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

Book by Karl Polanyi · 3 quotes · Capitalism, Economic History, Economic Philosophy

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All Capitalism Economic History Economic Philosophy Economics Enclosures Eurocentrism Inequality Poverty

The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time Quotes

“Enclosures have appropriately been called a revolution of the rich is against the poor. The lords and nobles were upsetting the social order, breaking down ancient law and custom, sometimes by means of violence, often by pressure and intimidation. They were literally robbing the poor of their share in the common, tearing down the houses which, by the hitherto unbreakable force of custom, the poor had long regarded as theirs and their heirs'. The fabric of society was being disrupted; desolate villages and the ruins of human dwellings testified to the fierceness with which the revolution raged, endangering the defenses of the country, wasting its towns, decimating its population, turning its overburdened soil into dust, harassing its people and turning them from decent husbandmen into a mob of beggars and thieves.”

Poverty Enclosures

Book:The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time

Source: The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time

“Poverty was nature surviving in society; that the limitedness of food and the unlimitedness of men had come to an issue just when the promise of boundless increase of wealth burst in upon us made the irony only the more bitter.”

Capitalism Economics Inequality Economic History Economic Philosophy

Book:The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time

Source: The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time

“The habit of looking at the last ten thousand years as well as at the array of early societies as a mere prelude to the true history of our civilization which started approximately with the publication of the Wealth of Nations in 1776, is, to say the least, out of date.”

Eurocentrism

Book:The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time

Source: The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time