A Battle of Ideas in the Modern World

Capitalism and Its Critics

John Cassidy is a staff writer at The New Yorker and the author of Dot.con: The Greatest Story Ever Sold and How Markets Fail, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Nonfiction.

At a time when we are faced with fundamental questions about the sustainability and morality of the economic system, Capitalism and Its Critics provides a kaleidoscopic history of global capitalism, from colonialism and the Industrial Revolution to the ecological crisis and artificial intelligence. 
 
John Cassidy adopts a bold new approach: he tells the story through the eyes of the system’s critics. From eighteenth-century weavers who rebelled against early factory automation to Eric Williams's paradigm-changing work on slavery and capitalism, to the Latin American dependistas, the international Wages for Housework campaign of the 1970s, and the modern degrowth movement, this absorbing narrative traverses the globe. It looks at familiar figures – Smith, Marx, Luxemburg, Keynes, Polanyi – from a fresh perspective, but also focuses on many less familiar, including William Thompson, the Irish proto-socialist whose work influenced Marx; Flora Tristan, the French proponent of a universal labour union; John Hobson, the original theorist of imperialism; and J. C. Kumarappa, the Indian exponent of Gandhian economics. 
 
Blending biography, panoramic history, and lively exploration of economic theories, Capitalism and Its Critics illuminates the deep roots of many of the most urgent issues of our time.

Cassidy John

John Cassidy

How Markets Fail offers a brilliant intellectual framework . . . fine work

An essential, grittily intellectual, yet compelling guide to the financial debacle of 2009

A powerful argument . . . Cassidy makes a compelling case that a return to hands-off economics would be a disaster

This book is a well constructed, thoughtful and cogent account of how capitalism evolved to its current form

Telegraph Books of the Year recommendation

John Cassidy ... describe[s] that mix of insight and madness that brought the world's system to its knees

Anyone who enjoys a good read can safely embark on this tour with Cassidy as their guide . . . Like his colleague Malcolm Gladwell [at the New Yorker], Cassidy is able to lead us with beguiling lucidity through unfamiliar territory

The Logic of Economic Calamities

How did we get to where we are? John Cassidy shows that the roots of our most recent financial failure lie not with individuals, but with an idea - the idea that markets are inherently rational. He gives us the big picture behind the financial headlines, tracing the rise and fall of free market ideology from Adam Smith to Milton Friedman and Alan Greenspan. Full of wit, sense and, above all, a deeper understanding, How Markets Fail argues for the end of 'utopian' economics, and the beginning of a pragmatic, reality-based way of thinking.

John Cassidy

Praise for How Markets Fail

A very good history of economic thought

How Markets Fail offers a brilliant intellectual framework . . . fine work

An essential, grittily intellectual, yet compelling guide to the financial debacle of 2009

A very good history of economic thought

How Markets Fail offers a brilliant intellectual framework . . . fine work

An essential, grittily intellectual, yet compelling guide to the financial debacle of 2009

A very good history of economic thought

How Markets Fail offers a brilliant intellectual framework . . . fine work

An essential, grittily intellectual, yet compelling guide to the financial debacle of 2009

Books by John Cassidy

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter