Reading The Great Transformation

Abstract

Reading the Great Transformation The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time, by Karl Polanyi. Boston: Beacon Press, 2001 (orig. 1944). The Power of Market Fundamentalism: Karl Polanyi’s Critique, by Fred Block and Margaret R. Somers. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2014. 296 pp. Isaac William Martin University of California – San Diego iwmartin@ucsd.edu Theory Economic Sociology Political Sociology Karl Polanyi’s book The Great Transformation is a classic. First published in 1944, it has come to be recognized as a founding charter for economic sociology. It anticipated major accomplishments of late-twentieth century social science (including, among others, Ben Bernanke’s studies of the Great Depression and Amartya Sen’s work on famine). Its core problems—how do societies respond to globalization? how do they address the risks of market failure?—are central to contemporary macrosociology. It is