by Jane Hiddleston
Polity, 2025
Aimé Césaire is arguably the greatest Caribbean literary writer in history. Best known for his incendiary epic poem Notebook of a Return to My Native Land, Césaire reinvented black culture by conceiving 'négritude' as a dynamic and continuous process of self-creation.
In this essential new account of his life and work, Jane Hiddleston introduces readers to Césaire's unique poetic voice and to his role as a figurehead for intellectuals pursuing freedom and equality for black people. Césaire was deeply immersed in the political life of his native Martinique for over fifty years: as Mayor of Fort-de-France and Deputy at the French National Assembly, he called for the liberation of oppressed people at home and abroad, while celebrating black creativity and self-invention to resist a history of racism.
Césaire's extraordinary life reminds us that the much-needed revolt against oppression and subjugation can―and should―come from within the establishment, as well as without.
[Publication date: April 7, 2025]
“This groundbreaking volume is an erudite illumination of Césaire: from Negritude to his call for the reinvention of black culture and identity; from the eruptive challenge of his poetry as revolt to his engagement with political activism.”
“Jane Hiddleston succeeds in rendering a difficult writer eminently readable, and she moves effortlessly between her author’s better known political positions and his commitment to poetry, the theatre and the essay.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jane Hiddleston is Professor of Literatures in French at the University of Oxford.
Capitalism and Its Critics: A History: From the Industrial Revolution to AI
[Publication date: May 13, 2025]
A Financial Times Most Anticipated Book of 2025
A sweeping, dramatic history of capitalism as seen through the eyes of its fiercest critics.
At
a time when artificial intelligence, climate change, inequality, trade
wars, and a right-wing populist backlash to globalization are raising
fundamental questions about the economic system, Capitalism and Its Critics
provides a kaleidoscopic history of global capitalism, from the East
India Company and Industrial Revolution to the digital revolution. But
here John Cassidy, a staff writer at The New Yorker and
a Pulitzer Prize finalist, adopts a bold new approach: he tells the
story through the eyes of the system’s critics. From the English
Luddites who rebelled against early factory automation to communists in
Germany and Russia in the early twentieth century, to the Latin American
dependistas, the
international Wages for Housework campaign of the 1970s, and the modern
degrowth movement, the absorbing narrative traverses the globe. It
visits with familiar names―Smith, Marx, Luxemburg, Keynes, Polanyi―but
also focuses on many less familiar figures, including Flora Tristan, the
French proponent of a universal labor union; Thomas Carlyle, the
conservative prophet of the moral depredations of the market; John
Hobson, the original theorist of imperialism; J. C. Kumarappa, the
Indian exponent of Gandhian economics; Eric Williams, the Trinidadian
author of a famous thesis on slavery and capitalism; Joan Robinson, the
Cambridge economist and critic of Keynes; and Samir Amin, the leftist
French-Egyptian economist and analyst of globalization.
Blending rich biography, panoramic history, and lively exploration of economic theories, Capitalism and Its Critics is true big history that illuminates the deep roots of many of the most urgent issues of our time.
REVIEWS:
"[A]
magisterial new study . . . Is the primary problem with free markets
moral, economic or both? Is technology intrinsically bad, or can it be
harnessed for progressive ends? Do markets rely on imperialistic
expansion, or can domestic consumers sustain them? Is capitalism
destined to tear itself apart, or can it weather the downturns it
invariably induces? . . . Cassidy does not answer these questions, but
his rewarding book provides an impressively lucid guide to a fascinating
array of attempts to do so." ―Becca Rothfeld, The Washington Post
"An
expansive history of capitalism that places less emphasis on economic
abstractions like perfectly competitive markets and draws attention
instead to how often capitalist systems have fallen short." ―James Surowiecki, The Yale Review
"[Cassidy]
does a masterful job of tracing the history of critiques of capitalism
and of attempts to come up with a workable alternative to it, but also
illuminates the evolution of the system itself, showcasing its
remarkable knack for reinventing itself and adapting to historical
circumstances in order to survive―something it may be in the process of
doing again right now." ―Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times
"[A]
marvellously lucid overview of capitalism’s naysayers . . . by far the
best primer I have read on the luminaries of the economic left." ―Pratinav Anil, The Guardian (UK)
"One of the joys of Capitalism and Its Critics,
John Cassidy’s unexpectedly lively romp through the
two-and-a-half-century history of capitalism, is its fine sense for
dramatic reversals . . . the intelligent beach read of the summer . . .
Over 28 punchy, rigorous yet engagingly peopled chapters, Cassidy not
only explains the economic theories of Marx, Adam Smith, David Ricardo
and Milton Friedman . . . but introduces us to a fabulous cast of
lesser-known characters." ―Stuart Jeffries, The Telegraph (UK)
"To
normal people, economic theory is soul-crushing at the best of times.
But Cassidy makes it all digestible by weaving together, in each
chapter, the biography of each of his subjects with their key critique
of capitalism, thus humanising otherwise dry debates about economic
theory . . . Cassidy’s range is impressive . . . he has produced a book
that will stimulate much brooding among capitalism’s defenders and
critics." ―Yuan Yi Zhu, The Times (UK)
"An
intriguing account of how some of the most consequential ideas in
economics developed, and how they forged the modern world." ―The Economist (UK)
"Cassidy’s
masterful synthesis of history and biography serves to demonstrate that
capitalism is in a permanent state of change not just because of its
fundamental nature, but because of how it’s continuously being subjected
to pushback. The result is a unique and invigorating view of
capitalism’s history." ―Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A
sweeping economic history of the to-some-sacrosanct doctrine of
capitalism and those arrayed against it over the years . . . dense with
information, free of jargon, and a powerful argument against an
increasingly
unsustainable economic system." ―Kirkus (starred review)
"One
of the great chroniclers of how money works turns his mind to the
system itself. If anyone can sum up the tumultuous and knotty history of
the dominant economic system of our era in a brisk 600-and-change
pages, it’s Cassidy." ―John H. Maher, The Millions
"[Cassidy
is] one of the very best economic journalists we have today . . . you
will indeed find on every page something that makes you glad to have
read the page, and enough narrative momentum to make you eager to turn
to the next." ―J. Bradford Delong, author of Slouching Towards Utopia
"Capitalism and its Critics is
everything that we’ve come to expect from John Cassidy. He weaves an
engaging and trenchant discussion of key critics of capitalism over its
more than 200 years into a history of capitalism itself. The battle is
not only about economic ideas, but about the VERY nature of our society.
Especially now, when some see the failures of capitalism as more than a
little responsible for the Trumpian oligarchy, while others see its
successes as ushering in a new era of AI-led prosperity, this is an
illuminating and essential read.” ―Joseph Stiglitz, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics and author of The Road to Freedom: Economics and the Good Society
"Fascinating
and informative. The history of capitalism is told through the eyes and
legitimate concerns of its most articulate critics. This is
intellectual history at its best. Essential reading for anyone who
wonders how the modern world wandered off course." ―Simon Johnson, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics and coauthor of Power and Progress
"John Cassidy’s Capitalism and Its Critics
is an impressive history of arguments about capitalism, from the
industrial age to our time. Clear and accessible, it is an invaluable
touchstone for current debates about economic renewal in our
post-globalization moment." ―Michael Sandel, author of The Tyranny of Merit
“Cassidy
takes the reader on a fascinating journey to find out how capitalism
has transformed the world. He brings to life well- and lesser-known
voices who debate how the system works. The urgency to make it work
better for those outside the top 1 percent is palpable.” ―Wendy Carlin, professor of economics, University College London and CORE Econ
"It’s
about time we had a history of capitalism told through the eyes of its
critics. For too long the predominant global system for safeguarding the
power of the few against the needs of the many has been thought of like
the weather: inevitable and eternal, something that cannot be changed,
that can only be borne or enjoyed, depending on the day. Cassidy is more
storyteller than bomb thrower, and one can only hope this gets the
mainstream attention it deserves." ―Literary Hub
