I try to judge a book not primarily by whether or not I agree with the authors’ main conclusions, but … Continue reading “Book review: “Slavery, Capitalism and the Industrial Revolution” by Maxine Berg and Pat Hudson (Part 1)”

When this blog was launched over a decade ago, most of my articles were rebuttals of the latest nonsense I … Continue reading ““Yet you participate in society”: in defence of “Mr Gotcha””

As recently as 1981, 88 percent of the Chinese population was living in extreme poverty; today it is less than … Continue reading “Explaining China’s economic miracle”

In the past 100 years, there have been attempts to build socialist societies in at least 24 countries around the … Continue reading “Peru: the next experiment in Marxism-Leninism?”

Summary Millennials have long been portrayed as a politically disengaged and apathetic generation. In recent years, however, that portrayal has … Continue reading “Left turn ahead: Surveying attitudes of young people towards capitalism and socialism”

At most universities – and above all in their humanities faculties – capitalism is a dirty word. It has very … Continue reading “Why intellectuals are so upset by the “injustices” of capitalism”

Dr Rainer Zitelmann’s book The Power of Capitalism could just as well have been titled “The Free Market’s Forgotten Success … Continue reading “Book review: “The Power of Capitalism” by Rainer Zitelmann (Part 1)”

Der heimliche Aufmarsch (“The Secret Deployment”) is an old socialist revolutionary song from the Weimar Republic. It calls upon the … Continue reading “Is the capitalist pot calling the socialist kettle black?”

A lot has been written about how social media (or digital media more generally), by creating online echo chambers and … Continue reading “The antidote to political polarisation is less politics”