Capitalism and Modernity (original) (raw)

Modern people live in a world which is profoundly different than anything which came before it, resulting from a "relentless revolution" of economic, technological, and cultural change. These changes have been fiercely debated since the 18 th century, when Europe and North America first witnessed dramatic shifts from rural, subsistence agriculture to advanced commerce, finance, and industry. For instance, many have asked whether, as much of the population left meager existences for solid worldly comfort or even lavish affluence, would citizens become more enlightened, peaceable, and tolerant, or instead more skeptical, self-centered, and incapable of hardship or sacrifice? Would the lower classes share the new wealth, or be left far behind in degradation, taunted by luxuries they cannot partake of legally? When people have more interaction with foreign cultures, do they tend to adopt the foreigners' best attributes, get corrupted by their worst attributes, or are they simply reduced to a materialistic common denominator? Would more trade and interdependence lead to less war-or instead, increase its scope and destructive potential? We will pursue such questions with the help of historical, sociological, economic, and political studies, emphasizing thinkers such as