The Capitalist Manifesto
The Historic, Economic and Philosophic Case
for Laissez-FaireReviewed by Gideon
Reich
| As recently as the
late 1980s, intellectuals were still discussing the supposed
approaching convergence between communism and capitalism. It was
claimed that the capitalist United States was suffering from an
inadequacy of social services, while the Soviet Union failed to
protect personal freedom. Faced with such problems, it was argued
that the US and Soviet systems would eventually meet halfway, with
the US becoming more socialist and the Soviet Union less
totalitarian.
It wasn’t until the collapse of the Soviet
Union in 1991 that the absurd notion of “convergence” was finally
discredited along with most remaining hopes of establishing a
so-called socialist paradise. Partly as a result, there was a
resurgence of interest in capitalism and the reasons for its
success, and a host of books have since been published seeking to
explain various aspects of the capitalist system.
What was missing, however, was a single volume
that presented the historical origins, moral justification, and
practical success of capitalism. Such a volume would correct the
misconceptions most people still have of capitalism’s origins and
early history, and answer their misgivings over the justice of
laissez-faire. Andrew Bernstein’s The Capitalist Manifesto succeeds
admirably as such a book. |
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The
Capitalist Manifesto
By Andrew Bernstein
Paperback
500 pages
(September 2005)
University Press of
America
ISBN: 0761832211 |
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The Capitalist Manifesto covers the history of the
pre-capitalist era, the dramatic positive effects of the industrial
revolution and its origins from within the Enlightenment ideas of the 18th
century. Describing the American Enlightenment, Bernstein observes:
..[T]he essence of the Enlightenment, and of its
influence on the new nation, was its uncompromising commitment to man’s
faculty of reason. For this, the 18th century philosophes owed much to
Newton. It is not merely the birth of the principle of individual rights
during this period that is important. As will be seen, capitalism rests
upon the reverence for the reasoning mind that is the hallmark of
Enlightenment thought and culture. (p.42)
The identification of reason as the primary tool of
production is an important theme of the book and this identification
serves to integrate its various parts. Relying on the philosophy of Ayn
Rand in the excerpt below, Bernstein explains that reason is man’s only
means of survival and he ties its use to the historical facts:
The goods and services that men must produce to
sustain their lives are myriad. From pens and pads, to rich agricultural
harvests, to skyscrapers and cities, to a multitude of others, man’s
productive activities are fundamentally reliant on one human faculty:
his reasoning mind.
Human beings come on earth unarmed. Whereas
animals survive by means of a physicalistic characteristics as size,
strength, footspeed, wings, etc., man has no similar abilities. His
brain is his only weapon. To build shelter, he must know at least the
rudimentary principles of architecture. To cure diseases, he must study
medicine. To grow crops and to domesticate livestock, he must understand
the basics of agricultural science. All of this, indeed, every advance
and creation on which human survival depends, requires rational thought.
This central truth of human life was illustrated
by the glorious achievements of the Scientific, Technological and
Industrial Revolutions described above. (p. 188)
Among the various historical episodes in the book,
Bernstein depicts the Scottish Enlightenment, which he views as having
taking the lead in applying reason and science to material problems. In
the 18th century, Scotland
…aspired to the Enlightenment ideal, upholding
secular rationalism and the rights of the individual….It stood for
capitalism, the rising middle class, an emphasis of education and
enlightenment, an industrious work ethic and repudiation of the
warrior-plunderer code—and as a consequence, growing urbanization and
prosperity. (p. 77)
It is through its detailed and extensive moral
defense of capitalism that The Capitalist Manifesto stands out from among
books on capitalism. In addition to chronicling the beneficial practical
results of capitalism, Bernstein identifies the nature of value and moral
principles and explains how capitalism is the only social system that
supports the principles consistent with man’s nature and the requirements
of his life. While familiar to readers of Ayn Rand’s Capitalism: The
Unknown Ideal, the ideas within the Manifesto’s philosophical chapters
provide a perfect complement to Bernstein’s detailed coverage of the
history and origins of capitalism.
There are numerous other gems in the book, including
an extensive polemics section in which Bernstein demolishes the arguments
that capitalism is the cause of slavery, imperialism, and war.
Unfortunately, in this age when most history texts
are still under the influence of modern variants of Marxism, people
receive profoundly misleading ideas about capitalism’s history, practice,
and morality. The Capitalist Manifesto is the ideal antidote to the kind
of education most people are receiving today. It deserves to have the
widest possible readership.
Gideon Reich blogs at
Armchair Intellectual and works as a
database administrator in Orange County, California.
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