Markets in Historical Contexts
Ideas and Politics in the Modern World

Markets in Historical Contexts is the result of a dialogue between historians and social scientists thinking about markets in modern society. How should we approach markets after the collapse of Marxism? What alternative ways of thinking about markets can we recover from the past? The essays in this volume set out to challenge essentialist accounts of the market. Instead they suggest that markets are always embedded in distinctive traditions and practices that shape the ways in which they are conceived and the manner of their working. The essays range widely over European and non-European societies from the eighteenth century to the present, from the great transformation to globalization. Rational peasants, republican economists, popular conservatives, guild theorists, early environmentalists, communitarians, progressives, consumers, Gandhi's descendants and others are all revived. The volume thus recovers alternative ways of thinking about markets, many of which are neglected or marginalized in contemporary debates.

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'An important contribution to the literature of the new political economy, this collection of essays speaks directly to the current debate about globalisation … this collection of diverse yet commonly themed essays will be most useful to scholars and graduate students, but its ideas are important and should trickle down.' Business History

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Product details

• Date Published: November 2007
• format: Paperback
• isbn: 9780521044516
• length: 268 pages

• dimensions: 228 x 152 x 17 mm
• weight: 0.399kg
• contains: 4 tables
• availability: Available