2 - Poor old capitalism: a review article

Summary

For a teacher of comparative economic systems, the publication of The Capitalist System: A Radical Analysis of American Society, by Edwards, Reich, and Weisskopf, is a windfall: it presents him with 540 pages of radical attack on capitalism all in one place, including passages from Marx and Engels, Polanyi, Dobb, Baran and Sweezy, Mumford, Gintis, Fromm, Bowles, and others. The three editors wrote brief introductions to each chapter and to each selection and contributed several articles of their own. Most of the material is nontechnical and well written; it should be accessible to any intelligent undergraduate and lay reader.

An ordinary book of readings is essentially a pedagogical tool. Its editor need not agree with, or be held responsible for, the views and conclusions presented in it. But this is no ordinary book of readings. It presents almost exclusively the radical point of view. The introductions written by the editors gave them ample opportunity to state their disagreements, if any, with the contributors. Hence, the reviewer has the right to treat the book as an integrated work and to hold the editors responsible for its content.

Nevertheless, if the book's subtitle were A List of Evils of the American Economy, or something like that, I would not quarrel with it; I might even suggest a few extra ones. But what provoked me was the word “Analysis” in the subtitle.