The Relentless Revolution
The Relentless Revolution: A History of Capitalism is a 2010 book by Joyce Appleby. Content The book is an analysis of the rise of capitalism on a global basis and how it has changed, mutated and reinvented itself in a number of ways over the course of centuries. She argues that capitalism was a break from a set of circumstances that had prevailed over the course of 4,000 years and thus must be interpreted as a process of historical change rather than as an inevitable extension of human nature on the lines asserted by Adam Smith. It has its roots in changes in mercantile and commercial activity chiefly located in a certain period in Dutch and then British history (and then on to American history) before expanding across the world in various forms. Appleby's examination of the history of capitalism begins with the pervasive scarcity of agricultural societies up to the 16th century, and then explores the European divergence away from that pattern from then onwards. As intimated in the title, Appleby's emphasis is upon capitalism as a dynamic force that relentlessly revolutionises itself and the world around it. It therefore has a propulsive force which distinguishes it from the