Table of Contents

Acknowledgements vii

Introduction by Michele Cangiani and Claus Thomasberger 1

Part I Red Vienna 13

1 On Freedom 15

2 New Reflections Concerning our Theory and Practice 41

3 The Functionalist Theory of Society and the Problem of Socialist Economic Accounting 51

Part II The World Economic Crisis and The Rise of Fascism 59

4 Economy and Democracy 61

5 The Mechanism of the World Economic Crisis 66

6 The Essence of Fascism 81

7 The Fascist Virus 108

Part III On Marx and the Christian Roots of Western Civilization 123

8 Fascism and Marxism 125

8.1 Fascism and Marxian Terminology 125

8.2 Marxism Re-Stated 129

9 Marx on Corporativism 135

10 Community and Society. The Christian Criticism of our Social Order 144

11 Christianity and Economic Life 154

Part IV The Great Transformation, Political Philosophy and Democracy 165

12 Jean-Jacques Rousseau, or Is a Free Society Possible? 167

13 Common Man’s Masterplan 177

14 The Meaning of Parliamentary Democracy 187

15 Our Obsolete Market Mentality. Civilization Must Find a New Thought Pattern 197

Part V Alignments on the International Stage 213

16 Why Make Russia Run Amok? 215

17 British Labour and American New Dealers 226

18 Universal Capitalism or Regional Planning? 231

Part VI Towards a Comparative Study of Economic Institutions 241

19 On Belief in Economic Determinism 243

20 The Livelihood of Man, Introduction 251

21 The Economistic Fallacy 263

22 The Two Meanings of Economic 275

23 The Economy Embedded in Society 290

Postscript 299

24 Hamlet 301

Notes 314

Index 327

About the Author

Karl Polanyi (1886-1964) was one of the most influential political economists of recent times. His book The Great Transformation is generally acclaimed as being among the most important works of economic history in the twentieth century.

Claus Thomasberger is Professor at the University of Applied Science Berlin.

Michele Cangiani is Professor at the Ca' Foscari University of Venice.

Reviews

‘Karl Polanyi is a Titan among modern social theorists. He is always worth rereading. He forces us to think.’
Immanuel Wallerstein, Yale University