Average customer rating:
- Great theory, but not always an easy read
- Value edition for the budget minded
- A Very Standard Economic Postulate
- Don't buy the Dover edition of this book.
- great idea, little proof
|
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (Dover Value Editions)
Max Weber ,
Talcott Parsons , and
R.H. Tawney
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 History
| Subjects
| Books
| Africa
| Americas
| Ancient
| Arctic & Antarctica
| Asia
| Audiobooks
| Australia & Oceania
| Europe
| Gay & Lesbian
| Historical Study
| Large Print
| Middle East
| Military
| Military Science
| Russia
| United States
| World
Economic History
| Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Politics
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Culture
| Sociology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Protestant
| Church History
| Christianity
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Protestantism
| Christianity
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
Church & State
| Religious Studies
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
Economic History
| Economics
| Business & Investing
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
General
| Politics
| Nonfiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Culture
| Sociology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Protestant
| Church History
| Christianity
| Religion & Spirituality
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
General
| Protestantism
| Christianity
| Religion & Spirituality
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Church & State
| Religious Studies
| Religion & Spirituality
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
All 4-for-3 Deals
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
The Marx-Engels Reader, Second Edition
-
The Division of Labor in Society
-
The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (Oxford World's Classics)
-
From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology
-
Suicide
ASIN: 048642703X |
Book Description
This brilliant study opposes the Marxist concept of dialectical materialism and its view that change takes place through the conflict of opposites. Instead, Weber relates the rise of a capitalist economy to the Puritan determination to work out anxiety over salvation or damnation by performing good deeds — an effort that ultimately encouraged capitalism.
Customer Reviews:
Great theory, but not always an easy read.......2007-07-30
Max Weber's thesis that the Protestant work-ethic helped give rise to the spirit of modern capitalism is well known, but how true is it? Weber goes into an impressive review of historical details on how Luther's concept of the calling became the Calvinist concept of labor to glorify God, and finally the Puritan concept that is applied to business as well as anything else. In short, the Protestant hard-work ethic, intended to be a sign of election and to glorify god, inadvertently (at least in part) gave birth to the spirit of capitalism, of sustained, planned, methodical profit-making. Though capitalism is no longer dependent upon religion for maintaining its ethos (we are all caught in the rat race), it is fascinating how Weber makes a compelling case that a once anti-materialist Protestant Christianity came to affirm the capitalist spirit by way of a hard-working ethic. Many of Weber's themes are persuasive, if also controversial. Weber has by no means isolated the final or full cause of the take-off of capitalism in modern times, but he has made a good case for one contributing factor. Would that his style of writing had been a bit more direct - Weber's insights are at least worth careful reading.
Value edition for the budget minded.......2007-06-06
The "reviews" about Weber's thesis could fill libraries. Ooops! They actually have!
So let's ignore that.
The focus here is on value, and this Dover value edition is perfectly fine for the thrifty college student on a limited budget who needs to read this work for an assignment but doesn't want to be at the mercy of the University Library.
This is a seminal work that reaches far into other fields of inquiry, so it is likely you will need it no matter what your field.
The binding is an el-cheap-o slab of glue, so it won't lie flat on your desk when you are transcribing a quote for a citation.....but since you've downloaded the text file you'll just cut and paste anyway.
Academic citations to this edition are perfectly acceptable in scholarly papers and under MLA, ASA, APA, ACS, APSA, "Turabian" and MHRA style guidelines (and perhaps others).
A Very Standard Economic Postulate.......2007-04-15
Assuming Max Weber's thesis to be true proves useful. By assuming it as a postulate, one gains a potential way of understanding the beliefs of the western-world's upper pareto boundary and the typical ressentiments / bad faith (bad-tempered, difficult mental traps everyone who tries to create something can't help but fall into from time to time, mea culpa!) of the lower.
Max Scheler (who advised Karol Wojtyla as a Ph.D. student) seems to have done something similar to what Max Weber describes the upper pareto boundary (somewhere over the rainbow as the song goes) as having done. Max Scheler "attempted to reconcile Nietzsche's ideas of master-slave morality and ressentiment with the Christian ideals of love and humility."
Anyway, just projecting a few of my other readings onto this one a bit. L8R.
Don't buy the Dover edition of this book........2006-10-26
The Dover edition of the book has been bound so tightly that it's difficult to turn the pages--and to read the words, which are nearly swallowed up by the binding. It feels like if you force it at all, the whole binding will come unglued.
It may be cheap, but it *feels* so extremely cheap that it's just not worth the money saved. Buy yourself another edition--or for that matter, just get the text free online. Anything's better than trying to read this edition.
great idea, little proof.......2006-09-26
As part of my enquiry into the forces that the Reformation unleased, I decided to at last read this classic.
Alas, it was disappointing in that Weber makes the assertion - that reformation-spawned ideologies were the foundation of the capitalist revolution - and then offers little historical explanation as proof of his thesis. Instead, what he does is to painstakingly describe the ideologies in question, to show that they are compatible conceptually with his definition of capitalism (the rise of an urban bourgeoisie that created wealth by investing in industry as a major new economic actor, eventaully leading to the eclipse of the old land-based aristocracy). As Hannah Ardnt said, so long as you are far enough from reality, you can make almost any ideas appear compatible. As such, I was unconvinced that a) the feeling of being among the elect made people work harder to prove it by material success and b) that a heightened sense of individuality that arose with separation from the papist ideologies augmented this pursuit of self-development via the massing of personal capital. While the protestant ideologies may conform vaguely to these notions, that does not in the slightest prove a direct causal connection. Indeed, one might argue that it was the repression by the Inquisition - against the bourgoise's challenge to traditional aristocrats - that may have delayed the development of capitalism in Catholic countries for a few centuries. (That capitalism did develop in many Catholic countries also undermines the book's prinicpal thesis.)
This essay is interesting as a pioneering attempt at sociological determinism from a rather existentialist perspective, but reading the whole thing was a bit much for me. Weber was a great and innovative thinker, however out of date his modes of reasoning have become - they are strictly qualitative. Not recommended except asof historical interest.
Book Description
A new translation of Max Weber's classic The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism--one of the most enduring and influential books in sociology--is now available from Roxbury.
Translator Stephen Kalberg is an internationally acclaimed Weberian scholar. In this Third Roxbury Edition, Kalberg offers a precise and nuanced rendering of The Protestant Ethic that captures Weber's style as well as the unusual subtlety of his descriptions and causal arguments. Kalberg's standardization of Weber's terminology facilitates understanding of the various twists and turns in his complex lines of reasoning. Weber's original italicization, highlighting major themes, has been restored. A glossary of major terms and numerous clarifying endnotes have been added; foreign terms have been translated; bracketed insertions in the text identify obscure names. In short, the Protestant Ethic thesis is presented in a clear and highly readable manner.
There are three compelling reasons for students to read this classic:
It explores the continuing debate regarding the origins and legacy of modern capitalism in the West.
It helps the reader better understand economic development today around the world, especially in Russia, Eastern Europe, Asia, and South America.
It plumbs the deep cultural forces that affect contemporary work life and the workplace in the United States and Europe.
In his introduction, Kalberg offers a sketch of Weber's life and his major concerns, examines the intellectual context at the time The Protestant Ethic was written, and summarizes major aspects of Weber's complex analysis. Kalberg also discusses this classical study in the context of Weber's other writings. Finally, Kalberg investigates the contribution of The Protestant Ethic for understanding the role played by cultural forces in modern economic development.
The new translation includes Weber's 1906 essay "The Protestant Sects and the Spirit of Capitalism." Written after his extensive travels in the United States in 1904, Weber comments here on the diverse ways in which the legacies of early American Protestantism remain influential. Also contained in this edition are Weber's masterful prefatory remarks to his Collected Essays in the Sociology of Religion, in which he defines the uniqueness of Western societies and asks what "ideas and interests" combined to call forth modern Western rationalism.
For students, The Protestant Ethic is a starting point toward understanding the multiple dimensions of social change. The continuing debates about the main elements of modern life, economic cultures and business ethics, our "common sense" economic determinism and "rational choices," the future of modern capitalism, the relationship between cultural forces and social structures, and the tension between science and religion are very much part of the Weberian project. Small wonder, then, that The Protestant Ethic continues to be one of the most frequently assigned readings in sociology.
Translator Stephen Kalberg is the author of Max Weber's Comparative-Historical Sociology (1994), Max Weber's Sociology of Civilizations, and numerous articles on Weber. He is the editor of Max Weber: The Confrontation with Modernity (2003l). He teaches at Boston University, where he is Associate Professor of Sociology. He is also co-chair of the German Study Group at Harvard University's Center for European Studies.
Customer Reviews:
Modern capitalism and its origins.......2005-02-01
What Weber's ideas most clearly demonstrate is not capitalism as it is seen by the the devout protestant or any derivation thereof, he clearly proposes that capitalism itself is founded and practiced solely on the moral and ethical teachings of the protestant refromation. Furthurmore, the continued presence of God or any other religious influence is secondary to the overall implications of their socio-political indoctronation.
Weber essentially argues, that it is protestantism's continued comitment to a vocational calling as compared to traditional catholic virtue of church commitment, that is the essential method of spiritual distinguishemnt.
It is aided by the virtualy simultanious growth of both capitalism and Protestantism that enabled capitalism to extend beyond simply a seclar practise and over-all "necissary evil," into a fully encompassing and consuming reflection of an individual's spiritual right of passage.
Evidence of Weber's theory is distributed widely through contemporary polotics, fully 20 of the top 30 industrailized nations are predominantly protestant. Even countries such as Japan that seemingly have had no protestant influence and have had success with a capitalist economy, inevitably, must submit themselves to Weber's theory because, Weber is not concerned pervasiveness protestant traditions, only with the occurence of protestant ideals.
This book, though highly debated and controversial, is a must read for anyone with the slightest interest in global context or concerned with capitalism metioric rise to power. With a growing Globalized capitalist system, Webers ideas undoubtedly will become increasingly more apperent as capitalism invades every nook and cranny of an increasingly shrinking world; will cultures with otherwise foreign or dissimilar beliefs and practices every really be able to accept the merits of capitalism if they must equally reconcile themselves with the ethical premises of protestantism?
Interesting but not really scholarship.......2002-09-11
There are so many problems with Weber's idea that it is hard to know where to begin. First of all, there are no examples anywhere in the text of statements of purpose from capitalists reflecting on the Protestant Ethic. The closest Weber comes is Benjamin Franklin, but Franklin was an American who lived several generations after the origin of capitalism in Europe. Franklin better reflects the "can do" spirit of a new continent, the "American Adam," than he is a "secularization" of Calvin. Couldn't Weber find a European Ben Franklin?
Moreover, Weber's thesis fails the Ockham rule. As Adam Smith argues, the reason people chose to play rather than work is because work offered such paltry returns. Why invent this complicated "secularization thesis" when "greed" is a sufficient explanation?
Third, as one astute reviewer noted below, Weber inherits a Kantian ethics that he was never able to lose. Why must the capitalist pursue money or success "for its own sake"? Are there not perfectly rational reasons for working hard, including greed?
Why must the capitalist adhere to a Kantian ethics of "wealth for its own sake" without any ulterior motives? No one before the Objectivist wackos ever argued that unlimited accumulation of wealth is an "end in itself," or argued that the pursuit of unlimited wealth is a right independent of the good it may do for society.
It should also be understood that Marx is not the only target of Weber's polemical thrusts. He considered his primary target to be Werner Sombart, but Sombart has never been taken seriously in the US because he was a conservative and briefly a Nazi. Sombart's books are in fact much more plausible than Weber's. Luxury and Capitalism is in fact a very "Smithian" account of the origin of capitalism in the seigneurial lord's fascination with luxury goods, and his gradual displacement by the urban manufacturer.
All of that said, Weber tells a very interesting story that is more about the "rationalisation" of "demagification" (Entzauberung) of society than it is about capitalism. By equating capitalism with "efficiency" or "rationalization," however, Weber obscures the basic issues.
Book Description
14 million Megatrends books sold!
Once in a great while a book comes along that challenges conventional wisdom and opens the floodgates to the future. Megatrends 2010's blend of meaning, morals and bottom-line economics celebrates the demise of Business as Usual and the birth of Conscious Capitalism.
In Megatrends 2010, Patricia Aburdene, co-author of the bestselling Megatrends 2000, investigates corporate social responsibility and identifies seven megatrends that will redefine business in the coming years.
Megatrends 2010:
Explains why firms like Timberland, Wainwright Bank, 3M, Chiquita Brands, Motorola, Intel and others are taking a stand for corporate social responsibility Shows that more than 63 million Conscious Consumers prefer to buy from companies who share or reflect their values and lifestyle Describes the surprising power of conscious techniques to enhance productivity Shows that socially responsible and green funds often outperform mainstream mutual funds Explores the New Economy of Consciousness and the quest for ethics in business within the legal confines of modern capitalism
Aburdene demonstrates that significant numbers of both new-economy and old-guard companies are tapping into the wave of conscious capitalism to clean up the corporate image, save the environment, help the less fortunate—and boost the bottom line.
Customer Reviews:
A top pick any business and public lending library must have........2007-09-02
Both MEGATRENDS and MEGATRENDS 2000 were top bestsellers predicting shifts key to economic and business worlds alike: now MEGATRENDS 2010 documents the rise of 'conscious capitalism' and what corporate responsibility means to business trends and activities. Any business library or businessman interested in corporate change will appreciate the data and insights documenting corporate scandals and ethics transition points being fostered by grassroots efforts and managers. A top pick any business and public lending library must have.
Enterprise in an Integral Age.......2007-08-24
Being a futurist myself, I have enjoyed all the 'Megatrends' books. I am heartened to see that the trends Patricia Aburdene reported on have not gone unnoticed. She demonstrates powerfully that businesses are comprised of living human beings who have significant impact on our collective future. This is a far cry from the Cogs-in-machine image of the past. These trends indicate that perhaps business rather than being solely an outlet for human greed, may shape the future of human communities as much or more than religion or politics. Three cheers for Patricia for moving the dialogue forward and leading with hope for a better future.
Megatrends 2010: The Rise of Conscious Capitalism.......2007-07-16
In the past, there has been a well defined line between those who wanted to make money in industry and those interested in the spiritual, cultural, and environmental future of our world. Megatrends 2010: The Rise of Conscious Capitalism states that this division is becoming more and more blurred. In fact, a new trend is growing in business. This new development is blending industry with spiritual, cultural, and environmental awareness to create Conscious Capitalism.
As I read this book, I wasn't sure whether I should applaud Conscious Capitalism or whether I should be appalled. I could see that in some cases, this new practice was beneficial. Employers were looking at ways to improve the lives of employees and trying to make strides to connect with the modern consumer's needs. Some of the companies described were also thoughtfully examining how their products added to the wealth of our future. However, I can see how Conscious Capitalism could easily become a strategy used as a promotional method but not actually practiced by these businesses. In these cases, consumers, employees, and our children would be the losers.
More missionary zeal than hard facts.......2007-03-01
As other reviewers pointed out, Aburdene argues that the 21st century will be transformed by ecological awareness, spirituality and other positive trends.
First, the author fails to see contradictions among those trends. One person's spiritual belief (e.g., only marriages count as meaningful relationships) conflicts with someone else's (e.g., relationships with partners, dogs and friends can be meaningful). No problem until these beliefs get translated into benefits and norms, i.e., "Your family celebration doesn't count."
Second, the widespread discussion of "spirituality" can lead to shallow interpretations. I don't always agree with Carolyn Myss, an example of New Age spirituality. But I have to respect her. She walks the talk. She studied. She doesn't promise easy answers and in fact she warns that being spiritual is very hard.
In contrast, I once attended a bookstore talk where the leader asked everyone, "Raise your hand if you are on a spiritual path." Gimme a break.
I've also heard spirituality defined as attracting what you want, including money, love, and beauty.
Third, the book ignores a counter-trend, the rise in books about atheism and a backlash against organized religion. My career clients aren't reporting a great wave of love and humanity in their working worlds.
The book also ignores other trends, such as the shrinking world, the increased access to information and choice, and the kinds of trends described in The Long Tail.
But my biggest complaint is the author's obvious enthusiasm and support for these trends. Earlier megatrends books seemed more impartial and objective. There's nothing wrong with enthusiastically embracing ideas, but I like books that let you know up front whether you're dealing with argument or analysis. It's especially frustrating to expect the latter and get the former.
Transforming the Capital in "Capitalism" is the answer.......2007-02-12
I give it four star for bringing much hope amid all desperations and dysfunctions of global capitalism we are witnessing today. Identifying the trends is one way to shift the energy and resources from the treadmill of insane greed and suicidal profit making by the War making military-intelligence-corporate-media-thinktank-banking complex. Yet the true Conscious Capitalism will address deeper systemic problems arising out of and inherent in the faulty structure of financial system we are all unconsciously participating in. Search "Transforming Money" at Yahoo or google to educate yourself and others about the systemic design problems of capitalism.
Amazon.com
Thirty years after Frances Lappe's Diet for a Small Planet changed eating habits around the world, she and her daughter Anna bring us a new round of iconoclastic recommendations that break overwhelming issues down to a simple matter of personal choice. Hope's Edge presents many of the same issues of the original title, but it also provides a wealth of new discoveries and possibilities in this era of genetically engineered foods, worldwide famine, and growing rates of obesity-related health issues.
Beyond discussing a wide range of reasons to become a vegetarian (and that means no fish or chicken either, folks), the authors introduce you to a number of individual reasons for hope--Bob, the Wisconsin cheese maker; Jean-Yves, the farmer from Brittany who created the Sustainable Agriculture Network; and Muhammad Yunas, who has changed the lives of countless living in poverty with his remarkable microcredit programs. Along with these stories and the theories they're based on, you'll also find luscious recipes calling for grains, fruits, vegetables, and a handful of dairy products that will delight your taste buds and your conscience.
The Lappes firmly believe that the choices of low-level consumers have the potential to make positive changes, both in the world economy and in our physical health. By eating a vegetarian diet, shopping with care, and cooking with love, we might all brighten our future tremendously. --Jill Lightner
Book Description
Hope's Edge follows the author of the classic Diet for a Small Planet and her daughter as they travel the world, discovering practical visionaries who are making a difference in world hunger, sometimes one village at a time.
Thirty years ago, Frances Moore Lappé started a revolution in the way Americans think about food and hunger. Now Frances and her daughter, Anna, pick up where Diet for a Small Planet left off. Together they set out on an around-the-world journey to explore the greatest challenges we face in the new millennium. Traveling to Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Europe, they discovered answers to one of the most urgent issues of our time: whether we can transcend the rampant consumerism and capitalism to find the paths that each of us can follow to heal our lives as well as the planet.
Featuring nearly seventy recipes from celebrated vegetarian culinary pioneers-including Alice Waters, Mollie Katzen, Laurel Robertson, Nora Pouillon, and Anna Thomas-Hope's Edge highlights true trailblazers engaged in social, environmental, and economic transformations.
Customer Reviews:
2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner featured in the book.......2006-10-13
This is a very interesting book. It features in one part a detailed description of 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank, who used microloans to help Bangladeshis, especially women, get out of poverty and earn for themselves. By issuing very small loans, the people of Bangladesh are able to build their businesses or working conditions and change their lives. I recommend this book.
Hope Gained From Insight and Diligence.......2006-08-16
Thirty years after the publication of the highly acclaimed "Diet For A Small Planet", Frances and her daughter Anna Lappe have come out with a potent sequel and a beautiful statement of hope for a more equitable world through the world-wide spread of organic and sustainable agriculture techniques and locally controlled "fair" market modalities now challenging the status quo of chemical fed, toxic pesticide/GMO laden crops, and the lopsided "free" market capitalist WTO agenda that has been reaping havoc on the environment and small farmers everywhere.
The Lappes traveled to 5 continents while researching this book and their travels are both fascinating and uplifting as they report on people all over the world demonstrating that going organic and controlling their own markets are reaping major benefits in healthy, abundant food production while cleaning up the environment.
The Lappes do not reject world trade or capitalism, rather, they demonstrate how unregulated "free" markets monopolized by huge international corporations have been inadvertently causing food scarcity, bankrupting and polluting people all over the world, yet with an injection of regulation in the form ethics, strict fair trade measures, etc., they believe capitalism can "evolve" to a more sustainable, equitable, and healthy method of food distribution- a similar optimistic view shared by Lovins and Hawken in their book, "Natural Capitalism".
The inefficiencies of nutrient and food distribution is brought home in quantifying the huge amount of crops, water, and land required to feed cattle. The amount of energy necessary to produce an ounce of meat could feed hundreds of people on a much healthier vegetarian diet, hence, the myth of food scarcity and the need to grow more food to feed the world.
Every chapter finishes with a recipe and there are many more at the end of the book along with several pages of resources and contact information on a host of organizations advocating social responsibility.
Be gentle on the earth.......2006-02-22
Good copy. Excellent vegetarian recipes. Explains why we need to eat lower on the food chain. If we do, we can feed the world's hungry people.
Goes into my life's top 5.......2004-11-21
I won't say much here, because the other reviewers have described the book well. All I will say is that this is one of the very best books I have ever read. Not only does Lappe have an incredible way with words, but she summarizes her profound insights in such a way that really organizes one's thoughts for genuine reflection. Add to that a well-documented and researched approach, as well as fascinating stories of different communities around the world which they themselves visited.
Honest Hope.......2004-05-25
Hope's Edge is a Must Read for Everyone! The book puts it all together in an easy-to-understand, personal and honest fashion: the connection between consumerism, 'brainwashing', oppression, global economy, poverty, exploitation etc. etc. The concepts presented in this book are sophisticated and have depth. I liked the personal tone of the book, the story telling. The book is very honest, the stories told utterly inspiring. Frances and Anna never 'whitewash' the porlbmes the projects they are describing are facing. This truth-telling makes the stories even more impressive, more credible. The very existence of these projects defy the global systems as we know them. The way they do 'business' defies the global system of exploitation and competition. This book makes us take an honest look at ourselves, our values, the daily choices we make, what we consume, how we live. This is not just 'about food' or poverty or world hunger, this is truly food for thought and inspiration of how to create a better world."
Amazon.com
In the brave new world of the "flexible" corporation, Richard Sennett observes, workers at all levels are regarded as wholly disposable, and they have responded in kind, ceasing to think in terms of any long-term relationship with the organizations they work for. This, he argues, has tremendous negative consequences for workers' emotional and psychological well-being. Even in menial jobs, we extract much of our self-image from the idea of a "career"--a life narrative rendered intelligible by specific loyalties, which is to some degree self-invented but also in some respects predictable. Innovations like "flextime" and bureaucratic "de-layering" seem to promise more freedom to define one's career, but in fact they create jobs in which there's less freedom than ever to be had. The Corrosion of Character is a short, anecdotal book, and while one might wish that it included a discussion of the social and psychological costs of the sheer increase of work time in the average worker's week, Sennett has created a pithy, disturbing picture of the cost of the corporate world's much-vaunted new efficiencies. --Richard Farr
Book Description
In The Corrosion of Character, Richard Sennett, "among the country's most distinguished thinkers . . . has concentrated into 176 pages a profoundly affecting argument" (Business Week) that draws on interviews with dismissed IBM executives, bakers, a bartender turned advertising executive, and many others to call into question the terms of our new economy. In his 1972 classic, The Hidden Injuries of Class (written with Jonathan Cobb), Sennett interviewed a man he called Enrico, a hardworking janitor whose life was structured by a union pay schedule and given meaning by his sacrifices for the future. In this new book--a #1 bestseller in Germany--Sennett explores the contemporary scene characterized by Enrico's son, Rico, whose life is more materially successful, yet whose work lacks long-term commitments or loyalties. Distinguished by Sennett's "combination of broad historical and literary learning and a reporter's willingness to walk into a store or factory [and] strike up a conversation" (New York Times Book Review), this book "challenges the reader to decide whether the flexibility of modern capitalism . . . is merely a fresh form of oppression" (Publishers Weekly, starred review).
Customer Reviews:
How Instability and Superficiality Destroy the Inner Meaning of Work.......2007-07-20
Transient consultants have replaced entrenched bureaucrats. Teams and teamwork have replaced adversarial labor/management and individual ego-driven rivalries. Knowledge gleaned from marketing studies has replaced knowledge gained from every day experience. New machines have made the once complex extremely simple, and the once dangerous safely sanitized. Companies that were once entrenched ethnic enclaves are now look more closely like America.
While not totally disapproving, the author looks at these and other current developments and finds them wanting. Work no longer generates the kind of passionate commitment it once did, and he cannot blame the workers, because their employers no longer show the loyalty they once did. In newly created world of permanent transience, little is cumulative, and the only test is who can do the best job now according to given specifications, with little concern for the past or for the future. Individual personal character is corroded--gradually destroyed--because sacrificing for the future makes little sense and virtues like loyalty to coworkers and one's employer are unrewarded, unexpected, and unappreciated.
The author finds the new arrangements are more about glib superficial agreements rather than the creation of authentic human relationships. Teams focus on short-term ends, with leaders who play down their authority and assume the falsely modest role of facilitators. A more adversarial assertion of self-interest and opinion would in the long run serve the companies better, as people bind together from honest discussion and disputes, the author asserts.
The author's individual chapters are each in themselves excellent essays: they are entitled Drift, Routine, Flexible, Illegible, Risk, The Work Ethic, Failure, and The Dangerous Pronoun. The most profound chapters are perhaps those on (1) risk, which documents the odds against success and the difficulty many people have adjusting to this reality; (2) the work ethic, which shows how it is undermined in many different ways by transience in co-workers and authority structures; and (3) failure, which shows both its commonality and the difficulties workers have in dealing with it and crafting a successful future because it is often experienced more as a personal reckoning than as a result of powerful institutional and competitive forces undermining their best efforts.
The author adds statistical tables which document the decline of manufacturing and the rise of personnel and computer and data processing services; declining employment and the rise of wage inequality; lower productivity growth in the U.S. than in France, Germany, Japan; the steady decline in union membership as a percentage of the workforce and its plateau in actual number of workers covered; the rising percentage of women from 22 to 44 in the workforce and the declining percentages of workers in other generational categories; the rising number of workers on flexible schedules; the rising number of workers using computers; the generally falling earnings that job switchers get; the slow rise in jobs requiring a college degree; and the great rise in percentage and numbers within the labor movement of public sector workers.
The strength of the author's approach is that he mixes analysis of anecdotes with scholarly research touching on both workers and working conditions and life in general. The author not only brings a lot of fresh material to the analysis of corporate working conditions, but he provides original and creative analysis to familiar material so that we see it with new significance in new contexts.
No one should consider taking a corporate job, or a job in a large organization, without reading this book. It is sociology at its best, both the critiquing economic trends and relating them to lives of individuals who are both representative and compelling. The author's writing is gripping, passionate, and thought-provoking. He manages simulaneously the difficult tasks of both synthesizing past scholarhip and breaking new ground extremely well.
fight against "de-characterization".......2007-01-04
An important book, in which some of the undesirable effects of the ways our every-day working lives are organized are put under scrutiny and criticized. All those who want to continue to work with real human beings rather than with post-modern robots should read this book.
Sympathetic to workers' problems but you may find little new here.......2006-05-29
A doctor warned me once that people weren't built for rapid mentally jumping from one thing to another and that hi-tech companies tended to use people up. Sennett's warning came quite late.
Sennett's findings seem well intended but not surprising at all to anyone who has worked in hi-tech. I suspect many other workers have noticed the consequences of the "new" capitalism. Similarly, there seems nothing wrong with trying to simplify what is happening by noting a few key characteristics and values. Sennett's observations on the exploitation of "teamwork", although familiar, are welcome. "Risk", "failure", "flexibility" , it all can become as manipulative as political speech about "liberty", "democracy" and "free markets".
However, the 176 pages seem like 20. Despite footnotes, Sennett seems to be writing as if he were the first observer of capitalism, entirely out of character for the profound author of "The Hidden Injuries of Class:. The exact nature of the impact on character in this newer book seems largely unestablished. The efforts of unions, albeit sparse with hi-tech, goes unnoticed. The real consequences on real lives becomes an apparent gentlemenly philosophical exercise. How carefully he closes: "But I do know a regime which provides human beings no deep reasons to care about one another cannot long preserve its legitimacy". If there were, in this book, more sociological and less anecdotal support for such a claim, "The Corrosion of Character" might be worth your reading. As it is, you may well know it yourself.
Sennett does note at the end a "fear of the resurgence of unions". I didn't see that Sennett provided any pointers on where to seek help apart from an abstract appeal to community. Instead of watching your own character corrode, one possibility is seeking out a union on the Web (such as the Industrial Workers of the World).
This book was a big disappointment as I had read Sennett before and been quite impressed, so I may now have expected a lot. It may still be that for some readers this book will help identify for them what is troubling about their work and serve as a basis for discussion of work problems with others.
Yes, but..........2006-04-25
I don't know yet if I learned something I didn't knew from this book. The examples Sennett gives are really entertaining; so much that I think maybe he should follow the Clifford Geertz road (or a more mainstream Barbara Ehrenreich one!). It was also refreshing to listen to old classic names as Smith, some old greek and that one of the Encyclopedia (ah, yes, Diderot). The use of the classics was especially good in Sennett's discussion of character and work, from antiquity passing by Christendom, Calvinism and reaching Weber's 'wordly ascetism' (Ch. 6: The Work Ethic). The rest of the book is not very innovative for the informed sociologist (but I loved the shot in the last chapter against those neo-tocquevillian communitarians Putnam style). So I don't know if recommend this book to you or not. It brings some interesting ideas about the relation of labor structure to character, but mostly does not go deep enough in each facet of the subject. Each chapter could be expanded to be a book in itself, and maybe Sennett's intention was to let us to do it! About those reviewers that are in favour of late-capitalism oppression: enjoy your 'happy life' because nobody's safe. Maybe next year it will be your turn. Anyway we will help you; that is the problem of being from the Left... we care.
Reminds us to think.......2006-04-20
If a book is 205 pages long, and at the end, you have learned 30 pages worth of thought, this can, I guess, been called an incredibly rich book. "Corrosion of character" provides, I would say, a little less, but after all, Sennett is a Sociologist, if I get it right, so diluted messages come at no surprise. Just kidding, of course. I guess people would not buy the book would it be just 25 pages long, and then Sennett could not make all the travels and conversation in doubtlessly expensive intercontinental flights. And the idea of analyzing the working environment of today's people is an interesting one. Not spectacularly new, true enough, but then it comes down to the avility of the author to develop new ideas and show new examples in order to keep the interested. Sennett can do that, and I was only rarely bore, even though I would not be able to define now, that I've read it, what the news really was. There is a floating idea rather than a concrete list of issues: accept that your (our) life needs be permanently refelcted, that you have the liberty to free yourself from the pressures of your environment - and that you should do so at times, because otherwise you may get lost and never have the chance to think about "what went wrong" again. The important message of the book is to remind us of that.
Book Description
This wise and optimistic book examines the rampant scandals that plague American corporations today and shows how companies can reverse the resulting climate of mistrust. By seizing the opportunity to address some of the nation’s—and the world’s—most serious problems, business can strengthen its reputation for integrity and service and advance to a new stage of ethical legitimacy. Daniel Yankelovich, a social scientist and an experienced member of the corporate boardroom, describes the toxic convergence of cultural and business trends that has led inexorably to corporate scandals. Yet he offers reassurance that opportunity exists for positive change. Creative business leaders can advance market capitalism to its next stage of evolution, building upon business norms that simultaneously emphasize the legitimacy of profit making and the importance of the care that companies give to employees, customers, and the larger society.
The book asserts that American culture has abandoned its old tradition of enlightened self-interest, of “doing well by doing good.” A narrow legalism has taken over (“I didn’t break the law; therefore I didn’t do anything wrong”). Yankelovich argues that attempts to deal with such flawed ethical norms by means of more laws and regulations cannot succeed. He offers a series of case histories to show how and why stewardship ethics can strengthen individuals, corporations, the nation, and the world economy.
Customer Reviews:
Lots of Stimulating Thought in a Small Book.......2007-08-09
Daniel Yankelovich is a social scientist who has also served on several corporate boards. That gives him a unique perspective on the ethical challenges that face board members.
Yankelovich, to use his term, is a "privileged witness," who sees business from the outside, but has seen its inner workings up close. Even more important in some ways is the fact that he and his company have been among the firms tracking changes in society over several decades.
Here is why he wrote this book: "The purpose of this short book is to suggest that the business community can turn the scandals of recent years to good use, both for business itself and for the larger society."
Yankelovich sees three causes for these scandals. They are: 1) deregulation; 2) linking the biggest part of CEO compensation to stock price; and, 3) the importing of wider social norms into business, resulting in what he calls "unenlightened self-interest."
In the first half of the book he outlines changes in social norms in both business in society over several decades. Business, according to Yankelovich is more likely establish the norms he desires than society as a whole. And, he thinks, if business does so it will "help dispel moral confusion in the culture at large."
He says: "My main argument in the book is that the time has come for market capitalism in the United States to advance to a new stage of enlightened self-interest."
To do that he advocates something he calls "Stewardship Ethics," which he defines as "commitment to care for one's institution and those it serves in a manner that responds to a higher level of expectations." He devotes the second half of the book to describing what a set of norms based on "stewardship ethics" might look like and how they might come about.
In one of the most helpful sections of the book, Yankelovich spends time outlining the difference between his Stewardship Ethics and the bundle of beliefs and positions that come under the heading of "Corporate Social Responsibility."
If you're like me, you'll find Yankelovich's position a refreshing change from the "profit is evil" approach of most CSR types. If you are someone who sees the pursuit of profit by companies as, at best, a necessary evil, you will be very uncomfortable with this book and its ideas.
This book has two key strengths. First, Yankelovich himself is both knowledgeable and logical. Second, the book is short, only around 170 pages of text. Those are also the book's weaknesses.
Because Yankelovich himself is knowledgeable, he often leaves terms undefined. I could not find a definition, for example, of one of his key terms, "market capitalism." It may be that everyone indeed defines that term the same way, but I doubt it.
The shortness of the book means that some arguments are made without adequate support. For example, on page 96, Yankelovich says, "How well a company conceives and executes stewardship ethics as a community has a direct bearing on its long term profitability." He then offers the example of Wegman's as proof. Alas, a single example without supporting evidence is not proof.
This brings us to the key question: "Should you buy and read this book?"
If you are a senior executive, a member of a corporate board, or a faculty member at a business school, this should be on your "must-read" list. Yankelovich has crammed a lot of good stuff and cogent analysis in here about the business climate and corporate responses.
This book is also a good read if you're interested in the ethical challenges of contemporary business, but you don't make it your primary focus. If you're a professional ethicist or philosopher, you'll find the book a little light on both reasoning and support, but that's exactly why it's a good read for the rest of us. The book is filled with provocative ideas and well written.
But if you're looking for a "how to" book, this would be a poor choice. It's a great book for stimulating thought and discussion, but the "how to" will be up to you.
Must Reading For Any Current Or Future CEO And Business Leader.......2007-07-09
This is a book I wish I had written. I have talked at length over the past few years about what is wrong with today's capitalist economy and particularly so since the Enron, Tyco, WorldCom, and other corporate scandals. However, I am and always have been a committed supporter of a free-market economy with minimal government interference. In the late 1950s (while very young!) I embraced Ayn Rand's "laissez-faire" theory of business, only to be later disturbed by some of the unwarranted and seriously problematic assumptions one had to make in order to completely buy into her "doctrine" of extreme individualism and "caveat emptor" economics. While I recognized that neither Communism (ala Marx) nor state socialism could bring about a dynamic market economy combined with political liberty, there was, I thought, definitely something missing in the theory and practice of a free-market economy as Rand and her coterie envisioned and promoted it. Moreover, the so-called "mixed economy" (which is what the U.S. pretty much has now -- a mixture of free-market and "socialist" elements) has not prevented the scandals recently experienced.
Enter Daniel Yankelovich with his new book "Profit With Honor: The New Stage of Market Capitalism." In my opinion, on the Aristotelian scale of ethical virtue, his book represents the "mean" between the extremes of a dog-eat-dog capitalism with profit as the "only" consideration and the position that profit is evil, private enterprise is antisocial and, therefore, a centrally-planned government-run economy is the only acceptable solution. Economic activity is, of course, not fundamentally different from any other human activity, whether it be individual, social, political, or whatever. There has to be some moral foundation, some ethical framework, which justifies and provides a rational structure for the activity. Neither of the aforementioned extremes can provide the necessary theoretical support nor the practical guidelines for an economic system which must take into consideration human nature and the human condition.
In his book, Yankelovich states that his "main argument . . . is that the time has come for market capitalism . . . to advance to a new stage of enlightened self-interest. American business needs to develop a new ethic -- a coherent set of social norms -- both to counteract the forces leading to the scandals and to meet the challenges of the global economy that call upon business to take on many new responsibilities." He calls his program (if that is the appropriate term) a "stewardship ethics," a set of cultural norms for business which involves social responsibility without rejecting the concepts of profit and self-interest. This is, for the most part, my position on the issue. The philosophical enemies of market capitalism have had plenty of ammunition provided to them in recent years by some of those -- dare I say "crooks"? -- who are involved in market capitalism itself. Without a solid and rational moral foundation, market capitalism becomes its own worst enemy. Yankelovich appears to be confronting this challenge and, I think, points the way to a good resolution of the problem.
There is no question now, in my view, that capitalism as it has been practiced in the past is just that -- a thing of the past. Capitalism must now advance to the "next stage of evolution," as Yankelovich envisions it. While it is vital that profit-making remain a central concern and goal of any economic enterprise, companies must also give due consideration to customers, employees, and society at large. There is really no essential conflict between making a profit (which any business must do to survive) and social responsibility. This notion of conflicting objectives was, I suspect, a matter of philosophical immaturity during the developmental growth of the capitalist system. It should be recalled that many of the so-called "robber barons" of the past did participate in philanthropic activities and contribute generously to the "social good." (Think Carnegie libraries, Ford and Rockefeller foundations.)
But, of course, the problem remains regarding the future of market capitalism, especially amid all the recent scandals. This is where I think Yankelovich makes his most noteworthy contribution. Abstract principles of ethics -- which is what many of us were primarily concerned with when I taught classes in ethical theory in years past -- is one thing. Important as that is, however, the application of ethical principles to practical situations, institutions, and social realities is, after all, of immediate concern. What Yankelovich provides is an extension of rational ethical principles into the marketplace, that is, where the action is and where they are most useful. There is no justification now for schools of business and departments of economics to ignore the moral and social ramifications of market activities; courses in business ethics, and I suggest maybe the "stewardship ethics" recommended in this book, ought to be a core part of the curriculum -- not just an elective, but a requirement.
"Profit With Honor" is, of course, not a full-blown treatise on business ethics. It is a short book, a mere 169 pages of actual text. It is, however, concise and to the point. Yankelovich's suggestion that market capitalism should adopt the idea of "doing well by doing good" comes across throughout the book and this idea needs to be internalized by anyone considering a future in business leadership. He concludes: "In our culture . . . the transformation to stewardship ethics may take place without even being widely noticed. But its effects will register in enhanced trust in the business sector, in improved long-term profitability, and in significant advances in global well-being." One can only hope what he says proves prophetic. This book is an excellent introduction to the problem at hand and, for many of us I suspect, a framework within which the practical solution to the problem can be realized. Must reading for any contemporary or future CEO. Highly recommended.
Should Be In Every Boardroom.......2007-07-07
This book is about ethics and integrity in corporate America. The author discusses the various scandals of the past decade or so, looks at root causes, and proposes a solution.
This book could easily have been a statist prescription for yet more regulation by that whacko entity we call the federal government (which doesn't actually govern), but fortunately it was not. Just as easily, it could have been yet another book used by the author to push the leftist agenda in the rosiest of terms, despite the fact that agenda has always failed and always will. Fortunately, we were spared that reality-challenged view as well. Nor is it another effort to push the "conservative" agenda (basically, a way of diverting money to special interests). In fact, Yankelovich stresses the need to move beyond political "solutions" to problems.
People change careers, and I am one of those people. In my former life as an engineer (in a galaxy far, far away or something to that effect), one of the skills I learned was root cause analysis. This kind of analysis is demonstrably absent in public policy, as is evident from the demonstrable failure of federal policies, federal agencies, federal programs, and just about anything else spewing forth from Washington, DC. I notice that most "experts" have pretty logical-sounding solutions to what ails us, but almost none of them first determines what problem needs solving. They have a hammer (their area of expertise), and the whole world is their nail.
Yankelovich takes a humbler and more rational approach. This book talks about what CEOs and other leaders should do to restore integrity in our corporations, yet in the preface he says he's neither a celebrated CEO nor an expert on the subject. Upon reading the book, I found this worked to his advantage. He's not an armchair general type, either, though. He was on many boards over many years and has seen the workings of the inner sanctum firsthand. His background as a social scientist and researcher is also a critical qualification, because he has an excellent lens through which to observe and analyze.
At 169 pages in paperback format, this book is short. It's not a highly detailed academic treatise on case histories. Yankelovich is certainly capable of producing such an opus. But it would be read by academics rather than CEOs. This book is the perfect size for its primary target audience--the high level corporate executive. It can fit into a briefcase for reading during a return flight or two.
Profit with Honor has ten chapters. The first two give us a clear picture of the problem. In those chapters, Yankelovich also discusses why legal remedies don't work. For example, if you have a law barring a certain behavior, people who believe it's OK to game the system will find and exploit a loophole. To see how this pans out, look no further than our insane, and counterproductive, federal income tax code. He also talks about what happens when a company promises to play nice and then doesn't.
The next two chapters explain why "What's good for GM is good for America" isn't so (not to pick on GM--that was the actual statement, but the sentiment was quickly adopted by other companies). Yankelovich also provides comparisons between the ethics of today (or lack thereof) to the ethics of previous times. This isn't a "sure was great in the good old days" fantasy. Yankelovich bases his analysis on actual research, including a study of the Harvard Business School Class of 1949.
What he has to say about "civil society" in Chapter Five is right on target, and should be required reading for everyone over the age of six. Unfortunately, we have too few adults with the proper training in civility, and we gag on that aftertaste of that every day.
Chapter Six and Chapter Seven provide a good discussion of stewardship ethics, which Yankelovich proposes as the means of getting our corporations back on track.
In Chapter Eight, Yankelovich exposes the fallacy of the "Shareholder Value" philosophy, leaving no doubt for the reader that it has proven to be costly and destructive. Chapter Nine explores the concept of gatekeeper integrity. Our gatekeepers include institutional investors, auditors, business lawyers, investment bankers, business journalists, and educators--and they have profoundly failed us.
The final chapter, Titled "Hummer vs. Hybrid" nicely ties the book's concepts together. What better way to make things clear than to use a common example and figuratively turn it over in your hand so that each edge, nook, and cranny is exposed to sunlight? This example concerns the attitudes of two companies. The first one is GM, which I loathe. The second is Toyota, of which I am a customer and a huge fan.
GM chased short-term profits by producing gas-guzzling Hummers. Thanks to GM lobbyists, the CONgress (which sells legislation to the highest bidder) introduced more distortions into that abomination called "the federal income tax code" to make it advantageous for people to own Hummers rather than a vehicle that makes sense. Hummers tear up our roads (causing us to pay higher road taxes) and consume four times the fuel that a sensible vehicle does (causing gas prices to be higher). So, we all pay for some insecure person to drive around in a Hummer dominating the road while GM managers soak up their bonuses for short-term profits and Middle East terrorists enjoy the funding provided by the additional oil revenue. All perfectly legal.
Toyota, on the other hand, behaved responsibly by producing the fuel-efficient Prius hybrid. It's important to note that this isn't their only fuel-efficient vehicle. My Camry gets nearly 40 MPG on the highway (5-speed manual transmission, good driving habits, synthetic oil, and other things boost its fuel economy past the EPA rating). Some other models of conventially-powered Toyotas, such as the Corolla, do even better.
If we replaced every GM vehicle with a Toyota Camry, America would no longer have an energy problem.
Toyota's venture into the hybrid market came at the cost of short-term losses. This car isn't a cash cow for them, and it isn't causing their executives to go home with multi-million dollar bonuses. It's part of the their long-term strategy to build cars that serve people and society. It's the result of their "continual improvement" ethic.
Yankelovich follows this same ethic in his writing. He isn't proposing a quick fix. He's proposing a change in underlying attitudes and beliefs, and it takes time for those things to produce effects. It's like eating right vs. taking medications. Eating right won't instantly make you healthy, if you are presently not eating right. But it's the only way to be healthy and correcting the effects of wrong behavior takes time.
It's also a monumental task to get all the players on board with such a change. If this book makes its way into boardrooms and executive suites across the country, and if individuals in those boardrooms and executive suites decide to make personal integrity a top priority ala the Class of 1949, that change can and will happen.
If you like the idea of a nation in which corporations are run in an ethical fashion (providing a model the federal "government" might learn from), read this book and then recommend it to others.
Book Description
"An extraordinarily impressive achievement and must reading for all serious students of law, economics, and organization".--Paul L. Joskow, Professor of Economics, Massachusetts of Technology.
Customer Reviews:
Why hadn't I heard more about this sooner?.......2006-07-17
I was searching for something about comparative organizational forms - such as how is Toyota organized differently than GM and how does this benefit them? - when I found this. After searching around, I discovered that Oliver Williamson is both one of the most prolific writers and one of the most cited. Coase's 1937 essay, "The Nature of the Firm", challenged economists to open up the black box that neoclassical economics refers to as "the firm". Williamson responded by creating a whole new tool box for analyzing a wide variety of relationships called the New Institutional Economics (NIE). This book summarizes the state of NIE as of 1985.
The basic outline of NIE is easy to grasp, but shifts the focus of economics from choice to contract. Contractual man, furthermore, is not the perfect maximizer assumed in neoclassical economics. It might help if the reader knows a little about antitrust theory as it applied in the middle of the 20th century to vertical integration since much of this book is dedicated to showing why that theory overlooked the efficiency benefits. Williamson then applies it to the organization of labor (hierarchy vs. team production), unionization, corporate governance, and finally public utility franchise bidding.
While I respect Professor Bainbridge's experience teaching material this difficult, I personally didn't find the writing so bad as to deduct a star. Yes, it is jargon-filled, but this is a specialist's field. Once you learn the vocabulary, it seems to move along at a good pace without suffering from some of the archaic terminology found in law texts. It contains some rather simple math (which the reader can skim without losing anything of the argument). I especially liked how Williamson diagrams the decision-making process.
If you want to know more about why the business world is the way it is, this book will at least provide a new way of thinking if not the actual answers. It proposes and then offers answers to a variety of puzzles, but more importantly it shows how subtle changes in the analysis framework can yield better answers, which I think makes it worthwhile reading.
Very useful for corporate lawyers.......2004-11-09
As a lecturer in law and economics I have used big chunks of this book as teaching material. Another reviewer commented on the unfortunate writing style. I agree. Williamson is not accessible without significant effort from the reader, and often unnecessarily so. But he is also extremely enlightening. His analysis on contract governance is brilliant, and I have used his schematics on contract structures in both academic and professional life. I advise lawyers who work in the corporate field, particularly in complex contractual arrangements, such as franchises or distribution agreements, to read this book. It is really an eye-opener on why sometimes contracts fail to work as expected.
A classic of new institutional economics.......2001-01-12
EIoC is a classic work of new institutional economics. In it, Williamson works out his theories of transaction cost economics across an array of interesting economic questions. Most of the covered topics will be of interest not only to economists, but also to lawyers and policymakers. Among other examples, Williamson tackles such subjects as vertical integration, corporate governance, and industrial organizations.
Williamson's core idea is the theory of transaction cost economics. We can analogize transaction costs to friction: they are dead weight losses that reduce efficiency. They make transactions more costly and less likely to occur. Among the most important sources of transaction costs is the limited cognitive power of human decisionmakers. Unlike the Chicago School of law and economics, which posits the traditional concept of rational choice, Williamson asserts that rationality is bounded. Put another way, he assumes that economic actors seek to maximize their expected utility, but also that the limitations of human cognition often result in decisions that fail to maximize utility. Decisionmakers inherently have limited memories, computational skills, and other mental tools, which in turn limit their ability to gather and process information. As he demonstrates, this phenomenon, known as bounded rationality, has pervasive implications for understanding how institutions work.
At the policy level, transaction cost analysis is highly relevant to setting legal rules. Suppose a steam locomotive drives by a field of wheat. Sparks from the engine set crops on fire. Should the railroad company be liable? In a world of zero transaction costs, the initial assignment of rights is irrelevant. If the legal rule we choose is inefficient, the parties can bargain around it. In a world of transaction costs, however, the parties may not be able to bargain. This is likely to be true in our example. The railroad travels past the property of many landowners, who put their property to differing uses and put differing values on those uses. Negotiating an optimal solution will all of those owners would be, at best, time consuming and onerous. Hence, choosing the right rule-which is typically the rule the parties would have chosen if they were able to bargain (the so-called hypothetical bargain)-becomes quite important.
In sum, highly recommended. If so, you might ask, of course, why did I subtract one star? Mainly because of Williamson's unfortunate writing style. Although EIoC is largely free of the recreational mathematics that plagues modern economic writing, which is useful for those of us who flunked Differential Equations, it is very jargon-intensive. Worse yet, much of the jargon is self-created. All of which makes reading Williamson an effort-intensive project. Usually the cost-benefit analysis nevertheless comes out in his favor, but sometimes one puzzles out the jargon to find a rather obvious point that could have been conveyed far more simply. (The business about contracting nodes, pp. 32ff, is a classic example.)
Great for expanded understanding of vertical integration.......1997-12-15
I came across this book as part of my MBA studies at the Cox School of Business. A professor recommended it for expanded understanding of vertical integration theories. In fact, my professor is cited in the book! I found it to be very valuable and plan to keep it as a reference for years to come!
Book Description
For a century and a half, the artists and intellectuals of Europe have scorned
the bourgeoisie. And for a millennium and a half, the philosophers and theologians of Europe have scorned the marketplace. The bourgeois life, capitalism, Mencken’s “booboisie” and David Brooks’s “bobos”—all have been, and still are, framed as being responsible for everything from financial to moral poverty, world wars, and spiritual desuetude. Countering these centuries of assumptions and unexamined thinking is Deirdre McCloskey’s The Bourgeois Virtues, a magnum opus that offers a radical view: capitalism is good for us.
McCloskey’s sweeping, charming, and even humorous survey of ethical thought and economic realities—from Plato to Barbara Ehrenreich—overturns every assumption we have about being bourgeois. Can you be virtuous and bourgeois? Do markets improve ethics? Has capitalism made us better as well as richer? Yes, yes, and yes, argues McCloskey, who takes on centuries of capitalism’s critics with her erudition and sheer scope of knowledge. Applying a new tradition of “virtue ethics” to our lives in modern economies, she affirms American capitalism without ignoring its faults and celebrates the bourgeois lives we actually live, without supposing that they must be lives without ethical foundations.
High Noon, Kant, Bill Murray, the modern novel, van Gogh, and of course economics and the economy all come into play in a book that can only be described as a monumental project and a life’s work. The Bourgeois Virtues is nothing less than a dazzling reinterpretation of Western intellectual history, a dead-serious reply to the critics of capitalism—and a surprising page-turner.
Customer Reviews:
Very interesting but flawed.......2007-04-04
McCloskey has written a fascinating and potentially great book, but she doesn't quite pull it off. It is a book that covers a remarkable lot of ground, and which has an important argument at its heart: namely, that the so-called bourgeois virtues are generally both treated unfairly and their value underestimated, in terms of contributing to our material well-being. She ranges far and wide, discussing Greek tragedy, character theory and films, moral agency and novels, as well as philosophers, writers, and economists (she is herself an economist, but a very learned and obviously interesting one). The problem, however, is that this book reads like the cobbled-together journal musing and responses of a remarkably talented and well-read diarist, but one that hasn't edited her work carefully enough. To say it is unsystematic is an understatement. Still, it is very much worth reading, not least because it's spontaneity is infectious. It's an exciting book. Many works on virtue theory are dry and detailed, as if the authors want to match the dryness of (most) deontological or utilitarian accounts of ethics. McCloskey's work is the opposite of dry. Think of it as (loosely) applied virtue theory. But as another reviewer says, you will want to read or re-read Adam Smith after this, just to see how an excellent and successful defence of the bourgeois virtues and the market economy is conducted. (Is it unfair to demand of McCloskey that she provide us with another, perhaps updated version of The Theory of the Moral Sentiments? Probably. But her book is good enough that it provokes this demand.)
Very Disappointing.......2006-12-22
I was very eager to read this book. Deirdre Mccloskey has a great reputation as talented and iconoclastic economist, as well as a gifted writer. One would not know this, however, from reading only her latest book, "The Bourgeois Virtues," which is the first of a planned four-book series.
This book is, simply put, a mess. Ostensibly an apologia for capitalism, organized around various traditional (and not so traditional) moral "virtues," in the tradition of Adam Smith's "The Theory of the Moral Sentiments," McCloskey's book is, in fact, a rambling, confused (or, at least, confusing), idiosyncratic, grandiose and self-serving diary of personal experiences and beliefs, complete with lengthy disquisitions on books, articles, films, poetry and music she either adores or detests. Her erudition is as impressive as it is obvious; she rather hits the reader over the head with it. She can cite more works from different disciplines -- both low-brow and high-brow -- on a single page, than most authors can manage in an entire chapter. At first, the reader is awe-struck by the vastness of her knowledge. Soon, however, the reader's head starts spinning from all the sharp turns and digressions, and fatigue sets in. For a while, one presses on, fighting the fatigue in the vain hope of a pay-off that never comes. Perhaps it will come in book 4 of the series. Now, I don't have a particular short time horizon (or high discount rate), but I'm not waiting until book 4 to find out where all of McCloskey's ruminations lead us.
Surprisingly, the author pays scant attention to economics throughout the book; and when she does mention the subject of her real expertise, the analysis is somewhere between skimpy and non-existent. She identifies herself as a Chicago-school economist, and to prove her bona fides she suggests in the book's executive summary that there is no such thing as a public good (citing as support only Coase's justly famous article about lighthouses in England, despite subsequent work by van Zandt showing that Coase's lighthouses were all heavily subsidized from public coffers). And in strong contrast to Adam Smith, who believed in publicly owned (or crown-owned) parks for purposes of public recreation (as opposed to lands privately-owned for economic production), McCloskey identifies herself as a "free-market environmentalist," who promotes priviatization of our national parks. Admittedly, these concerns reflect my interests as a scholar who works in the area of environmental law and economics. Nevertheless, McCloskey has a great deal of work left to do to explain to the readers why, in her ethical framework, all environmental goods should be private owned (as if they could be) and left exclusively to the work of market forces.
I may be missing something here. Perhaps this really is the most important book since "The Theory of the Moral Sentiments," and I just don't get it. Or, maybe I do get it and this is simply a bad book.
Heartfelt clearheadedness.......2006-11-10
If you think you have read already a lot about economical, societal, philosophical, psychological, ethical themes and topics, this book will make you feel humble - the depth and breadth of Deirdre McCloskeys reading, thinking, and I found unprecented. The classic virtues are revived and revitalised in a most compelling way, she writes from the heart, and both her reasoning ánd feeling are at the same time so clearheaded and humanly touching, that it is difficult to put this book away. Do reserve some reflection time.
Bourgeois Virtues?.......2006-07-30
I find reviews very irksome when the reviewer states that the author of the book under review has failed miserably because he or she has not said what the reviewer would say had the reviewer written the book. Such reviews are as self-serving as they are silly and if I lapse into such here please dismiss my comments.
The Bourgeois Virtues: Ethics for an Age of Commerce is at 508 pages a hefty work but it is in fact just the first of four books Professor McCloskey has planned to write on our attitudes toward how we earn a living. I am not among those McCloskey sees as her primary audience--the romantic, anti-capitalist clerisy--for I admire the bourgeoisie and capitalism. Indeed, my heroes are foremost among McCloskey's heroes--Montesquieu, David Hume, and especially Adam Smith. Yet I believe that McCloskey fails to achieve her aims of defending capitalism and bourgeois character. She does so in a way that may actually escape attention as one reads this sometimes engaging but often tedious and very long book. The book seeks to defend "virtue ethics" against Kantian, utilitarian and contractarian ethical theories and it provides a catalogue of seven "bourgeois" virtues--love, faith, hope, courage, temperance, prudence and justice. The first three virtues McCloskey associates more with women than men and she acknowledges the obvious fact that they are essentially the Christian, "sacred" virtues. The other four virtues she associates more with men than women but they are even older than the sacred virtues because they were identified and described by the ancient, pagan Greeks and Romans. So, descriptions of the "bourgeois" virtues predate the bourgeois era by some 1800 years or more. There would be no problem with such an assertion if these rather timeless virtues are grounded in the most vigorous passions of human nature but are more likely to be achieved in the capitalist bourgeois order than in other orders or eras. Nonetheless, with a few passages in the quite excellent prologue/apology and in the final chapter aside, no such case is made. It is possible that despite the impression created by the title of this book, the case for the flourishing of the sacred and pagan virtues in capitalism will finally be made in the other three books but it is not contained within the book titled The Bourgeois Virtues.
Now, I believe I can safely avoid the irksome sort of review described above because the book I believe Professor McCloskey should have written is a book she is better prepared to write than anyone else alive. What Professor McCloskey should have written is an updated and empirical case for the argument contained in one of the greatest books ever written and certainly the best book ever written on commerce and ethics--Adam Smith's The Theory of Moral Sentiments. As things stand, The Theory of Moral Sentiments is a vastly superior work to McCloskey's The Bourgeois Virtues. I say this because, like McCloskey, Smith identifies a catalogue of timeless virtues--benevolence (love), justice, prudence and self-command (temperance)--but Smith accounts for the timeless nature of the these virtues by describing the natural, universal, human sentiments or passions in which they are grounded, and yet he also accounts for changes in these virtues over time especially under the influence of commerce. Smith recommends the commercial order precisely because the "universal opulence" created by such an order facilitates the development of the virtues by the inferior and middle classes. In commercial societies common folk can be benevolent to their loved ones because they have scratch in their pockets to display liberality and the leisure that allows selfless devotion; they can develop an exact sense of justice because they have property; with money in their pockets they have decisions to make those without money and property can never make and, indeed, with the options afforded to those living comfortably beyond subsistence, certain persons can go beyond the "mere prudence" needed for day-to-day security and seek great learning and "superior prudence"; and in a commercial society, self-command shifts from a focus upon fear and anger, leading to courage and magnanimity, so important in ancient warring societies, to control of temptations such as ease, selfish gratification and pleasure. Our ancestors did not have to exert self-command over their desire for a second or third piece of cheesecake the way we do, although they may have needed self-command while standing at a rampart.
I believe the Smithian catalogue of bourgeois virtues is simply more defensible than McCloskey's catalogue. Pagan or aristocratic courage is not a virtue from a bourgeois or commercial perspective. Rather, commerce is an alternative to ancient courage and magnanimity because these are virtues needed for acquisition through war, not trade. Indeed, as Smith says in the Wealth of Nations, commerce destroyed feudalism by convincing aristocrats to trade their birthright for diamond buckles. Similarly, although Christian faith and hope may be admirable, as McCloskey herself argued in an article in 1998 "they merged in a secular form of Christianity by the name of socialism" in the nineteenth century. In my view this is reason enough to not list faith and hope among the bourgeois virtues. Still, although I believe the evidence suggests strongly that Smith's catalogue of virtues is superior to McCloskey's, it is always easy quibbling over such matters. The more important point is that Smith's work on the bourgeois virtues is superior to McCloskey's, not because of the virtues identified, but because evidence for the commercial order actually promoting the bourgeois virtues is provided in abundance.
Brad Lowell Stone
Book Description
What if every corporation in the world devoted one percent of its revenues, one percent of its employees' time, and one percent of its stock to the communities it serves? What would happen? It would change the world. This book suggests that such a radical change is possible, and lays out the blueprint to do so, with a radically new model in which companies leverage all of their assets-including employees, equity, products, and relationships-in order to provide real value to the communities in which they operate. Case studies look at how both large and small companies, have structured their philanthropy programs for maximum effectiveness and true integration. We see what works and what doesn't. Here is the essential guide for everyone, from the newly minted entrepreneur to the Fortune 500 CEO who wants to ensure that doing business goes hand in hand with doing good.
Customer Reviews:
Brillant.......2006-02-23
Stewardship in it's purest form. Benioff does a wonderful job laying the foundation for a business of any size to get involved and develop a philanthropic spirit within the spirit de corps.
PR Week Review.......2004-02-25
PR Week US
BOOK REVIEW - 'Compassionate' gives readers a lot
02.23.04
Andrew Gordon
A breath of fresh air amongst the many business books out there, Compassionate Capitalism is full of insight and trade secrets simply about building the bottom line. At a time when many cor
