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Title: Mediocre at best
Review: I read the recently released second edition in hopes of finding a good general history of capitalism. Regrettably I didn't find it here. Frankly this text fails to rise to the level of a general textbook. For example, the author somehow manages to sum up the English enclosure acts, Cromwellian revolution, 1688 and the French Revolution in around five pages with a brief stopover into French absolutism in the mix!There is little in the way of recent scholarship here. I also get the feeling that the translation leaves something to be desired.The author sums it up best himself in the preface to the second editon. Looking back at his authorship he writes, "I was forty-three. I was not worried about the scientific authority-figures of my discipline, nor the reactions of my colleagues, nor my own abilities... now, twenty or more years later, I am no longer sure I would take it on again."A much better choice is The Origin of Capitalism: A Longer View by Ellen Meiksins Wood (Verso Press).
