The Market and Its Critics, first published in 1988, considers the reaction of socialist writers to the growth of the market economy in nineteenth century Britain, and examines in detail the diverse elements of the critique which they formulated. Dr Thompson looks at the theoretic and thematic continuities and discontinuities over the century, structuring his study around the idea of a changing socialist response to the market economy.

Preface, Noel Thompson; Introduction, Noel Thompson; Part 1 The Birth of a Market Economy; Chapter 1 Physiocratic Anti-Commercialism (Charles Hall, Piercy Ravenstone and William Godwin), Noel Thompson; Chapter 2 The Moral Economy of the Dispossessed, Noel Thompson; Chapter 3 Socialist Political Economy and the Market, 1815-50, Noel Thompson; Chapter 4 Communitarian Political Economy, 1815-50, Noel Thompson; Chapter 5 John Gray and John Bray: Planning in Embryo, Noel Thompson; Chapter 102 Postscript: Socialism without the Market, Noel Thompson; Part 2 The Triumph of a Market Economy; Introduction, Noel Thompson; Chapter 6 James Hole: Mid-Century Owenite Socialism, Noel Thompson; Chapter 7 Mid-Century Christian Socialism, Noel Thompson; Chapter 8 Mid-Century Market Socialism: Aristarchus and M. Justitia, Noel Thompson; Chapter 9 John Ruskin and the Moralisation of the Market, Noel Thompson; Chapter 104 Postscript: 'Bronterre' O'Brien, the shape of things to come?, Noel Thompson; Part 3 The Decay of a Market Economy; Introduction, Noel Thompson; Chapter 10 William Morris: An Epoch of Rest and Simplicity, Noel Thompson; Chapter 11 The Political Economy of State Socialism, Noel Thompson; Chapter 12 Fabianism and the Market, Noel Thompson; Chapter 106 Peter Kropotkin: An Anarcho-Communist Postscript, Noel Thompson; Chapter 107 Conclusion, Noel Thompson;