Capitalism: Should You Buy it?: An Invitation to Political Economy - Softcover

Derber, Charles

Softcover

ISBN 10: 161205689X ISBN 13: 9781612056890

Publisher: Routledge, 2014

Synopsis

Before there was economics, there was political economy, an interdisciplinary adventure boldly and critically seeking to understand capitalism. Over time, the social sciences evolved into specific disciplines - economics, sociology, political science - that less often questioned capitalist perspectives and the state. Contrasting three traditions - neoclassicism, Keynesianism, and neo-Marxism - Capitalism: Should You Buy It? traces the historical development of each and evaluates whether they view capitalism as the root cause of or the solution to the pressing problems now facing humanity. This accessible and hopeful book is a call to everyone - citizen, student, public intellectual - to revive the critical edge towards capitalism.

About this title

About the Author:

Charles Derber, Professor of Sociology at Boston College, has written twenty books,including bestsellers with multiple translations and editions. He has also written opinion pieces for the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Christian Science Monitor, Newsday, and other newspapers and magazines. His most recent book is Capitalism: Should You Buy It? An Invitation to Political Economy (Paradigm 2014).

Yale R. Magrass is a Chancellor Professor of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts–Dartmouth, where he teaches social theory, political sociology, and the social impact of science and technology. He is the author of three other books and more than thirty articles, including encyclopedia entries, served on the board of six journals, has been a recipient of several grants, and participated in numerous international forums.

Review:

Derber and Magrass have produced a very worthwhile book that encourages readers to ask if capitalism promotes the well-being of people...The result of the author s efforts is informative, suggested by the detailed reference notes at the end of the work, and engaging by virtue of a well-constructed narrative that avoids distracting jargon. The book is also entertaining, due to a very lively, clear writing style...Teachers responsible for courses that cover the evolution of political economic policy and its effects will certainly benefit from this book, as well as students, who are exposed to timely issues such as inequality, globalization, and climate change, framed by a political discussion of economics in social context. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above.
--CHOICE

Capitalism: Should You Buy It does for political economy and the promise of democracy what C. Wright Mills did long ago in creating a new discourse for sociology and the potential for engaged citizenship. Not only do Derber and Magrass brilliantly lay out a case for a new understanding of political economy, they reaffirm through the critical lens of history, social science, and everyday life why social relations based on democratic values and principles matter in a democracy. But they do more. They also show how such values and principles can be used to preserve the most dignified, just, and principled elements of the human community. This is a book that not only raises the bar in pointing to what is wrong with contemporary society, it is also filled with stirring arguments and discourse of hope, imagination, and the call for informed organized struggle. This is a book that gives new meaning to the sociological imagination. ---Henry A. Giroux, McMaster University

Charles Derber and Yale Magrass have done an excellent job in making the case to social scientists that there is a strong need to develop a new political economy for this shocking new era, and just as importantly they have done so in a way that is entirely accessible to the many students who may feel the need for such a new perspective based on their own experience growing up in these very different times. --G. William Domhoff, Distinguished Professor Emeritus and Research Professor, Department of Sociology, University of California, Santa Cruz

An absolute imperative book for every student or citizen to read. Derber and Magrass take the seemingly most complex issues and frameworks and masterfully make them accessible and interesting. Brilliantly and lucidly, they illustrate how important it is for sociologists to be engaged in discussions of political economy on a range of issues such as domestic poverty, globalization, race, gender, and sustainability. Capitalism: Should You Buy It? is the best introductory political economy book on the market, and should be required reading for every sociology, political science, business and economics student.
Jonathan White

Capitalism: Should You Buy It?no matter how you answer the question, you should go out and buy this book...The authors are clear, fair and comprehensive in their analysis. This book can be appreciated by both the lay reader and the professional economist. --Global Dialogue Review

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 161205689X
• ISBN 13: 9781612056890
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 316