This highly intelligent and sophisticated work is primarily a discussion of three commentators on capitalism, two British and one Hungarian, although Polanyi wrote The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time (New York, 1944) after coming to Britain. A good number of other significant figures also appear in the book: Karl Mannheim, F. R. Leavis, T. S. Eliot, Evan Durbin. Anthony Crosland. Ernst F. Schumacher, and Maurice Dobb. Oddly, Rogan has little to say about John Maynard Keynes’ attempt to preserve capitalism and create a better life for all through such entities as the Arts Council.
At present, the dominant intellectual assumption seems to be that capitalism is here to stay and its chief problem is a vast disparity of income. The three earlier critics featured in this book were far more skeptical about the system itself. Although Karl Marx was clearly important in their thinking, they...