An anthology of long-read book reviews by one of the European left’s foremost political economists
From the acclaimed author of How Will Capitalism End? comes an omnibus of long-form critical essays engaging with leading economists and thinkers. Critical Encounters draws on Wolfgang Streeck’s inimitable writing for the London Review of Books and New Left Review, among other publications. It opens with treatments of two contrasting historical eras—factory capitalism and financialization—and three of the world’s major economies: the United States, France and Germany. A middle section surveys the hollowing out of Western democracies and reviews Yanis Varoufakis’s “strange but indispensable” memoir of the eurozone crisis.
Delving into the world of ideas, Streeck discusses the work of Quinn Slobodian, Mark Blyth, Jürgen Habermas and Perry Anderson. Finally, he zooms out to compare his home discipline of sociology to natural history, giving a remarkable and non-deterministic reading of Charles Darwin.
In the preface, Streeck reflects on the art (or craft) of book reviewing and the continuing merits of the book form. Critical Encounters also includes a series of “Letters from Europe,” penned as the coronavirus descended upon the Continent.
About the Author
Wolfgang Streeck is Director Emeritus at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne. He is a member of the Berlin Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy. His books include Buying Time, How Will Capitalism End? and Critical Encounters.
Industry Reviews
Praise for How Will Capitalism End?"The most interesting person on the most urgent subject of our times" - Aditya Chakrabortty, Guardian
"Streeck is a mixture of the analyst, the moralist and the prophet. As an analyst, he challenges the stability of democratic capitalism. As a moralist, he dislikes a society founded on greed. As a prophet, he declares that the wages of this sin are death. He also writes devastatingly and cogently on the euro as an assault on democratic politics" - Martin Wolf, Financial Times
"Wolfgang Streeck's powerful new book demonstrates that the maladies afflicting the world-from secular stagnation to rising violent instability-herald not just the decline of neoliberalism, but what may prove to be the terminal phase of global capitalism" - Paul Mason, author of Clear Bright Future
"A compelling and distinctive analysis of the current political moment." - Hans Kundnani, The World Today
