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The cultural foundations of capitalism
Sahil, a loyal MR reader, asks:
I read your blog post about Roger Scruton's new book, which you praised for giving a "good sense of just how much cultural background is needed to sustain liberty." That's an interesting notion. Do you have recommendation for books that examine this very idea in a more systematic way? I'm sure they're out there, and I'd be interested to read them.
I'll offer a few suggestions: all of Max Weber, the books by Lawrence Harrison, Alan MacFarlane on English individualism, Jonathan Israel on the Dutch Republic, Joseph Conrad, Levi-Strauss's Triste Tropiques, Rene Girard on Christianity, anything good on English history, Hoskyns on Russian history, Albion's Seed, IQ and the Wealth of Nations, Gilbert Freyre on Brazil, de Tocqueville, Sarmiento on Argentina, Louis Hartz, and John Gunther on America. The book "The Influence of the African-American Tradition on the American Ideal of Liberty" remains to be written. Nor have I scratched the all-important and largely non-European notions of liberty from the Nordic regions, which fed into the English success.
Pro-commercial norms are not scarce, as is evident here in Zanzibar. But those norms get you only to a medieval standard of living; as Mancur Olson stressed, they do not on their own support the structures of large-scale capitalism. It is harder to convince people to place larger abstract ideas above immediate duties to friends, family, and clan, but that is indeed the central feature of the problem.
Comments are open, what do you all recommend?
Posted by Tyler Cowen on May 15, 2007 at 10:46 AM in History | Permalink
Comments
The final chapter of "1491" titled "The Great Law of Peace" suggests that American tradition comes not only from Europe but also from the Native American traditions.
Posted by: mae at May 15, 2007 11:05:33 AM
Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity, by Francis Fukuyama
The Moral Basis of a Backward Society, by Edward Banfield
Political Order in Changing Societies, by Samuel P. Huntington
Power and Prosperity, by Mancur Olson
Posted by: Chris at May 15, 2007 11:15:24 AM
"It is harder to convince people to place larger abstract ideas above immediate duties to friends, family, and clan, but that is indeed the central feature of the problem."
Um, Judaism? Christianity? Islam? Buddhism? Etc.?
Placing abstract ideals above immediate concerns of friends, family and clan doesn;t seem to be the missing piece of the puzzle. Seems abundant enough.
Posted by: sd at May 15, 2007 11:27:04 AM
Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation
Thomas Haskell, et. al., The Culture of the Market
Karl Marx, The German Ideology & The Communist Manifesto
Posted by: historygrad at May 15, 2007 11:44:34 AM
For various arguments pro and con the significance of cultural background to social modernization, especially in England:
Hume, _Essays, Moral, Political and Literary_
Hobsbawm, _Industry and Empire_
Poovey, _History of the Modern Fact_
Marx, the last three or so chapters of _Capital_
Montesquieu, _The Spirit of the Laws_
Posted by: rameau at May 15, 2007 11:46:06 AM
The introduction to this book is especially useful for you:
http://www.amazon.com/Culture-Market-Historical-Institute-Political/dp/0521564786/ref=sr_1_1/104-9376572-4227105?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1179243980&sr=1-1
Posted by: historygrad at May 15, 2007 11:50:10 AM
"IQ and the Wealth of Nations"
What's this I see you recommend? Have you ever posted about this book before? because it is one of the most mindboggling important books ever written.
Posted by: adrian at May 15, 2007 11:56:12 AM
"But those norms get you only to a medieval standard of living; as Mancur Olson stressed, they do not on their own support the structures of large-scale capitalism."
The avg IQ of the country, or the percentage of the country in the 'smart fraction' pretty much decides from there. It's a terribly unfair world, but such is life.
Posted by: adrian at May 15, 2007 12:00:43 PM
Amartya Sen has things to say about this in his "Development and Freedom".
Posted by: tom s. at May 15, 2007 12:18:14 PM
While this post reiterates your voracious reading habits and encyclopedic memory, it provides a not-very-helpful response to Sahil's question. Instead of rattling off a long and unorganized list of references, I think there are more useful ways to present the relevant information.
Categorizing or classifying the books would be very useful. Potential classification systems could include depth of economic discussion, spatial or historical distribution of examples, philosophical vs practical nature of the discussion, etc.
Also, I'm theorizing here, but I suspect that Sahil is most interested in knowing what two or three books you think best address the theme.
Please consider this comment as suggestion, not criticism.
Posted by: Earl at May 15, 2007 1:05:46 PM
I'm surprised nobody considers Inglehart relevant here, given that he has led the best effort to get an empirical handle on this question, and also reverses most of the common arguments about causality when it comes to the relation between culture and economics:
http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/statistics/some_findings.html
Posted by: Matt at May 15, 2007 1:27:26 PM
I am curious: how is it that you know Sahil is a 'loyal' reader? Have you been tracking his IP at all the times he has visited the Marginal Revolutions weblog? Are you being informed regularly of his nocturnal jaunts via his feedreader into the lairs of Alex Tabarrok's and Tyler Cowen's minds? Does Sahil share with you intimately his fawning adulation for this weblog and for all the ditties and one-liners about the marginalia of this world we inhabit?
Perhaps, he may have stumbled upon that particular post by happenstance -- he may have picked up his coffee, eyed a curious advertisement for the Revolution and its offerings on some other steady web-stream of opinions and finally may have decided it merited a click. Would that one-off occurrence make him a loyal reader?
Posted by: Disloyal reader at May 15, 2007 1:39:52 PM
Uh, author Hoskyns and subject Russia brings up nothing at Amazon. Can you clarify?
Posted by: Buce at May 15, 2007 2:00:49 PM
Geoffrey Hosking, Russia: People & Empire.
Posted by: adrian at May 15, 2007 2:12:21 PM
For a great Historical-fiction look at all Russian history definitely read Edward Rutherford's Russka. You'll learn more about ordinary Russians than in any 'real' history book, and it's fun!
Posted by: adrian at May 15, 2007 2:22:37 PM
A truly gorgeous book, I recommend it to Tyler as well, if he hasn't read it.
Posted by: adrian at May 15, 2007 2:26:01 PM
All of Isaiah Berlin's books, but most of all The Crooked Timber of Humanity (http://www.amazon.com/Crooked-Timber-Humanity-Isaiah-Berlin/dp/0712606165/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-7580710-3315145?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1179253511&sr=8-1) Still one of the most insightful writers out there on Russia and therefore liberty, and he's been dead 10 years ...
Posted by: Mari Kuraishi at May 15, 2007 2:30:07 PM
Don't forget Schumpeter's "Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy" - why capitalism is doomed (despite its ever greater economic successes) because of the way it undermines the pre-capitalist cultural foundations necessary for its own existence. (And also because of the way it spawns an ever-growing stratum of malevolent and malcontented anti-capitalist intellectuals).
Posted by: MNBR at May 15, 2007 3:50:58 PM
Adam Ferguson "An Essay on the History of Civil Society"
Posted by: dearieme at May 15, 2007 5:00:51 PM
How about Douglas North?
Posted by: JSK at May 15, 2007 7:22:27 PM
"non-European notions of liberty from the Nordic regions"
So scandinavia is not part of Europe now?
Posted by: doctorpat at May 15, 2007 8:40:27 PM
At the risk of self-promotion (but let he who is without sin, especially around here, etc), there's this paper -- unencumbered draft version here.
Posted by: Kieran at May 15, 2007 9:34:33 PM
The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America
The author makes the case that much of what we think of as the American character has its roots in Dutch history.
Posted by: Aron at May 15, 2007 9:35:47 PM
Interesting. No one has mentioned Barrington Moore's Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy, which is an excellent work.
Posted by: yves at May 16, 2007 3:14:13 AM
I argue that geography plays a critical role in the development of liberty, in my paper The History of Free Nations. Isabel Paterson provided the central thesis in this paper.
Posted by: Richard O. Hammer at May 16, 2007 8:52:55 AM
