Spirit of Capitalism

The Spirit of Capitalism answers a fundamental question of economics, a question neither economists nor economic historians have been able to answer: what are the reasons (rather than just the conditions) for sustained economic growth? Taking her title from Max Weber's famous study on the same subject, Liah Greenfeld focuses on the problem of motivation behind the epochal change in behavior, which from the sixteenth century on has reoriented one economy after another from subsistence to profit, transforming the nature of economic activity. A detailed analysis of the development of economic consciousness in England, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Japan, and the United States allows her to argue that the motivation, or "spirit," behind the modern, growth-oriented economy was not the liberation of the "rational economic actor," but rather nationalism. Nationalism committed masses of people to an endless race for national prestige and thus brought into being the phenomenon of economic competitiveness. Nowhere has economic activity been further removed from the rational calculation of costs than in the United States, where the economy has come to be perceived as the end-all of political life and the determinant of all social progress. American "economic civilization" spurs the nation on to ever-greater economic achievement. But it turns Americans into workaholics, unsure of the purpose of their pursuits, and leads American statesmen to exaggerate the weight of economic concerns in foreign policy, often to the detriment of American political influence and the confusion of the rest of the world.

Liah Greenfeld is unashamedly a bold sociological thinker, in search of the big questions and the big answers. The big question here is to explain our modern "economic civilization"--the transformation of our life worldwide. Most writiers have dealt with the "how"--the conditions of its emergence, take-off, and sustained growth. Greenfeld attempts the "why." Though called "the spirit of capitalism," in deference to Max Weber, she goes beyond Weber in arguing that nationalism, as a form of collective consciousness, is the cause of this great historical change, a bold and long foray. Those who feel that the social sciences should confront the big questions should not ignore this book., The Spirit of Capitalism offers an important thesis which it defends with rigor and passion. It links nationalism to the market society in complex ways. Liah Greenfeld's challenging, historically buttressed argument is bound to attract a wide and attentive audience., Greenfeld offers a riveting follow-up to Nationalism: Five Roads to Modernity. Here she seeks to answer three questions: what caused the emergence of the modern economy, what made the economic sphere so dominant; and what are the reasons for sustained economic growth? Her fundamental proposition is that nationalism is responsible for the reorientation of economic activity toward growth. She strengthens her argument by focusing on the periods of emergence of the modern economy in England, France, Germany, Japan, and the United States. In addition, she adeptly addresses the concerns of critics of her previous work by including an in-depth look at Japanese nationalism and the roles that economics and diplomacy have played in fostering nationalism in her five primary subjects plus the Netherlands and Russia. Although her approach is unorthodox, the quality of her research and the richness of her arguments should be challenging to the various economists, historians, philosophers, and other social scientists who often need to be stimulated by the writing of those outside their disciplines. Highly recommended for both academic and public libraries., [An] important new book...Liah Greenfeld argues that patriotism, or nationalism, may have a lot more to do with economic motivation than you think. Most of us have come to accept the economist's view of humanity: On the whole, we are rational actors; we are naturally acquisitive; when political or social barriers are removed, most of us will go off on a determined quest to make money and achieve ever greater success. [Greenfeld] notes that [the] desire to make more and more money is a recent and localized phenomenon. For most people at most times and in most places, economic growth was not a central or even an important goal., The Spirit of Capitalism is an immensely refreshing book...[It] deserves to bring about a paradigm shift in the understanding of economic growth.

Liah Greenfeld is University Professor and Professor of Political Science, Sociology, and Anthropology at Boston University.