Concerned with the origins of capitalism and the conditions that accompanied its birth, this work argues that capitalism is more than an economic system: it is a culture that affects not just the material but also the social, familial and even spiritual bases of existence.
This book has been awarded the American Sociological Association, Family Section, William J. Goode Award for 1987.
This book should stimulate work and thought rather than impose a new orthodoxy. Its combination of iconoclasm with questioning gives it an interest that is relatively rare in recent English historiography.