"THE CAPSTONE TO SCHUMPETER'S SYSTEM"

SCHUMPETER, Joseph. Imperialism and Social Classes. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1951. Octavo, original navy cloth, original dust jacket. $650.

First English edition of two seminal essays by the founder of evolutionary economics, issued the year after Schumpeter's death, a handsome copy.

The two landmark essays in Imperialism and Social Classes, which first appeared in German in the 1920s, "form, in a very real sense, the capstone to Schumpeter's system" (Bert Hoselitz). In "Sociology of Imperialisms," Schumpeter "made a coherent and sustained argument concerning the pacifying effects of liberal institutions and principles" (Michael Doyle). Essentially, he saw capitalism and democracy as working in tandem to provide the foundation of liberal pacifism, a theory that he tested against historical imperialisms such as empires and export monopolists. In "Social Classes," Schumpeter asserted that capacity and class position are closely correlated, resulting in the possibility of upward mobility in the correct circumstances. Schumpeter, who died the year before this much-anticipated publication of his early essays, "counted them among his major scientific writings" (Sweezy, Introduction). Translation into English by Heinz Norden. Edited and with an introduction by Schumpeter's student and longtime colleague, Paul M. Sweezy. "Zur Soziologie der Imperalismen" and "Die soziale Klassen im ethnisch homogenen Milieu" initially appeared in Archive für Sozialwissenschaft and Sozialpolitik, 1918-1919 and 1927, respectively. Preceded by the same year's first edition in English issued in New York. Stevenson 15. Occasional penciled underlinings and marginalia; bookseller label.

Book fine; only mild toning to spine of near-fine dust jacket.