Escape From Capitalism

Important reading … Escape from Capitalism looks at capitalism as a system, but with critical economic expertise which breaks through those many dead ends that prevent us from seeking tangible alternative solutions * Irish Times *An important corrective … it is the book we have been waiting for, providing an introduction to capitalism as well as a critique of neoclassical economics, while rejecting oversimplified populist framings targeting corporate greed, big finance, or monopoly power as the primary political problems to be overcome * Jacobin *Mattei concisely and elegantly runs through common claims in capitalism’s favour… Readers will come away ready for change * Publishers Weekly *A brilliantly illuminating book that reveals how political power is encoded within the very structure of economic theory – Adam ToozeA book for the times. Mattei takes aim at the notion that the forces which regulate market and social outcomes are socially neutral – Anwar ShaikhClara Mattei has written a powerful plea for the return of economics to what it was, and should be: an art and science for the improvement of lives of ordinary people not a seemingly non-political and technocratic instrument for the enrichment of the few – Branko MilanovicThe increasingly dysfunctional capital order we live in is neither inevitable nor permanent. Clara Mattei brilliantly shows this order was built by design and provocatively challenges us to imagine new, genuinely democratic ones in its place – Daniela GaborCapitalism seems invincible and inevitable. It is neither. Clara Mattei’s new book illustrates brilliantly its fragility and, in so doing, restores hope that everything could be different – Yanis VaroufakisOne of the brightest voices of a coming generation, Clara Mattei here offers an impassioned plea for new and wider economic and political horizons – James K. GalbraithA compelling and insightful book on austerity that, through meticulous research and historical documentation, unveils the deep political forces behind economic decisions and offers essential tools for understanding today’s world – Thomas Piketty

Clara E. Mattei is Professor of Economics at The University of Tulsa. She is the Founding President of FREE, the Forum for Real Economic Emancipation, and the author of The Capital Order (University of Chicago Press), which was praised by the Financial Times as one of the ten best economics books of 2022 and has been translated into over a dozen languages.