The passions and the interests
Subtitle: political arguments for capitalism before its triumph
By: Albert O. Hirschman.
Edition: Twentieth anniversary ed.
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 1996
Place of publication: Princeton, NJ
Language: eng
Number of pages: 180
Subjects: Capitalism -- History; Intellectual life -- History
Description: In this volume, Albert Hirschman reconstructs 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.

Hirschman here offers a new interpretation for the rise of capitalism, one that emphasizes the continuities between old and new, in contrast to the assumption of a sharp break that is a common feature of both Marxian and Weberian thinking. To portray this lengthy ideological change as an endogenous process, Hirschman draws on the writings of a large number of thinkers, including Montesquieu, Sir James Steuart, and Adam Smith.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.