Overview

A History of Capitalist Transformation: A Critique of Liberal-Capitalist Reforms highlights how, since the recent financial crises, the expression ‘liberal reform’ has entered common parlance as an evocative image of austerity and economic malaise, especially for the working classes and a segment of the middle class. But what exactly does ‘liberal reform’ refer to? The research analyzes the historical origins of liberal-capitalist reformism using a critical approach, starting with the origins of the Industrial Revolution. The book demonstrates that the chief purpose of such reforms was to integrate semi-peripheral states into the capitalist world-economy by imposing, both directly and indirectly, the adoption of rules, institutions, attitudes, and procedures amenable to economic and political interests of capitalist élites and hegemonic states – Britain first, the United States later – between the nineteenth and twenty-first centuries. As such, the reforms became an active tool used to promote social-economical-financial institutions, norms, and lifestyles typical of a liberal-capitalist economic order which locates some of its founding values in capital accumulation, profit-seeking, and social transformation. This book will be of significant interest to readers on capitalism, political economy, the history of the global economy, and British history.

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9781032579634

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Reviews

"“An original take on the ancient question of reformism, distinguishing reforms in advanced capitalist societies and reforms in those countries, usually semi-peripheral, that needs/want to ‘catch-up’. The advanced societies can impose global rules, often through the financial system, while the semi peripheral must fight back or adapt. The author provides a truly global perspective (the Ottoman Empire, Egypt, China). The whole book is enlivened by quotes and erudite references. A must read!” Donald Sassoon, Queen Mary University of London. Author of The Anxious Triumph: A Global History of Capitalism, 1860-1914. ____________________ ""A fascinating account of state debt as a mechanism in international relations forcing liberal reforms on the capitalist periphery, doing away with ways of social life in conflict with the requirements of modern capital formation. Contains striking historical material from countries like Egypt and China during Polanyi’s Long Nineteenth Century."" Wolfgang Streeck, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne. Author of Buying Time: The Delayed Crisis of Democratic Capitalism. _____________________ ""Liberal reformism is today an empty shell including multiple meanings and yet governing the world. Conte traces the intellectual, political and economic roots and trajectories of this apparent paradox showing the historical interconnections between the capitalist core and quasi peripheries such as China and the Ottoman empire. A must-reading."" Alessandro Stanziani, EHESS and CNRS, Paris. Author of Tensions of Social History."

Author Information

Giampaolo Conte is Assistant Professor in Economic History at University of Roma Tre, Italy.

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