By A concise account of capitalism’s rise to global dominance. Explains where capitalism came from, how it spread across the globe, and how it came to be the dominant way of organizing life. Traces capitalism’s development from the accidental construction of an international monetary system to the creation of banking, the emergence of a new form of slavery in the eighteenth century, fossil-fuel industrialization, and finally the global capitalist system spread by imperialism in the nineteenth century. Provides a sweeping quantitative analysis and historical synthesis, makes clear that capitalism is neither a natural, permanent, nor inevitable feature of human life but rather an economic system that has a history. And just as it was made by people, it can also be unmade by them. Read more.