Spectres of Capitalism: A Critique of Current Intellectual Fashions

Samir Amin, one of the most influential economists today, has produced another groundbreaking work. Spectres of Capitalism cuts through the current intellectual fashions that assume a global capitalist triumph, taking the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Marx and Engels’s classic tract, The Communist Manifesto, to focus upon the aspirations of the destitute millions of the post-Cold War era.

In this succinct theoretical text, Amin examines the changing notion of crisis in capitalism; misconceptions of the free market model; the various distortions of Marx’s method; the role of culture in revolutions; the decline of the “law of value” in economics; the philosophical roots of postmodernism; how telecommunications affect ideology; and the myth of “pure economics.”

Amin has a broad following among students of economics, who value his analyses of the intricacies of capitalist development, both in the major powers and in the third world. The comprehensive scope of this work will also attract readers as a contribution to the international dialogue of intellectuals commemorating The Communist Manifesto.

Samir Amin is director of Forum du Tiers Monde in Dakar, Senegal. His numerous books include Eurocentrism, Empire of Chaos, and Re-Reading the Postwar Period.