Many thanks to Anne, Greg, and John for bringing attention to Robert Kuttner’s book.

Members of this listserv might also be interested in Kuttner’s review of Karl Polanyi: A Life on the Left[log in to unmask]" alt="https://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=thneyoreofbo-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0231176090">

by Gareth Dale.

 

I have not read Dale’s book and I am barely into Kuttner’s book (again, thank you Anne), which appears excellent.

Kuttner’s review raises some of the same themes addressed in his book. Well worth checking out.

 

https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2017/12/21/karl-polanyi-man-from-red-vienna/

 

 

 

From: AFEEMAIL Discussion List <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Henry, John
Sent: Wednesday, July 18, 2018 7:35 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Excellent review article

 

Dear AFEEers,

 

Given the recent attention to Polanyi, some may want to consult the archives, housed at Concordia University in Montreal, and organized through the work of his daughter, Kari Levitt-Polanyi--though, when I studied at McGill, she was just plain old Levitt. I never knew she was Polanyi's daughter (and probably didn't know who Polanyi was!).

 

http://www.concordia.ca/research/polanyi/archive.html

 

The Karl Polanyi Digital Archive (KPIPE) gives users access to the archival collection in digital form: notes, lecture notes and outlines, outlines of projected books, drafts of manuscripts (published and unpublished), unpublished papers and published articles by Karl Polanyi, as well as papers by others.


John

 

John F. Henry

Levy Economics Institute of Bard College

Annandale-on-Hudson

NY 12504

 

Email: [log in to unmask]

From: AFEEMAIL Discussion List <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Gregory Hayden <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2018 6:54:42 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Excellent review article

 

AFEE Colleagues:

 

I agree with Anne Mayhew’s assessment of Caleb Crain’s summary of Karl Polanyi’s Great Transformation. I thought it was so good that I emailed a copy to some of my undergraduates early this summer.

 

Something that caught my interest in Crain’s review was the comment about Polanyi’s wife, Ilona Duczynaska. According to Crain, she “was a Communist engineer . . . [who] had smuggled tsarist diamonds out of Russia in a tube of toothpaste and once borrowed a pistol to assassinate Hungary’s Prime Minister, though he resigned before she could shoot him.” I earlier learned that she was not allowed to live in the U.S. because she was a communist but I was not aware that she was so active in early communist revolutionary activities. That set me off to ignore my own work and to google her record instead. There, I learned that she was even more involved with Moscow than indicated by Crain’s comment.

 

In one of her files, I also discovered different versions of a Polanyi lecture (about which I was not aware) that was a critique of John Galbraith’s Affluent Society. The main point of the negative part of Polanyi’s critique was Galbraith’s idea that the production level should be based on the amount of production necessary to have full employment. Had that issue been taken more seriously at the time, we would be further along in making decisions about how to adjust production to deal with global warming.

 

I intend to read Kuttner’s book, but from Crain’s  review, I assume (a very loosey-goosey abductive assumption) that it is going to be too tied to a model of capitalism (hope not) to be of much assistance for understanding reality.

 

Greg Hayden

 

 

 

F. Gregory Hayden, Ph.D.

Professor of Economics

University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Lincoln, NE 68588-0489

Phone:  402-472-2332

Fax:  402-472-9700

Email:  [log in to unmask]

 

Social Fabric Matrix Approach

     Website: http://cba.unl.edu/academic-programs/departments/economics/sfm/

     Publications: http://cba.unl.edu/academic-programs/departments/economics/sfm/documents/social-fabric-matrix-publications.pdf

 

From: AFEEMAIL Discussion List <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Mayhew, Anne
Sent: Saturday, July 14, 2018 3:37 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Excellent review article

 

 

In the May 14 issue of The New Yorker there is a review article  on Robert Kuttner's new book, Can Democracy Survive Global Capitalism? by Caleb Crain.  I have not yet read Kuttner's book but can tell you that in reviewing it, Crain provides what is probably the best relatively short and easily read summary of Polanyi's The Great Transformation that I have ever read.  According to Crain, Kuttner "champions Polanyi as a neglected prophet.  I plan to get a copy of Kuttner's book but in the meantime, I strongly recommend Crain's review. 

 

--Anne