Understanding Capitalism: Critical Analysis from Karl Marx to Amartya Sen

by Douglas Dowd

Understanding Capitalism combines the essays of seven leading economists, including Robin Hahnel and John Bellamy Foster, in a critical assessment of the relationship between economic thought and the dominance of capitalism. With analyses of economists ranging from Karl Marx to Amartya Sen, the book traces the growth of the capitalist system over the past two hundred years and how economic theory has, in fact, become capitalist ideology. Relating socio-economic and analytical histories to present-day economic policy, this is a thoroughly accessible work which makes an ideal introduction to the key thinkers in economic thought past and present.Major economists and economic schools of thought are discussed in a chapter-by-chapter guide that covers Marx, Veblen, Gramsci, post-Keynesian theory, US institutionalists, Sweezy and the Monopoly Capital school, and recent Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen. Contributors include Michael Lebowitz, Carl Boggs, Michael Keaney, Frederic Lee, John Bellamy Foster and Robin Hahnel, with an introduction by the editor, Douglas Dowd.

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Douglas Dowd is a political economist, economic historian and political activist. He has taught at UC Berkley, Cornell, and the University of Modena, near his home in Bologna, Italy.

Reviews

[Andrew Harrison · Rating 2 out of 5]

I happened to find this book on the side of the road in San Francisco, and after reading it I couldn't help but feel that it was abandoned with good reason.

First off, Understanding Capitalism certainly isn't a book about "understanding capitalism" - it's a book containing seven essays about select heterodox economists including Karl Marx, Amartya Sen, Thorstein Veblen, and Antonio Gramsci. This book reads like a Wikipedia article, and you would probably be better off skimming the web if you're interested in the ideas heterodox economics has to offer. Each essay is only about twenty pages long, which really doesn't allow for enough space to explore more than one or two major insights for each thinker. Steeped in bias, Understanding Capitalism is a one-sided exploration into the negative aspects of the international capitalist system, constantly going out of its way to undermine any positive merits of the invisible hand of the marketplace.

That all being said, this book DOES provide a decent introduction to a few of the more radical thinkers in the economics sphere. As a recent graduate with an economics degree, my academic coursework completely avoided allusions to any form of Marxist thought. It was a bit of an eye-opener to realize that there are entirely different ways of interpreting ideas I had understood to be lynchpins of Capitalism - framing principles like Ricardian international trade as exploitative American Imperialism opens up a whole new (and very negative) avenue of thought which I had previously never spent much time considering. The overall argument of this book is that traditional economic theory leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to aggregate social good, and our current reliance on abstract modelling is not necessarily the best way to proceed if we wish to reach a fully optimized economy.

I'm still glad I read this book - I think it is very important to understand the alternatives to mainstream thought, especially in an area as contested as economic theory - but I'm sure there are better resources out there to learn about these concepts. If you just want to understand the mainstream principles of economics in general, I recommend starting with a Microeconomics overview textbook or even exploring free online classes through a platform like Kahn Academy or Coursera.

An understanding of Economics is critical if you want to understand how our society functions at a base level, and I urge everyone to dig as deep as they can into the subject. Just don't start with this book!