Capitalism and Its Critics

Fascinating and informative. The history of capitalism is told through the eyes and legitimate concerns of its most articulate critics. This is intellectual history at its best. Essential reading for anyone who wonders how the modern world wandered off course

Simon Johnson, winner of the 2024 Nobel Prize for Economics and co-author of Power and Progress

John Cassidy’s Capitalism and Its Critics is an impressive history of arguments about capitalism, from the industrial age to our time. Clear and accessible, it is an invaluable touchstone for current debates about economic renewal in our post-globalization moment

Michael J. Sandel, author of <i>The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good?</i>

Capitalism and its Critics [is an] unexpectedly lively romp through the two-and-a-half-century history of capitalism ... a zombie tale in which the mystery is why capitalism, having so many ill-wishers and so many chronic health problems, keeps rising anew from each crisis – be it the 1930s Great Depression or 2008 financial crisis – even stronger and more resilient. Cassidy ... offers gripping analyses of socialist communes, slavery, imperialism and monetarism; he takes us to the heart of such topical questions as whether tariffs are folly, as laissez-faire orthodoxy suggests, or essential to making America great again, as Donald Trump insists ... I predict it’ll become the intelligent beach read of the summer

Stuart Jeffries, Telegraph

Each chapter is a substantial essay on an economist, activist or policymaker and their work ... astonishing ...

Alan Ryan, Literary Review

An expansive history of capitalism that places less emphasis on economic abstractions like perfectly competitive markets and draws attention instead to how often capitalist systems have fallen short

Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times

John Cassidy, a British-American staff writer at the New Yorker, is one of the world’s leading economic journalists . . . [Capitalism and Its Critics is] fascinating . . . Cassidy tells the stories of some of capitalism’s most interesting and influential critics since the eighteenth century. This turns out also to be an illuminating way to tell the story of capitalism itself, the juggernaut that has continually reshaped our world . . . Well-told and well-researched stories

Martin Wolf, Financial Times

Cassidy takes the reader on a fascinating journey to find out how capitalism has transformed the world. He brings to life well- and lesser-known voices who debate how the system works. The urgency to make it work better for those outside the top 1 percent is palpable

Wendy Carlin, professor of economics, University College London and CORE Econ

It’s about time we had a history of capitalism told through the eyes of its critics. For too long the predominant global system for safeguarding the power of the few against the needs of the many has been thought of like the weather: inevitable and eternal, something that cannot be changed, that can only be borne or enjoyed, depending on the day. Cassidy is more storyteller than bomb thrower, and one can only hope this gets the mainstream attention it deserves

Literary Hub

Capitalism and Its Critics is everything we’ve come to expect from John Cassidy. He weaves an engaging and trenchant discussion of key critics of capitalism over its more than two hundred years into a history of capitalism itself. The battle is not only about economic ideas, but also about the VERY nature of our society. Especially now, when some see the failures of capitalism as more than a little responsible for the Trumpian oligarchy while others see its successes as ushering in a new era of AI-led prosperity, this is an illuminating and essential read

Joseph Stiglitz, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences and author of <i>The Road to Freedom</i>

Cassidy's range is impressive ... [he] makes the history of capitalism digestible by weaving together, in each chapter, the biography of each of his subjects with their key critique of capitalism, thus humanising otherwise dry debates about economic theory

Yuan Yi Zhu, The Times

A marvellously lucid overview of capitalism’s critics, written in good old-fashioned expository prose

Pratinav Anil, Guardian

An intriguing account of how some of the most consequential ideas in economics developed, and how they forged the modern world…Several enjoyable evenings might be spent with Netflix off and Mr Cassidy’s new book open

Economist

[A] magisterial new study . . . Is the primary problem with free markets moral, economic or both? Is technology intrinsically bad, or can it be harnessed for progressive ends? Do markets rely on imperialistic expansion, or can domestic consumers sustain them? Is capitalism destined to tear itself apart, or can it weather the downturns it invariably induces? . . . Cassidy does not answer these questions, but his rewarding book provides an impressively lucid guide to a fascinating array of attempts to do so

Becca Rothfeld, Washington Post