Book review by Neo Claudia Mohlerepe, 19030141027
Title: Historical Capitalism and Capitalist Civilization.
Author: Immanuel Wallerstein
Within the introduction we learn the objective of Wallerstein writing this book; “to see capitalism as a
historical system, over the whole of history and in concrete reality.”
In the first chapter, Wallerstein states that capitalism is a historical system, but only became so after
humans not only accumulated capital but reinvested it in order to gain more capital. He focuses the
beginning in late fifteenth century Europe. According to the reading, this is where this historical system
began evolved over time to the capitalist system we see today. Wallerstein makes a link from the
capitalist system to the commodification of everything. As the phrase suggests, modern day capitalism
sees that everything has a price but it didn’t used to be this way. He cites this as direct result of the
capitalists aim to make more money. As the book explores the ripple effects of the emergence of the
historical capitalist system he also portrays how this affected working class’s personal lives. He links the
growth of enterprises to the increase in proletarian households. He delves further into how working
class family structures were affected by the ruling class who used economic and political influence to
turn communities into semi proletarian, effectively reducing labor costs, ultimately making the
capitalists richer which seems to be the main goal at this point.
By the second chapter, Wallerstein starts to incorporate the politics that came with historical capitalism
into the writing. He portrays how capitalists started affecting politics not only in their local territories
but also on the world stage. States passed legislations on labor often favoring capitalists. This in turn led
rebellion often faced with harsh punishment and then to the innovation that is permanent rebellion
organizations. To benefit from different resources, capitalists began moving their trading across
frontiers. They urged for legalization of exploitative labor such as slavery, and the rise of colonies came
about. While capitalism wasn’t the sole drive for this it played a main role. Towards the middle of the
chapter Wallerstein demonstrates how states became economic powers themselves. Through the
introduction of taxes, states began accumulating large amounts of capital. Furthermore, he states that
armed militaries became monopolized by states. Because of all these, he insists that the basis of victory
the world wars were economic, essentially who can outcompete who, which has been the essence of
the historical capitalist system.
The third chapter, labeled truth as opiate, explores how people have come to terms with, or dealt with
the negative effects of capitalism. In previous chapters Wallerstein has touched on the negative effects
that the capitalist system has on people and in this chapter focuses on institutional racism. He explores
how by the 1950s the anti-systemic groups had grown to include previously marginalized groups such as
minorities and women. Because of this he disagrees with Marx’s theory that religion is the opiate of the
masses, theorizing that because of the historical capitalist system, truth is the opiate of both the masses
and intellectuals. This is due to the fact that mass awareness of the effects that capitalists had had on
societies had grown and the renaissance, as witnessed throughout the world saw to the growth of
intellectualism and as such universalism was pushed by famous universities such as Harvard. Towards
the end of the chapter Wallerstein beings to theorize that the historical capitalist system is a transition
from a capitalist system to a socialist one though he clarifies has no idea how this future will look. He
ends the chapter by stating that capitalist by its success has gotten worse not better.
The final chapter of part one, the conclusion, while being a relatively short chapter serves to try to find a
middle ground between the horrible historical capitalist system and a communist utopia, socialism.
Wallerstein begins by contrasting conservative beliefs and liberal beliefs on the idea of progress. He
aligns the ideas of Marxists with those liberals on this case despite the idea of progress justifying both
capitalism and socialism. He explores the benefits of capitalism including increased quality of life,
increase in the margin of human safety and compounding technological advancements. He then on the
basis of equality, liberty and fraternity contrasts the benefits to the drawbacks taking into account the
industry worker, racial minorities and women. He argues that in hindsight the rate of exploitation has
escalated sharply throughout history. He also explores how the gap between the higher class and lower
classes has not closed but grown in time. Finally based on previously given evidence he says that
“historical capitalism was brought into existence by a landed aristocracy which transformed itself into a
bourgeois because the old system was disintegrating” and that there might be a proletarian revolution
in the future. He shares his belief that socialist states have reflected all the contradictions and
constraints of historical system and ends the chapter exploring how socialism could come into play,
hopefully replacing the capitalist system. Wallerstein believes that “Socialism is a reliable historical
system that may one day instituted in the world” emphasizing on the fact it maximizes equity and
equality.
The second part of the book, capitalist civilization opens with a chapter called balance sheet. In this
chapter Wallerstein weighs the negative and positive consequences of a capitalist world economy. To do
this he focuses on three factors, the four horsemen of the apocalypse and basic needs, quality of
individual life and quality of collective life. The four horsemen of the apocalypse, he states, are civil war,
famine, war (between peoples and states) and death also known as the “horrors of the world” as he
calls them. He explores how capitalism aims to solve these problems and provide increased quality of
both individual and collective life. He explores how the capitalist system both failed and succeed on all
matters. He then ends the chapter by concluding that the capitalist system though having its benefits is
limited and must give way to something better.
In the final chapter, future prospects, Wallerstein claims the capitalist system is coming to an end and
aims to explain this using its “contradictions” as he puts it. These are the dilemma of accumulation, the
dilemma of political legitimization and the dilemma of the geocultural agenda. In the end of the book,
he uses the previously stated dilemmas to prove the historical capitalist systemic crisis delving into
patterns seen from past to present. Wallerstein finally ends the book by discussing three possible social
formulae to this problem taking into account historical systems that have come to pass.