How Capitalism Conquered the World
W. W. Norton & Company, 2026
Publisher’s Description:
A concise, colorful, and convincing account of capitalism’s rise to global dominance
Today, a vast majority of us live under the economic system called capitalism – it touches almost every aspect of our lives, and most people alive have never known another. Yet, a cursory look at the world around us reveals that things can’t stay this way forever: an economy built on infinite amassing and consumption of resources is at odds with a finite planet. How did this happen? As the economic historian Trevor Jackson argues in this powerful book, it wasn’t always capitalism, it didn’t have to be capitalism, and capitalism didn’t have to be this way.
With a firm grasp on history and economics and a keen eye for the telling anecdote, Jackson explains where capitalism came from, how it spread across the globe, and how it came to be the dominant way of organizing life. He traces capitalism’s development from the accidental construction of an international monetary system to the creation of banking, the emergence of a new form of slavery in the eighteenth century, fossil-fuel industrialization, and finally the global capitalist system spread by imperialism in the nineteenth century. Along the way, readers learn about the surprising role of Chinese mulberry trees, Dutch cheese, whale blubber, imperial gin and tonics, Spanish conquistadors, Mexican mine workers, and English bankers in the history and development of capitalism.
Full of memorable characters and lively vignettes as well as sweeping quantitative analysis and historical synthesis, The Insatiable Machine makes clear that capitalism is neither a natural, permanent, nor inevitable feature of human life but rather an economic system that has a history. And just as it was made by people, it can also be unmade by them.
Reviews:
“[C]ompact and vivid…Jackson has written a smoothly readable account [of capitalism] while sacrificing none of its complexity.”
Jennifer Szalai, New York Times Book Review
“Jackson is a lucid and engaging writer, demonstrating a mastery of this fast-growing field…What truly sets The Insatiable Machine apart from a crowded field, however, is the incisiveness of [his] analysis. Wry, knowing, and with little patience for too-neat explanations or just-so bromides, Jackson darts nimbly from epoch to epoch, crisis to crisis, bringing sense and satisfaction to some five centuries of history.”
Scott W. Stern, New Republic
“Capitalism and mass consumption are not the only ways to live, and Jackson prompts readers to recognize that they have the power to bring about change. Readers who are curious about the history, economics, and the environmental impact of capitalism will find this book interesting.”
Jennifer Adams, Booklist
“A lucid history that invites readers to consider how human life might be organized otherwise – no easy task.”
Kirkus Reviews
“The Insatiable Machine provides a remarkably wide-ranging history of how capitalism came to be the global norm, through invention, violence, empire, and the unexpected consequences of myriad decisions. Now, Trevor Jackson argues, its environmental effects will destroy the world it created. His lucid, hugely knowledgeable tour through four centuries can help us think about what the future might be.”
Joshua B. Freeman, author of Behemoth
“Trevor Jackson is one of our most laser-eyed critics of the mystifications wrapped around today’s market society. Now he gives us a look back across the centuries with a vexed message – capitalism is insatiable, but it is not inevitable.”
Quinn Slobodian, author of Crack-Up Capitalism
“A monumental and passionate indictment of the economic system that has created incomparable wealth and innovation but has gutted the democratic systems and planet that sustained it. The Insatiable Machine is a dramatic, brilliant, and even tragically entertaining overview of capitalism’s epic rise and triumph.”
Jacob Soll, author of Free Market
“Nowhere else will you find a guide through the rise and rise of capitalism that is at once so rigorous in conceptualization yet breezy in style; comprehensive in breadth yet attentive to telling detail.”
Gabriel Winant, author of The Next Shift
About the Author:
Trevor Jackson is an economic historian at University of California, Berkeley, who also writes for The New York Review of Books, The Nation, Dissent, and The Baffler. He is the author of a monograph, Impunity and Capitalism. He lives in Berkeley, California.
Olle Bengtsson 