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Zusatztext "Thumbs in his galluses, Richard Lachmann swaggers down the boulevard of historical sociology, challenging just about everyone he sees to a match. Lachmann battles knowledgeably, and many an opponent emerges with bruises. Winners, losers, and spectators all end up wiser for Lachmann's bold exploration of European social change over a long, formative period." --Charles Tilly, Columbia University Klappentext Here, Richard Lachmann offers a new answer to an old question: Why did capitalism develop in some parts of early modern Europe but not in others? Finding neither a single cause nor an essentialist unfolding of a state or capitalist system, Lachmann describes the highly contingent developmentof various polities and economies. He identifies, in particular, conflict among feudal elites--landlords, clerics, kings, and officeholders--as the dynamic which perpetuated manorial economies in some places while propelling elites elsewhere to transform the basis of their control over land andlabor. Comparing regions and cities within and across England, France, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands from the twelfth through eighteenth centuries, Lachmann breaks new ground by showing step by step how the new social relations and political institutions of early modern Europe developed. Hedemonstrates in detail how feudal elites were pushed toward capitalism as they sought to protect their privileges from rivals in the aftermath of the Reformation. Capitalists in Spite of Themselves is a compelling narrative of how elites and other classes made and responded to political and religious revolutions while gradually creating the nation-states and capitalist markets which still constrain our behavior and order our world. It will prove invaluablefor anyone wishing to understanding the economic and social history of early modern Europe. Zusammenfassung Here, Lachmann offers an explanation for the origins of nation-states and capitalist markets in early modern Europe. He compares regions and cities within and across England, France, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands from the 12th through 18th centuries, Inhaltsverzeichnis 1: Something Happened 2: Feudal Dynamics 3: The Limits of Urban Capitalism 4: State Formation 5: A Dead End and a Detour: Spain and the Netherlands 6: Elite Defensiveness and the Transformation of Class Relations in Britain and France 7: Religions and Ideology 8: Conclusion Notes Bibliography ...
