Content area
Full Text
The Triumph of Capitalism, by Robert A. Degen. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2008. 204pp. $39.95 cloth. ISBN: 9781412806893.
In The Triumph of Capitalism, economist Robert A. Degen announces that, "the pur- pose of this book is to contribute to an under- standing of the historic role of capitalism, particularly during the past century, taking into account political and social circum- stances" (p.xi). Degen is motivated by the fear that the current triumph of capitalism might breed conformity to an idealized model that ignores central problems with a free market system. Indeed, at the very end of the book he claims that "unrestrained cap- italism is not viable" (p.197). Given the cur- rent failure of capitalism, a book that located the recent global economic crisis in the history of capitalist development in order to offer possible remedies, seemed most appropriate. Unfortunately, Degen's analysis was not up to the task.
In the first chapter, "The Gestation and Birth of the Capitalist System," Degen takes the reader back to primitive gift-giving and exchange to demonstrate that key facets of capitalism such as markets, money, and exchange, have existed for millennia and were just waiting to "evolve" or "flower" into a mature capitalist system. The first sentence of the chapter...