The Invention of Capitalism - 9780822324546

The Invention of CapitalismClassical Political Economy and the Secret History of Primitive Accumulation\nAuthor(s): Michael Perelman\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: Duke University Press, United States\nImprint: Duke University Press\nISBN-13: 9780822324546, 978-0822324546\nSynopsis\nThe originators of classical political economy-Adam Smith, David Ricardo, James Steuart, and others-created a discourse that explained the logic, the origin, and, in many respects, the essential rightness of capitalism. But, in the great texts of that discourse, these writers downplayed a crucial requirement for capitalisms creation: For it to succeed, peasants would have to abandon their self-sufficient lifestyle and go to work for wages in a factory. Why would they willingly do this?\nClearly, they did not go willingly. As Michael Perelman shows, they were forced into the factories with the active support of the same economists who were making theoretical claims for capitalism as a self-correcting mechan.