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RELIGION AND THE RISE OF CAPITALISM

Name: RELIGION AND THE RISE OF CAPITALISM
Author: Benjamin M. Friedman
ISBN: 978-0-593-31798-3

by Benjamin M. Friedman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 26, 2021

Not without flaws but still an important work on the origins of capitalism.

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A study of the long and deep influence of religion on economic thought and policy in the West, especially in the U.S.

Following in the footsteps of Max Weber and R.H. Tawney (from whom he takes his title), Friedman, a professor of political economy at Harvard, deepens the case that throughout modern history in the West, religious thought and economic policy have been reciprocally enmeshed. From the birth of serious economic thinking in the 18th century, questions of virtue and morality inescapably infused thought about wealth, poverty, commerce, and industry. At the same time, religious leaders preached about people’s obligations regarding earning, saving, using money wisely, and thinking about wealth in moralistic terms. The author sets his story in its full historical context, with the economic and theological principles of the leading characters not disembodied or isolated from life. Adam Smith, responsible for “an astonishing intellectual breakthrough,” is Friedman’s leading figure, but many others, some little known (Daniel Raymond, Shailer Mathews), populate his pages. Turning to the U.S., the author argues that the breakup of religious thought and practice into old-style Calvinist ideas and evangelical enthusiasm have led to many of today’s political and economic predicaments. Few readers will fail to come away convinced of Friedman’s strong central thesis, but there are omissions. Friedman, a noted economist, strangely devotes more ink to religious thought than to economic principles, and aside from late-in-the-book appearances by Friedrich Hayek and William F. Buckley Jr., this is a history of the rise of Protestant religion in relation to capitalism. We learn nothing of Jewish or Catholic thinkers or economists, especially curious given the author’s attention to the U.S. If this is really a Protestant story, what does it tell us? Friedman doesn’t say, but he does provide solid points of departure for further scholarly investigation.

Not without flaws but still an important work on the origins of capitalism.

Pub Date: Jan. 26, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-593-31798-3

Page Count: 544

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2020

Categories:

HISTORY | PHILOSOPHY & RELIGION | BUSINESS | UNITED STATES | ECONOMICS

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THE CULTURE MAP

BREAKING THROUGH THE INVISIBLE BOUNDARIES OF GLOBAL BUSINESS

by Erin Meyer ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 27, 2014

These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.

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A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.

“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.

These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.

Pub Date: May 27, 2014

ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1

Page Count: 288

Publisher: PublicAffairs

Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014

Categories:

BUSINESS | PSYCHOLOGY

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THE MYTH OF SISYPHUS

AND OTHER ESSAYS

by Albert Camus ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 26, 1955

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This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.