John Cassidy talks to Jennifer Nadel

At a time when we are faced with fundamental questions about the sustainability and morality of the economic system, John Cassidy adopts a bold new approach: he tells the story of capitalism through the eyes of its critics. From colonialism and the Industrial Revolution to the ecological crisis and artificial intelligence, he offers a kaleidoscopic history of global capitalism and a lively exploration of economic theories.

In conversation with Jennifer Nadel, co-founder of think tank Compassion in Politics, he looks again at familiar figures – Smith, Marx, Luxemburg, Keynes, Polanyi – but also at many less well known, such as Flora Tristan, the French proponent of a universal labour union; John Hobson, the original theorist of imperialism; and JC Kumarappa, the Indian exponent of Gandhian economics. Cassidy is a staff writer on The New Yorker and author of How Markets Fail, a Pulitzer finalist.