The first & best major treatment of the crucial years 1848-1875 a penetrating analysis of the rise of capitalism throught the world In the 1860s a new word entered the economic & political vocabulary of the world 'capitalism' The global triumph of capitalism is the major theme of history in the decades after 1848 It was the triumph of a society which believed that economic growth rests on competitive private enterprise on success in buying everything in the cheapest market (including labour) & selling it in the dearest An economy so based & therefore nestling naturally on the sound foundations of a bourgoisie composed of those whom energy merit & intelligence had raised to their position & kept there would
- it was believed
- not only create a world of suitably distributed material plenty but of ever-growing enlightenment reason & human opportunity an advance of the sciences & the arts in brief a world of continuous & accelerating material & moral progress