Traces the history of the capitalist idea in western thought, from its origins in the ancient classical world and medieval Christianity to its flowering from 1700 to the present day, revealing how philosophers and theorists have influenced the ways in which the market can affect society and analyzin[...]

At a time when the label "conservative" is indiscriminately applied to fundamentalists, populists, libertarians, fascists, and the advocates of one or another orthodoxy, this volume offers a nuanced and historically informed presentation of what is distinctive about conservative social and political[...]