Karl Polanyi's The Great Transformation is generallyacclaimed as being among the most influential works of economichistory in the twentieth century, and remains as vital in thecurrent historical conjuncture as it was in his own. In itscritique of nineteenth-century "market fundamentalism" it reads asa warning to our own neoliberal age, and is widely touted as aprophetic guidebook for those who aspire to understand the causesand dynamics of global economic turbulence at the end of the 2000s.Karl Polanyi: The Limits of the Market is the firstcomprehensive introduction to Polanyi's ideas and legacy. Itassesses not only the texts for which he is famous - preparedduring his spells in American academia - but also hisjournalistic articles written in his first exile in Vienna, andlectures and pamphlets from his second exile, in Britain. Itprovides a detailed critical analysis of The GreatTransformation, but also surveys Polanyi's seminalwritings in economic anthropology, the economic history of ancientand archaic societies, and political and economic theory. Itsprimary source base includes interviews with Polanyi's daughter,Kari Polanyi-Levitt, as well as the entire compass of his ownpublished and unpublished writings in English and German.This engaging and accessible introduction to Polanyi's thinkingwill appeal to students and scholars across the social sciences,providing a refreshing perspective on the roots of our currenteconomic crisis.

Preface.Abbreviations.Introduction.Karl Polanyi for the neoliberal age.Individual responsibility and the quest for community.Some systemically satanic features of capitalism.From civilizational breakdown to neoliberalism.Chapter 1: The economics and ethics of socialism.Responsibility and 'overview': the socialist accountingdebate.Critique and rejoinder.The subjugation of moral ends to economic means.Towards a synthesis of Communism and Christianity.Chapter 2: The Great Transformation.The Liberal Century: contradictions of a golden age.Birth of the market economy.Malthus, Ricardo and Speenhamland.Marketization and its backwash.Disruptive strains and the end of elasticity.The originality of The Great Transformation.Some criticisms of the conceptual framework.Some criticisms of the historical argument.Chapter 3: The descent of Economic Man.From homo oeconomicus to homo communisticus.The debate over methods.From marginalism to formalism.Two meanings of economic.Mechanisms of integration.Inconsistencies and ambiguities.The formalist rejoinder.Marxist interpositions.The debate scatters and dissolves.Chapter 4: Trade, markets and money in archaicsocieties.Introduction: the oikos debate.'Primitive' and archaic trade, markets and money.Ancient Mesopotamia: three theses.Mesopotamia: evaluation and critique.Trade and markets in Bronze and Iron Age Greece.Greece: evaluation and critique.West Africa: Dahomey, Whydah and Tivland.Dahomey and the Tiv: evaluation and critique.From Meso-America to rural India via the Berber Highlands.Conclusion.Chapter 5: 'Disembedded' and 'always embedded'economies.Embeddedness: a genealogy.Further adventures of a concept.Embeddedness and decommodification in the mid-twentiethcentury.Chapter 6: 'At the brink of a great transformation?'Neoliberalism and the countermovement today.Explaining the neoliberal ascendancy.Alternative futures: participatory planning and the mixedeconomy.No dearth of countermovements.Pendular forces.The Great Oscillation.In place of a conclusion: thoughts on the currentpredicament.Conclusion.A liberal anti-Communist?A Marxist? A Romantic?Tribute and critique.Notes.References.Index.