The Capitalist Manifesto

I mostly enjoyed Andy Bernstein well supported case in defense of the Creative Minds and the Inventive Period. History has condemned the most productive minds of the XIX century. As humans, they were not perfect but sure were no "Robber Barons". As productive geniuses we should take their example of the only proven way to quickly improve living standards for all. 

The Capitalist Manifesto uses the Inventive Period and its creative minds as an historic framework to explain the philosophical virtues of Capitalism. A typical error that Andy addresses here is the temptation to compare life in the late XVIII to XIX to the present. People didn't have the choice of the down of the Industrial Revolution and today standard of living, their choice was a miserably poor life in the countryside. People migrated because the conditions were much better than their alternative. Current conditions are the result of the accumulation of Capital that started almost three hundred years ago.

Highly recommended book for those in need of arguments to defend freedom from the its enemies.

Law and Revolution

Harold J. Berman thesis presents how the seeds of the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution and the Capitalist society were planted in the Middle Ages after the Papal Revolution. By elaborating on the the parallels of different kingdoms after the Papal Revolution he shows in Law and Revolution how they built upon the experience of the establishment of the Church as a State. The rivalry between the Pope and the King, the interrelationship between different kingdoms, and the mobility of people and goods help to spread the systemic view of the Law as a tool for management of societies.

Berman thesis opens a lot of questions. For instance. Is it possible for other traditions to adopt the benefits of the Western Traditions considering that they didn't go through such long and evolutionary process? Is the traditional misconception of the origins of the western tradition a source of conflict with other parts of the world? Is the Legal tradition actually a sound foundation for the construction of better societies instead of the result of other causes like Economic Progress or Political Freedom?

My rating: 4 of 5 stars