19 books to blow open your economic imagination
Our economy isn't working for us or the planet. Reading these books can help us figure out where we went wrong - and how we can do better.
There are a few books that have fundamentally shaped by understanding of what the economy is - and could be. Here are a few of them, in no particular order, focusing on alternative local economies. Let me know your own favorites!
The New Systems Reader: Alternatives to a Failed Economy
A fantastic overview of economic alternatives, and strategies for expanding them, around the world. Get this on your desk ASAP.
The End Of Capitalism (As We Knew It): A Feminist Critique of Political Economy
Radicals often conflate Capitalism with the Economy, and the Economy with Capitalism. JK-Gibson-Graham take a poststructuralist sledgehammer to this argument, showing a way beyond the “capitalocentrism” stifling our economic imagination.
Karl Polanyi: A Life on the Left
The economy is more than the stock market or GDP. It’s how we meet our material needs - however wisely or wastefully. Let Karl Polanyi be your guide.
The Heterodox Theory of Social Costs
"Externalities" like pollution don't begin to cover all the social costs which private enterprise burdens us with. This book helps you see these costs.
The Fiscal Crisis of the State
An oldie but a goodie: analyzes how fiscal crises are partly due to the conflicting responsibilities of the capitalist state (winning legitimation vs. securing accumulation).
The Local State: Public Money and American Cities
A classic history of how American cities have routinely gone into fiscal crisis due to failed “bets on growth.”
Running Steel, Running America” Race, Economic Policy, and the Decline of Liberalism
Complaining about deindustrialization wasn’t big in the 1990s. Judith Stein broke the mold, showing how the economic obliviousness of postwar liberals doomed their social and civil rights efforts.
Urban America Reconsidered: Alternatives for Governance and Policy
Probably the best book on why mainstream economic policies fail cities. But rather than underestimate economic pressures on cities, Imbroscio encourages us to meet these pressures with alternative strategies.
The Death and Life of Great American Cities
Jane Jacobs is often romanticized, but there’s lots of radicalism smuggled into her economic vision. Her sallies against “catastrophic money” and defense of economic diversity are more prescient than ever.
Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity
Charles Marohn is a giant of contemporary urbanist thought. His concept of a “growth Ponzi scheme” which locks up cities in economic fragility- absolutely brilliant. Pick this one up now.
Lewis Mumford’s fulminations against financialized real estate speculation still hold true. So do his visions of sustainable, community-oriented regions.
Robert Fitch is a hero of mine: a luftmensch of the mind who poured his soul into exposing the sordid history of economic policy in New York City. Highly recommended.
An excellent overview of the radical movements for urban automony and economic democracy springing up around the world.
Claiming the City: A Global History of Workers’ Fight for Municipal Socialism
More than a hundred years ago, workers pushed for profitable municipal enterprises in housing, land, utilities, and even bakeries. This is their story.
America Beyond Capitalism: Reclaiming Our Wealth, Our Liberty, and Our Democracy
Gar Alperovitz's plan for transforming the American economy is clear, ambitious, and realistic. Definitely worth taking seriously.
Free Markets & Capitalism?: Do Free Markets Always Produce a Corporate Economy?
Is the free market anti-capitalist? According to many radical libertarians: yes. Open your mind and give it this book a chance: it WILL disrupt your thinking forever.
Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice
Dr. Nembhard has written a magnificent history of how Black people have sought racial and economic justice through cooperation. You need to read this.
The World-Ending Fire: The Essential Wendell Berry
No author has written more elegantly on the environmental and moral ravages of industrial agriculture. God bless you, Wendell Berry.
J.K. Gibson-Graham’s books are formative in my thinking including the companion to The End of Capitalism, A Post-Capitalist Politics.