The Great Transformation
1945 Foreword by R.M. MacIver (Gollancz)
[7] HERE IS A BOOK THAT MAKES most books in its field seem obsolete or outworn. So rare an event … […]
This new orientation, suggested in other works, but not developed before confer new proportions on men and ideas. Take, for example, the Chartist Movement and the prophetic spirit of Robert Owen. Or take the famous recommendation of Speenhamland … the upholders of a tradition-bound Christianity, the easy triumph of orthodox [8] economists who nearly … […]
Mr. Polanyi leaves … […]
[9] forces of the present world may release themselves in new directions towards new goals.
A book … […]
Of primacy importance … […]
So the message of this book … […] collectivism, the sheer [10] negation of individualism, for these all tend to make some economic system the primary desideratum, and it is only as we discover the primacy of society, the inclusive coherent unity of human enterdependence, that we can hope to transcend the perplexities and the contradictions of our times.
R.M. MACIVER
Preface to the Revised Edition
APART FROM AN EXPANSION of the last chapter, the main text of this book is identical with the American edition published by Farrar and Rinehart, New York, in April, 1944, under the title the Great Transformation, many small corrections have been made.
The Appendix has been enlarged by some further Notes in the English Poor Law.
K.P.
HIGHGATE, LONDON
April, 1945[1]
Part One: The International System
1. The Hundred Years' Peace
2. Conservative Twenties, Revolutionary Thirties
Part Two: Rise and Fall of Market Economy
I. Satanic Mill
3. "Habitation versus Improvement"
4. Societies and Economic Systems
[48] … Max Weber was the first among modern economic historians to protest against the brushing aside of primitive economics as irrelevant to the question of the motives and mechanisms of civilized societies.
5. Evolution of the Market Pattern
6. The Self-Regulating Market and the Fictitious Commodities: Labor, Land, and Money
[75] …the postulate that anything is bought and sold must have been produced for sale.
7. Speenhamland, 1795
8. Antecedents and Consequences
9. Pauperism and Utopia
10. Political Economy and the Discovery of Society
II. Self-Protection of Society
11. Man, Nature, and Productive Organization
12. Birth of the Liberal Creed
[148] Liberal writers like Spencer and Sumner, Mises and Lippmann offer an account on the double movement substantially similar to our own, but they put an entirely different interpretation on it. While in our view the concept of self-regulating market was utopian, and its progress was stopped by the realistic self-protection of society, in their view all protectionism was a mistake due to impatience, greed, and shortsightedness, but for which the market would have resolved its difficulties. The question as to which of these two views is correct is perhaps the most important problem of recent social history, involving as it does no less than a decision on the claim of economic liberalism to be the basis organizing principle in society.
13. Birth of the Liberal Creed (Continued): Class Interest and Social Change
14. Market and Man
15. Market and Nature
16. Market and Productive Organization
17. Self-Regulation Impaired
18. Disruptive Strains
Part Three: Transformation in Progress
19. Popular Government and Market Economy
20. History in the Gear of Social Change
21. Freedom in a Complex Society
[267] We invoked what we believed to be the three constitutive facts in the consciousness of Western man: knowledge of death, knowledge of freedom, knowledge of society. The first, according to Jewish legend, was revealed in the Old Testament story. The second was revealed through the discovery of the uniqueness of the person in the teachings of Jesus as recorded in the New Testament. The third revelation came [268] to us through living in an industrial society. No one great name attaches to it; perhaps Robert Owen came nearest to becoming its vehicle. It is the constitutive element in modern man's consciousness.
The fascist answer to the recognition of the reality of society is the rejection of the postulate of freedom. The Christian discovery of the uniqueness of the individual and of the oneness of mankind is negated by fascism. Here lies the root of its degenerative bent. Robert Owen was the first to recognize that the Gospels ignored the reality of society. He called this the "individualization" of man on the part of Christianity and appeared to believe that only in a cooperative commonwealth could "all that is truly valuable in Christianity" cease to be separated from man. Owen recognized that the freedom we gained through the teachings of Jesus was inapplicable to a complex society. His socialism was the upholding of man's claim to freedom in such a society. The post-Christian era of Western civilization had begun, in which the Gospels did not any more suffice, and yet remained the basis of our civilization.
Notes on Sources
1. Balance of Power as Policy, Historical Law, Principle, and System
2. Hundred Years' Peace
3. The Snapping of the Golden Thread
4. Swings of the Pendulum after World War I
5. Finance and Peace
6. Selected References to "Societies and Economic Systems"
7· Selected References to "Evolution of the Market Pattern"
8. The Literature of Speenhamland
9· Poor Law and the Organization of Labor
10. Speenhamland and Vienna
11. Why Not Whitbread's Bill?
12. Disraeli's "Two Nations" and the Problem of Colored Races
Text Informations
Reference:
Original Publication: Origins of our Time …
KPA:
- 19/05: Plan of a Book on the “Origins of the Cataclysm” - A Political and Economic Inquiry (47 typewritten p.)
- 19/06 : G.D.H. Cole's notes on The Great Transformation, 1943. (5 typed p.)
- 19/07: Karl Polanyi Notes for The Great Transformation, 1934-1943 (101 typed p.)
- 20/02: Book outline and introduction - "Tame Empires", 1938-1939 (32 typed p. and sometimes hand-corrected )
- 20/03: Book outline, Draft (3 typed p.)
- 20/04: Book plan, Draft, Common Man’s Masterplan (22 typed p. & handwritten)
- 20/08: The Fascist Transformation, 1934-1935 (52 typed p. & handwritten with manuscript corrections)
- Notes on Readings in KPA:
Name | Date | KPA / Src |
---|---|---|
Alphabetical Notes for The Great Transformation (A-H) | 1934•1943 | 06/05 |
Alphabetical Notes for The Great Transformation (I-R) | 1934•1943 | 06/06 |
Alphabetical Notes for The Great Transformation (S-Z) | 1934•1943 | 07/01 |
Alphabetic Notebook X Themes for The Great Transformation (A-Z) | 1934•1943 | 07/02 |
Notes on readings - A-G | 1940•1944 | 07/04 |
Notes on readings - H-P | 1940•1944 | 07/05 |
Notes on readings - R-Z | 1940•1944 | 07/06 |
Notes and outlines for The Great Transformation | 1938•1944 | 08/12 |
Notes and outlines for The Great Transformation | 1938•1944 | 08/13 |
Notes and outlines for The Great Transformation | 1938•1944 | 08/14 |
Notes and outlines for The Great Transformation | 1938•1944 | 08/15 |
Notes and outlines for The Great Transformation | 1938•1944 | 09/01 |
Recent Publication: The Great Transformation. The Political Economic Origins of our Time, Boston, Beacon Press, 2001, 303 p.
Other Languages:
Lg | Name |
---|---|
DE | |
FR | La grande transformation |
See also
- In Abraham Rotstein "Weekend Notes”: IX, (2) XI, (3) XII, (4) XIII, (5) XVII, (6) XIX, (7) XXI; The Background of The Great Transformation: I, (2) II; Beyond The Great Transformation: III; The Great Transformation and America IV, (2) IX, (3) XI.
Secondary Literature in English on the Great Transformation
Author | Year | Name | Edition |
---|---|---|---|
ÁGH Attila | 1990 | The Hundred Years’ Peace | chap. 11 of POLANYI-LEVITT (ed.) 1990, p. 93-97 |
BLOCK Fred | 2001 | Karl Polanyi and the Writing of the Great Transformation | Text presented on the 8th International Colloquium on Karl Polanyi, Mexico, 2001 ; [2003] Theory and Society, n°32, p. 275–306 ; chap. 3 de BLOCK & SOMERS 2014, p. 73-97 |
BLOCK Fred | 2001 | Introduction of The Great Transformation | Boston, Beacon Press, 2001, p. xvi-xxxviii |
BLOCK Fred | 2003 | In the Shadow of Speenhamland: Social Policy and the Old Poor Law | Politics & Society, n°31/2, p. 283-323; ch. 3 de BLOCK & SOMERS 2014, p. 73-97 |
BLOCK Fred | 2008 | Polanyi’s Double Movement and the Reconstruction of Critical Theory | Revue Interventions économiques, n°38 |
DALE Gareth | 2008 | Karl Polanyi’s The Great Transformation: Perverse effects, protectionism and Gemeinschaft | Economy and Society, 37 (4), p. 495-524 |
DALE Gareth | 2016a | Chapter 5. “The Cataclysm and its Origins” | in Karl Polanyi: A Life on the Left, New York, Columbia Univ. Press, 400 p. |
DALE Gareth | 2016c | Chapter 5. “Reconstructing The Great Transformation” | in Reconstructing Karl Polanyi, London, Pluto Press, 272 p. |
FLEMING Berkeley | 2001 | Three Years in Vermont: “The Writing of Karl Polanyi’s The Great Transformation | Conference presented to the Eighth International Karl Polanyi Conference, Mexico City, Mexico, November 14, 2001 |
KINDLEBERGER Charles Poor | 1974 | The Great Transformation by Karl Polanyi | Daedalus, n° 103, 1974 |
KOMÓROCZY Géza | 1990 | Karl Polanyi’s Historical Utopia | chap. 21 of POLANYI-LEVITT (ed.) 1990, p. 188-191 |
MUUKONEN Martii | 2009 | Karl Polanyi and ‘The Double Movement’ | 9th Conference of European Sociological Association, September, 2009, Lisbon |
ÖZEL Hüseyin | The Road to Serfdom in the Light of The Great Transformation: A Comparison on the Basis of Unintended Consequences | ||
POLANYI-LEVITT Kari | 1990 | Origins and Significance of The Great Transformation | chap. 13 of POLANYI-LEVITT (ed.) 1990, p. 111-124 |
ROBBIE Kenneth (Mc) | 2000 | Vision and Expression: Literature and The Great Transformation | chap. 7 of POLANYI-LEVITT / Mc ROBBIE (eds.) 2000, p. 85-106 |
SALSANO Alfredo | 1990 | The Great Transformation in the Oeuvre of Karl Polanyi | chap. 15 of POLANYI-LEVITT (ed.) 1990, p. 139-144 |
SPITTLER Gerd | 2009 | Contesting The Great Transformation: Work in comparative perspective | chap. 9 of HART & HANN (eds.) 2009, p. 160-174 |
WALKER Richard | 2013 | The Two Karls, or Reflections on Karl Polanyi’s The Great Transformation | Environment and Planning A, 45, p. 1662–1670. |
- ↑ Gollancz, UK, 1946 version published under the name Origins of our times. The Great transformation. Second impression January 1946.