Great Transformation, The
The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time

I wouldn't think of reading this book without a guide. Because Polanyi is an impossible read -- more difficult than Marx (he doesn't have Marx's love of language or Marx's humor), more difficult than Hegel (he doesn't have Hegel's pointed sense of knowing that his prose is torturing the poor reader)......more

The Great Transformation has become so foundational to my comprehension of the evolution of systems I can't conceive of society outside its paradigms. While Polanyi is basically a philosopher of politics and attempts to extend his anthropological inclinations to encompass political economy -- and no......more

Polanyi understood economics more realistically than most economists, and understood that economics does not stand alone, but exists within a larger social institutional context. I know that sounds a bit stiff. But until you get it, you will suspect that economists don’t know something you don’t. Yo......more