Capitalism: Opposing Viewpoints

by Bruno Leone (Editor)

An anthology tracing the key elements of capitalistic theory and practice from Karl Marx to the present. Also includes opposing views on the relationship of capitalism and labor, the strengths and weaknesses of capitalism, its impact on the Third World, and its future.An anthology tracing the key elements of capitalistic theory and practice from Karl Marx to the present and also includes opposing views on the relationship of capitalism and labor, the strengths and weaknesses of capitalism, its impact on the Third World, and its future

Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Bruno Leone earned undergraduate and
graduate degrees in history from Arizona
State University and the University of
Minnesota, respectively. He was a lecturer
at the University of Minnesota and
assistant professor of history at St. Francis
University, Joliet, Illinois. Recipient of a
Woodrow Wilson Graduate Fellowship,
a National Endowment for the Humanities
Fellowship and two National Science
Foundation Grants, he has authored
numerous books, articles, and anthologies
including, Origin: The Story of Charles
Darwin (2009) and Disease in History
(2016). He is currently adjunct professor
of humanities at California State University,
San Marcos where he lectures for the
Osher Foundation.

Reviews

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was published in 1978 and presents arguments both for and against capitalism. The first is by Adam Smith and basically sets down the basic arguments in favor of capitalism. Smith’s arguments were first made in the eighteenth century and are still cited largely in their original form by economists that favor pure capitalism.
The essay by Smith is followed by one by Karl Marx and is from “The Manifesto of the Communist Party,” and summarizes Marx’s basic arguments against capitalism. The remaining essays make more modern arguments for and against capitalism. The last essay is by Sam Love and was written in 1977. In that essay Love argues that capitalism is afflicted by “the terminal illness of bigness.” In other words, his essay puts forward the modern argument that some companies are “too big to fail.” In modern terms if those companies are facing bankruptcy, then the federal government will have no choice but to intervene to prop them up.
As the financial meltdown of 2008 demonstrated, capitalism suffers from some fundamental weaknesses. Even with hundreds of billions of quick spending by the American federal government, the United States experienced the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression. The authors that took the con position on capitalism in this book showed some predictive ability regarding the weaknesses of the capitalist economic system. Free markets can fail and as we have seen, sometimes quite spectacularly.

[Vik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short and crisp introduction to capitalism.