Transcending Capitalism

Visions of a New Society in Modern American Thought

By: Howard Brick

Narrated by: Randal Schaffer

Transcending Capitalism explains why many influential mid-century American social theorists came to believe it was no longer meaningful to describe modern Western society as "capitalist", but instead preferred alternatives such as "postcapitalist" society, "postindustrial" society, or the "technological" society.

Howard Brick locates this postcapitalist vision within a long history of social theory and ideology. He challenges the common view that American thought and culture utterly succumbed in the 1940s to a conservative cold war consensus that put aside the reform ideology and social theory of the early twentieth century. Rather, expectations of the shift to a new social economy persisted and cannot be disregarded as one of the elements contributing to the revival of dissenting thought and practice in the 1960s.

Rooted in a politics of social liberalism, this vision held influence for roughly a half century, from its interwar origins until the right turn in American political culture during the 1970s and 1980s. In offering a historically based understanding of American postcapitalist thought, Brick also presents some current possibilities for reinvigorating critical social thought that explores transitional developments beyond capitalism.

The book is published by Cornell University Press.

©2006 Cornell University (P)2017 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"Howard Brick's Transcending Capitalism is a bold and penetrating analysis of modern social thought in the 20th-century United States." ( Journal of American History)

"An impressive scholarly effort. Highly recommended." ( Choice)

" Transcending Capitalism is a rich and imaginative historical argument, one from which sociologists will learn much about a major intellectual current in the development of their field." ( American Journal of Sociology)