Description
Book SynopsisReconstructs the intellectual climate of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to illuminate the intricate ideological transformation that occurred, wherein the pursuit of material interests - so long condemned as the deadly sin of avarice - was assigned the role of containing the unruly and destructive passions of man.
Trade Review"Hirschman's volume stands as a principal contribution to the growing literature that is beginning to reshape our understanding of the legitimating beliefs undergirding the rise of the modern market economy."--Robert Wuthnow, American Journal of Sociology "A fresh and exciting argument of a fascinating thesis."--Nannerl O. Keohane, Journal of Interdisciplinary History
Table of ContentsForeword, by Amartya Sen ix Preface to the Twentieth Anniversary Edition xxi Acknowledgments xxv Introduction 3 PART ONE. How the Interests were Called Upon to Counteract the Passions 7 The Idea of Glory and Its Downfall 9 Man "as he really is" 12 Repressing and Harnessing the Passions 14 The Principle of the Countervailing Passion 20 "Interest" and "Interests" as Tamers of the Passions 31 Interest as a New Paradigm 42; Assets of an Interest-Governed World: Predictability and Constancy 48 Money-Making and Commerce as Innocent and Doux 56 Money-Making as a Calm Passion 63 PART TWO. How Economic Expansion was Expected to Improve the Political Order 67 Elements of a Doctrine 70 1. Montesquieu 70 2. Sir James Steuart 81 3. John Millar 87 Related yet Discordant Views 93 1. The Physiocrats 96 2. Adam Smith and the End of a Vision 100 PART THREE. Reflections on an Episode in Intellectual History 115 Where the Montesquieu-Steuart Vision Went Wrong 117 The Promise of an Interest-Governed World versus the Protestant Ethic 128 Contemporary Notes 132 Afterword by Jeremy Adelman 137 Notes 145 Index 155
