Book Review: Geschichte des Kapitalismus, by Jürgen Kocka

• Date: 01 June 2015
• DOI: 10.1177/0090591715580082
• Published date: 01 June 2015
• Author: Lisa Herzog
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

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Political Theory 43(3)
just legal protection against superfluity but a kind of recipe for conversion
that offers a kind of ascetic self-care, in the mode made well known by Pierre
Hadot, Michel Foucault, and others. As Lefebvre recognizes, this account
certainly offers a good way to think about the motivation for much human
rights advocacy in our day. Bergson made clear that human rights—like the
morality of the Gospels before them—promise a kind of justice that is ulti-
mately ineffable. And this feature of their appeal remains strong in spite of all
the differences between Bergson’s time and our own. On Lefebvre’s account,
indeed, human rights emerge as a characteristic mysticism of our day.
Geschichte des Kapitalismus, by Jürgen Kocka. Munich: C. H. Beck, 2013.
Reviewed by: Lisa Herzog, Institut für Sozialforschung, Frankfurt
DOI: 10.1177/0090591715580082
Some might take the fact that political theorists worry about the economy as
itself being a problematic symptom of our times. In any case, their interest in
economic question seems to have increased after 2008. Answering such ques-
tions requires a good grasp of what this strange animal called “capitalism” is.
Much that has been written about capitalism, however, is by either friends or
foes, and it is not easy to find a well-balanced, detailed, and yet easily digest-
ible overview. Jürgen Kocka, professor emeritus at Free University Berlin
and one of Germany’s most eminent social historians, has now accomplished
this task, in a 130-page volume in the “Wissen” series of C.H. Beck, which is
intended for an educated yet non-expert audience. One of Kocka’s achieve-
ments is that he brilliantly manages to stick to this format without becoming
boring or falling into trivialities.
Kocka starts with disentangling some of the controversies around the con-
cept of capitalism. Drawing on Marx, Weber, and Schumpeter, he argues that
three of its features are central: (1) individual property rights and...