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From the Great Transformation to the Great Financialization:
On Karl Polanyi and Other Essays
A new book by Kari Levitt, with Afterword by Samir Amin
From the Great Transformation to the Great Financialization is published in Canada by Fernwood Publishing and in the United States and the rest of the world by Zed Books of London and New York.
In Canada, Kari Levitt is known for her path-breaking study Silent Surrender (1970, 2002), which warned of the consequences of permitting industries to be dominated by multinational corporations. In the Caribbean the author is known for her work on the persistence of the Plantation Economy (2009), from slavery to the present.
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In From the Great Transformation to the Great Financialization, Kari Levitt draws on the insights of her father Karl Polanyi’s classic The Great Transformation to set the financial crisis of 2008 in the perspective of the predatory financialization of the Western heartlands of capitalism. The author traces the return of capitalism to its mercantilist origins in commerce and conquest, and the return of Asia to the stage of world history in the autumn of American empire. The most surprising aspect of the on-going multi-faceted global crisis has been the resilience of the South in resuming strong economic growth compared with the inability of Western governments to save the economic livelihoods of millions.
“…the continuities of scholarly approach and of substance shine through with a light that illuminates past, present and potential future.”
— Norman Girvan, University of the West Indies
“This extraordinary volume from Kari Polanyi Levitt is a must read and provides a unique window on the thinking of Karl Polanyi, demonstrating the relevance of his ideas to the challenges of the 21st Century.”
— James Putzel, London School of Economics
“The author’s approach reveals the striking contrast between the power of the historical method and the sterility of conventional economic theory based on trans-historical rationality.”
— Samir Amin, Third World Forum
“Kari Polanyi Levitt has made an important contribution to the understanding of the role of emerging nations in moving toward a more equitable multipolar world.”
— José Antonio Ocampo, Columbia University
“Kari Polanyi Levitt demonstrates how Karl Polanyi… offers an alternative policy framework for our time— one steeped in humanism, social democracy, and environmental sustainability.”
— Roy Culpeper, Carleton University
