Since the fall of the Berlin Wall we have been told that no alternative to Western capitalism is possible or desirable …. This book challenges this view with two arguments. First, the above premise ignores the enormous variety within capitalism …

A few centuries ago, capitalism set in motion an explosion of economic productivity. Markets and private property had … existed for millennia, but what other key institutions fostered capitalism’s relatively recent emergence? Until now, the … diverted from identifying these key institutions. With Conceptualizing Capitalism, Geoffrey M. Hodgson offers readers a more …