
| Interest as a New Paradigm | 42 |
| Assets of an Interest-Governed World: Predictability and Constancy | 48 |
| Money-Making and Commerce as Innocent and Doux | 56 |
| Money-Making as a Calm Passion | 63 |
| Pt. 2 | How Economic Expansion was Expected to Improve the Political Order | 67 |
| Elements of a Doctrine | 70 |
| Related yet Discordant Views | 93 |
| Pt. 3 | Reflections on an Episode in Intellectual History | 115 |
| Where the Montesquieu-Steuart Vision Went Wrong | 117 |
| The Promise of an Interest-Governed World versus the Protestant Ethnic | 128 |
| Contemporary Notes | 132 |
| Notes | 137 |
| Index | 147 |