A Brief History of Neoliberalism

David Harvey's A Brief History of Neoliberalism is a short and informative left-wing analysis of recent (1970-2005) global economic history, with especially perceptive insights on China. I don’t agree with his tendency to characterize this period as a fundamentally new phase of capitalism (what he calls “neoliberalism” and “accumulation by dispossession” seem to be recurring themes throughout human history), nor do I agree with his gloomy predictions which have mostly been proven wrong in the years since the book's publication. But intelligent alternative analyses like these – even when incorrect or incomplete – are nonetheless useful for testing one's own unexamined assumptions.