Adolpho Lindenberg describes the present state of affairs between the advocates of the free market and the opponents of the free market. In an era after the collapse of the Iron curtain, when the failures of state controlled economies throughout the world should be clear to all, one would expect that common sense would compel even the most widely divergent ideological temperaments to accept the undeniable superiority of social systems based on some sort of free enterprise. Such is not the case. On the contrary, a veritable "march into the past is taking place. It is characterized by renewed socialist dominance in western Europe and, in the Third World, "progressivist" political combinations, including Catholic leftists, well represented among the clergy, clamoring unceasingly for the exercise of the "social option". Lindenberg asks whence comes this massive denial of logic and experience. He provides the answer by illustrating how ideological predispositions take shape in the human soul, not by rational deduction and argument, but rather by a formation of particular feelings, sensibilities, and subjective attitudes, giving rise to well-defined mentalities. From this premise Lindenberg analyses these various ideological mentalities which dominate the contemporary debate over the proper political and economic organization of society. In his survey of the socialist, fascist, neocapitalist, "new age" and other mentalities, he provides not only insights into their respective traditions and psychological underpinnings but also critiques them from the stand-point of traditional Catholic teaching. Lindenberg establishes that the free market is not only permissible to a true Christian social order, but also indispensable to it. Finally, he demonstrates, drawing heavily on social history and Catholic doctrine, how the advent of capitalism in previous eras took place in such a way and under such influences that it stripped away many of the patterns of thought and behavior which are natural and necessary to and organic, virtuous society and offers recommendations on the psychological and cultural directions to be followed to restore a normal, wholesome and Christian social order. Born in 1924 in So Paulo, Brazil, Adolpho Lindenberg received his degree in civil engineering from the Mackenzie University in that city in 1949. After working as an engineer for three years, in 1953 he founded his own firm which has established a reputation as one of the preeminent construction companies in Brazil over the last five decades and is particularly renowned for re-introducing the colonial style into modern architectural design. Lindenberg embarked on his vocation as a Catholic intellectual under the mentorship of his cousin, Professor Plinio Corra de Oliveira. In pursuit of that calling he has written extensively for Catholic publications, co-founded the monthly journal Catolicismo, and taught a course in Comparative Economic Systems at the Pontifical Catholic University of So Paulo for four years. He also organized a group of businessmen to fund the translation and distribution of books and articles favorable to the free market, thereby familiarizing the Brazilian public with the works of Friedrich von Hayek, Ludwig von Mises, and Milton Friedman Used Book in Good Condition