Best Books on Capitalism

The Age of Surveillance Capitalism is a groundbreaking examination of the power of digital technologies and the threat they pose to humanity. Shoshana Zuboff provides insights into the unprecedented form of power called "surveillance capitalism" and the quest by powerful corporations to predict and control our behavior. Through vivid examples, Zuboff illustrates how this threat has shifted from a totalitarian Big Brother state to a ubiquitous digital architecture. This book is a wake-up call, urging us to take action to safeguard our democracy, freedom, and human future.

This groundbreaking book takes a deep dive into economic history, analyzing the rising inequality of the past two centuries. Winner of multiple book awards and hailed by critics as an intellectual tour de force, it aims to revolutionize the way we think about wealth and its distribution. With sweeping insight and thorough research, the author presents an important study of inequality that cannot be ignored.

This book delves into the concept of moral sentiments and the idea that true happiness comes from virtuous actions, rather than material possessions. It challenges the idea that wealth and status are essential for happiness, arguing that a clear conscience and good health are the only true necessities.

This classic of economics explores the origins of national wealth, covering topics from the division of labor to free markets. Written in the midst of the Industrial Revolution, this book provides timeless insight into the building blocks of economic prosperity.

This book explores the transformation of material interests from a deadly sin to a means of controlling destructive passions. Hirschman offers a new interpretation of the rise of capitalism and demonstrates the continuities between old and new. The book draws on the writings of many thinkers to show that capitalism was originally meant to repress passions in favor of harmless commercial interests. Including a new afterword and foreword, this book sheds light on the ideological transformation that made capitalism victorious.

"Faut Lines" by Raghuram Rajan is a thought-provoking analysis of the global financial crisis. Rajan argues that while greedy bankers may have played a role, serious flaws in the economy are also to blame. He warns that a potentially more devastating crisis awaits us if these flaws aren't fixed. Rajan shows how individual choices made by bankers, government officials, and ordinary homeowners were rational responses to a flawed global financial system. This system is overly dependent on the indebted American consumer to power global economic growth and stave off global downturns. Rajan outlines the hard choices we need to make to ensure a more stable world economy and restore lasting prosperity.

This paradigm-shifting work reveals the real culprit behind the growing income inequality in America - winner-take-all politics. Discover how the rich have managed to restructure the economy to benefit themselves, while tearing new holes in the safety net and saddling the middle class with increased debt and risk. Political scientists Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson provide an entertaining and lively tour of the evidence against the culprit, tracing the rise of the winner-take-all economy back to the late 1970s. With gripping narration of the epic battles waged during President Obama's first two years in office, this book points the way to rebuilding a democracy that serves the interests of the many rather than just those of the wealthy few.

This award-winning book is a gripping history of one of America's most powerful banking dynasties. From their beginnings in Victorian London to the crash of 1987, The House of Morgan traces four generations of Morgans and the secretive firms they spawned, revealing the rarefied world of the American and British elite in which they moved. The author's extensive research and access to family and business archives make this book an essential read for anyone interested in understanding the money and power behind major historical events of the past 150 years.