An essential introduction and analysis of the contemporary significance of Karl Polanyi's work, written from the unique perspective of his daughter.

Four years into the unfolding of the most serious crisis since the 1930s, Karl Polanyi's prediction of the fateful consequences of unleashing the destructive power of unregulated market capitalism on peoples, nations, and the natural environment has assumed new urgency and relevance. Polanyi's insistence that 'the self-regulating market' must be made subordinate to democracy, otherwise society itself may be put at risk, is as true today as it was when Polanyi wrote.

Written from the unique perspective of his daughter, From the Great Transformation to the Great Financialization is an essential contribution to our understanding of the evolution and contemporary significance of Karl Polanyi's work, and should be read against the background of the accelerating accumulation of global finance that created a series of financial crises in Latin America, Russia, Asia, and, eventually, the heartlands of capitalism itself.

Building on an intimate knowledge of her father's work, Kari Polanyi Levitt addresses both the "great financialization" of capitalism and the "great transformation" of the world economy by the emergence of the Global South. The author's approach reveals the striking contrast between the power of the historical method and the sterility of conventional economic theory based on trans-historical rationality.