A fresh, funny and imaginative discourse on the nature of capitalism and how society has learned to cope with it.

Acknowledgements; Theoretical Preliminaries; 1. The Inevitability and Inhumanity of Capitalism; 2. How Society Protects Itself; In the Bosom of the Family: 3. The European Idea of the Home; 4. The Chinese Family; Among Brothers, Friends and Colleagues: 5. European Sectsm Guilds and Trade Unions; 6. Japanese Business Corporations; 7. Personal Thais; and How They Survived the Boom; The State: 8. Versions of the European State; 9. The State in China and Japan; Conclusions: 10. How We Survived Capitalism; 11. The Coming Crisis; Notes; Bibliography and Websites; Index

Erik Ringmar is a Professor at the National Chiao Tung Unviersity, Hsinchu, Taiwan. He is the author of 'Interest, Identity & Action' (CUP 1996), as well as many academic articles in the fields of history, international politics and sociology.