Reflections on Commercial Life: An Anthology of Classic Texts from Plato to the Present

Is commercialization the mainspring of modernity? Do modern commercial forms represent an end state of social development--the "end of history"? Reflections on Commercial Life, an anthology of writings from the ancient Greeks to contemporary thinkers, poses these and other similar questions. It provides students, scholars, and general readers an opportunity to develop a more self- conscious and critical relationship to commercial life, as it challenges the inattention of mainstream economics to the social forms that make up commercial life, such as money,the commodity, wage-labor, and capital. Selections are drawn from seminal works of high intellectual and literary quality. Through an inquiry into history, nature, and outcomes, Reflections on Commercial Life is an important anthology that offers the opportunity to explore, as never before, alternatives to modern commercial life.