A Financial Times Most Anticipated Book of 2025 A Publishers Weekly Top 10 Book of 2025 A sweeping, dramatic history of capitalism as seen through the eyes of its fiercest critics. Capitalism has long been understood as a driving force behind the biggest political, economic, and social dislocations of our time. But in this sweeping, kaleidoscopic history of the economic system that has shaped our world, the Pulitzer Prize finalist John Cassidy adopts a bold new approach: he examines global capitalism through the eyes of its critics. From the English Luddites, who rebelled against early factory automation, to communists in Germany and Russia in the early twentieth century, Latin American dependistas, the international Wages for Housework campaign of the 1970s, and the modern degrowth movement, this absorbing narrative traverses the globe. It visits with familiar names―Smith, Carlyle, Marx, Luxemburg, Keynes, Polanyi―but also focuses on many lesser-known figures, including William Thompson, the Irish proto-socialist whose work influenced Marx; Flora Tristan, the French proponent of a universal labor union; John Hobson, the original theorist of imperialism; J.C. Kumarappa, the Indian exponent of Gandhian economics; Eric Williams, the Trinidadian author of a famous thesis on slavery and capitalism; and Joan Robinson, the Cambridge economist and critic of the Cold War. Blending rich biography, panoramic history, and lively exploration of economic theories, Capitalism and Its Critics tells an expansive story that illuminates the deep roots of many of the most urgent issues we face today, from widening inequality and the ecological crisis to technological transformation and resurgent authoritarian politics. “[A] magisterial new study . . . Is the primary problem with free markets moral, economic or both? Is technology intrinsically bad, or can it be harnessed for progressive ends? Do markets rely on imperialistic expansion, or can domestic consumers sustain them? Is capitalism destined to tear itself apart, or can it weather the downturns it invariably induces? . . . Cassidy does not answer these questions, but his rewarding book provides an impressively lucid guide to a fascinating array of attempts to do so.” ―Becca Rothfeld, The Washington Post “An expansive history of capitalism that places less emphasis on economic abstractions like perfectly competitive markets and draws attention instead to how often capitalist systems have fallen short.” ―Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times “John Cassidy, a British-American staff writer at the New Yorker , is one of the world’s leading economic journalists . . . [ Capitalism and Its Critics is] fascinating . . . Cassidy tells the stories of some of capitalism’s most interesting and influential critics since the eighteenth century. This turns out also to be an illuminating way to tell the story of capitalism itself, the juggernaut that has continually reshaped our world . . . Well-told and well-researched stories.” ―Martin Wolf, Financial Times “[Cassidy] does a masterful job of tracing the history of critiques of capitalism and of attempts to come up with a workable alternative to it, but also illuminates the evolution of the system itself, showcasing its remarkable knack for reinventing itself and adapting to historical circumstances in order to survive―something it may be in the process of doing again right now.” ―James Surowiecki, The Yale Review “[Cassidy is] one of the very best economic journalists we have today . . . You will indeed find on every page something that makes you glad to have read the page, and enough narrative momentum to make you eager to turn to the next.” ―J. Bradford Delong, Democracy “[A] marvellously lucid overview of capitalism’s naysayers . . . by far the best primer I have read on the luminaries of the economic left.” ―Pratinav Anil, The Guardian “One of the joys of Capitalism and Its Critics , John Cassidy’s unexpectedly lively romp through the two-and-a-half-century history of capitalism, is its fine sense for dramatic reversals . . . The intelligent beach read of the summer . . . Over twenty-eight punchy, rigorous yet engagingly peopled chapters, Cassidy not only explains the economic theories of Marx, Adam Smith, David Ricardo and Milton Friedman . . . but introduces us to a fabulous cast of lesser-known characters.” ―Stuart Jeffries, The Telegraph “To normal people, economic theory is soul-crushing at the best of times. But Cassidy makes it all digestible by weaving together, in each chapter, the biography of each of his subjects with their key critique of capitalism, thus humanising otherwise dry debates about economic theory . . . Cassidy’s range is impressive . . . He has produced a book that will stimulate much brooding among capitalism’s defenders and critics.” ― Yuan Yi Zhu, The Times (London) “An intriguing account of how some of the most consequential ideas in economics devel