Join us for this lecture at which John Cassidy will speak about his new book, Capitalism and Its Critics: A Battle of Ideas in the Modern World.

At a time when we are faced with fundamental questions about the sustainability of the economic system, Capitalism and Its Critics provides a kaleidoscopic history of the now dominant system of global capitalism, from colonialism and the Industrial Revolution to the ecological crisis and artificial intelligence. Cassidy will tell the story through the eyes of the system’s critics. From eighteenth-century weavers who rebelled against early factory automation to Eric Williams's paradigm-changing work on slavery and capitalism, to the Latin American dependistas, the international Wages for Housework campaign of the 1970s, and the modern degrowth movement. He looks at familiar figures – Smith, Marx, Luxemburg, Keynes, Polanyi – from a fresh perspective, but also focuses on many less-familiar, including William Thompson, the Irish proto-socialist whose work influenced Marx; Flora Tristan, the French proponent of a universal labour union; John Hobson, the original theorist of imperialism; and J. C. Kumarappa, the Indian exponent of Gandhian economics.

Meet our speaker and chair

John Cassidy (@JohnCassidy) is a staff writer at The New Yorker and the author of Dot.con: The Greatest Story Ever Sold and How Markets Fail, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Nonfiction.

Nava Ashraf (@profnavaashraf) is Professor of Economics at LSE. She is also Co-Director of the Psychology and Economics program at STICERD, and Founder and Director of the Altruistic Capital Lab in the Department of Economics.

More about this event

Join us on campus or register to watch the event online at LSE Live. LSE Live is the home for our live streams, allowing you to tune in and join the global debate at LSE, wherever you are in the world. If you can't attend live, a video will be made available shortly afterwards on LSE's YouTube channel.

The Programme on Cohesive Capitalism is a major multi-disciplinary initiative to investigate new politico-economic paradigms, institutions and policies that could serve the common interest. Led by Professor Tim Besley, and housed in STICERD and the Department of Economics, it will bring together world-class thinkers in political philosophy and the social sciences to address some of the fundamental questions about the kind of world that we want to create and what is needed to bring it about.

Hashtag for this event: #LSEEvents

Join our mailing list

Sign up to receive email updates from LSE Events including the latest news and event announcements.