Capitalism, which was once received as so liberating—from venal tyrants and greedy aristocrats—was now so disappointing, its features the purview of the dismal science. How did this happen? In the course of his arguments, Hirschman found himself trying to figure out how capitalism was initially understood before its triumph in order to present alternative perspectives after its triumph; if he could reveal its prospectus, he could thereby shed light on why it was seen to fall short. Deriving this kind of “theory,” what we might now call recovering a memory of capitalism, might thwart the
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