Michel Beaud,A History of Capitalism 1500–2000 (5th Edition). New York: Monthly Review Press, 2001. viii + 348 pp. $55.00 cloth; $24.95 paper.

Extract

The “highly-anticipated” fifth edition of Michel Beaud's classic A History of Capitalism delivers what it promises. In the first place, there is the rich original text, already widely recognized as an important examination of economic, social, and political history organized around the dynamic evolution of capitalism, now supplemented with previously unavailable diagrams and flowcharts. There are also significant additions to the original text, first published in 1981, which both extend the examination up to the end of the twentieth century (and a new “technoscientistic” stage of capitalism), as well as useful re-synthesizing of some of the original text with the benefit of hindsight. In short, the new edition of Beaud's book offers a usefully updated and improved version of what is already established as an important contribution to economic, social, and political history.