How Capitalism Saved America

Capitalism has been on trial in America since before the states united to form a federation. The trial continues today and the judge is in the prosecutor's pocket. DiLorenzo is the defence attoreny who has made an air tight case for his client. This book is his case, written so that even the lay jurror will be persuaded to cast their ballot as "not guilty on all counts."  Dr. DiLorenzo's opening argument masterfully defines what is, and is not, capitalism. He demonstrates that the majority of capitalism's alleged crimes are a case of mistaken identity. The true culprits are the restraints placed on free markets and its participants. 

Professor DiLorenzo then proceeds to cite case after case in which capitalism, rather than committing crimes, has actually been America's savior throughout the nation's entire history. Indeed, this country and everyone living in it owes more than a mere debt of gratitude to capitalism; we all have an obligation to defend it in its time of need.

Whenever someone new to economics asks me for a book recommendation, I invariably reach for Dr. Thomas DiLorenzo's How Capitalism Saved America: The Untold History of Our Country from the Pilgrims to the Present. This book rivals Hazlitt's Economics in One Lesson in terms of its readability, persuasiveness, excitement, and education. Dr. DiLorenzo showcases his singular ability to make even the driest of topics irresistibly interesting. He somehow manages to convey vast amounts of information to readers without inducing a comatose like slumber. It is clear that he has spent many years teaching students who buy into the lie that capitalism must somehow be restrained for our own good. He parlays this experience into useful insights into the minds of the ill-informed. With these insights, he constructs an argument that addresses the fallacious claims of the anti-capitalists. The book uses major events in American history to demonstrate that capitalism has a unique ability to solve major social problems without the help of any government bureaucrat.

This is one of the first books I read in the Austro-libertarian tradition and had a huge impact on my way of thinking. If you have read this book please take the time to comment on it.

I have just started on this book but the first chapter confuses me. DiLorenzo starts off with Adam Smith and yet I was under the impression due to Rothbard's work on economic history that modern capitalism can be traced by to Richard Cantillon.

Having read the book, my guess is that he started with Smith to keep it simple. The major thesis of the work was how it fit into our history not its founding. Since the average reader would probably be more familiar with Smith and since it was only a chapter on the beginning, the author chose to keep it simple.

 

 

I actually do not consider this book one of DiLorenzo's strongest works.  Do not take me wrong; I think that DiLorenzo is a wonderful historian (and I had the pleasure of listening to him speak this weekend).  But, I think in a book like this one he should have taken more steps to legitimize his claims by sourcing them.  I think the content was four stars out of five (which is a high rating), but I think that if he intends to persuade more intellectual people he will have to do a better job of providing reliable citations.  This is a weakness I've noted in many "libertarian" histories (such as Burton Folsom's New Deal or Raw Deal, which I actually liked as well).

In any case, I would like to see a book on a similar topic, but much more in depth (like a definitive history for those who are really interested).

I agree but I think that whenever you have a friend that lacks a scholarly outlook and you need something simple to plant seeds of doubt about government, this book tends to do the trick.  For something more scholarly I would recommend Conceived in Liberty. 

Subdivisions:

I agree but I think that whenever you have a friend that lacks a scholarly outlook and you need something simple to plant seeds of doubt about government, this book tends to do the trick.  For something more scholarly I would recommend Conceived in Liberty. 

What you described is what I am looking for specifically. Something to plant the seeds in those who have not read as much

Subdivisions:

I agree but I think that whenever you have a friend that lacks a scholarly outlook and you need something simple to plant seeds of doubt about government, this book tends to do the trick.  For something more scholarly I would recommend Conceived in Liberty. 

Thanks.  I will definately buy that book at some point in the near future.

I started this book this week. I agree there are a lot of claims here that would require rigorous citation to relieve skepticism of the facts asserted. I do however agree with every premise put forth so far. I only worry that unsupported claims of facts could undermine the ideas. I actually started this book as a break from Human Action which I've been reading for a couple of weeks as well.

I'm hideously new to all this and only have "Where Keynes Went Wrong" , and  "Liberty and Property" so far.  I will definately be putting this on my list, but my shopping list is getting long.

Just so you know, many of the books that the Mises store sells are online for free. You can find them all here. Some authors don't have their works up for free yet. DiLorenzo's works are not included in the literature section though.

No problem. I haven't read all of them, but I went through the first book.  It is heavily cited.  As someone else said, you can find almost anything in the literature section an aspiring Austrian could want or need to read to understand economics, history, philosophy, etc. from the Austro-libertarian perspective.  John Locke was originally something of a tyrant...   that's an example of the sort of stuff you'll find in Concieved.  You'll also find the mainstream stuff in that book but from a different perspective.  I have a friend who is teaching her kids American history with that as a textbook.  It's really well written.  Also recommended is The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History.  It is pop stuff, but makes for a fun and easy read.  I find it useful to quickly go over points and keep myself sharp on the big issues (WW1, WW2, The New Deal, The Great Depression, etc.), without having to get stuck reading through details (not that they aren't important but you get what I mean).