By Rainer Zitelmann

The Power of Capitalism; A Journey through Recent History across Five Continents
Editions:Hardcover: $ 27.00
ISBN: 978-1-912555-00-0
Pages: 256
Kindle: $ 10.00

The Power of Capitalism is an exploration of capitalism and its power to create growth and prosperity all over the world.

  • A highly engaging analyses of capitalism – the engine behind the modernisation and growth of both democratic and socialist countries.
  • Fast-paced ramble through recent history, supported by well-researched facts, figures and anecdotal evidence.
  • “An important contribution to disentangling the confusion around the much-aligned concept of capitalism”–European.
  • Fascinating discussion about why intellectuals, the media and politicians are so against capitalism.

“The market has failed, we need more government intervention.” That’s the mantra politicians, the media, and intellectuals have been reiterating ever since the outbreak of the 2008 financial crisis.

By taking the reader on a journey across continents and through recent history, The Power of Capitalism disproves this call for greater government intervention, and demonstrates that capitalism matters more than ever. Rainer Zitelmann provides compelling evidence from across the world that capitalism has been the solution to a number of massive problems. He compares developments in West and East Germany, North and South Korea, capitalist Chile versus Socialist Venezuela, and analyzes the extraordinary economic rise of China.

For many people, “capitalism” is a dirty word. This book provides a timely reminder of capitalism’s power in enabling growth and prosperity, and in alleviating poverty.

Reviews:Martin Wolf on Financial Times wrote:

"Not only does capitalism work, it is also the only economic system that works. This is Zitelmann’s core point in The Power of Capitalism. He justifies this controversial proposition by an appeal to historical experience, not abstract theory. Readers are taken through extraordinary stories of market-driven success [...[ Zitelmann, a committed ideologue, pushes his view too far. He argues, for example, that the economic reforms of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan were an astonishing success. Yet that is debatable. In both cases, one consequence was a big rise in inequality. Zitelmann insists this is insignificant. [...] More egregiously, Zitelmann says the financial crisis was 'triggered by developments on the American residential property market, which had their roots in political interventions and the policies of the US Federal Reserve'. These are standard rightwing talking points but are hugely exaggerated. Similarly, his view that the correct thing to have done post-crisis was to allow mass bankruptcy and risk a severe depression was what discredited the Austrian school of economics in the 1930s. Such policies also led to the election of Adolf Hitler. Yet, for all the exaggeration and oversimplification, a good part of what Zitelmann argues is right. He is right, too, that too many intellectuals, out of some combination of envy, distaste and arrogance, wrongly detest capitalism and capitalists. [...] Zitelmann views democracy mainly as a source of demands for excessive public spending and intervention in the market. Thus, for him, democracy is a threat to capitalism."


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Table of Contents of The Power of Capitalism

  1. Introduction: Field Experiments in Human History
  2. China: From Famine to Economic Miracle
  3. Africa: Capitalism Is More Effective against Poverty than Development Aid
  4. Germany: You Can't Overtake a Mercedes in a Trabant
  5. North and South Korea: Kim Il-sung versus the Wisdom of the Market
  6. Chancing More Capitalism: Thatcher's and Reagan's Pro-market Reforms in the UK and the US
  7. South America: Why Are Chileans Better Off than Venezuelans?
  8. Sweden: The Myth of Nordic Socialism
  9. Economic Freedom Increases Human
  10. The Financial Crisis: A Crisis of Capitalism?
  11. Why Intellectuals Don't Like Capitalism
  12. An Urgent Appeal for Pro-capitalist

About Rainer Zitelmann

Rainer ZitelmannRainer Zitelmann (1957) is a German historian, author, management consultant and real estate expert. He has written a total of 21 books. His books are successful all around the world, especially in China, India and South Korea. Books that appeared in English:

  • Hitler: The Policies of Seduction, Allison & Busby, London 2000.
  • Dare to be Different and Grow Rich, Indus Source Books, Mumbai 2012.
  • The Wealth Elite: A groundbreaking study of the psychology of the super rich, Lid Publishing, London and New York 2018