Join Amazon Prime and get unlimited Free One-Day Delivery. Already a member? Sign in.

 

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
More Buying Choices
36 used & new from £8.41

Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
The Company of Strangers: A Natural History of Economic Life
 
 

The Company of Strangers: A Natural History of Economic Life (Paperback)

by Paul Seabright (Author) "This morning I went out and bought a shirt ..." (more)
5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
RRP: £16.95
Price: £14.41 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £2.54 (15%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

Only 5 left in stock--order soon (more on the way).

Want guaranteed delivery by Thursday, July 16? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details
23 new from £9.34 13 used from £8.41
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Hardcover (Illustrated) 15 used & new from £5.44

Frequently Bought Together

Customers buy this book with Reinventing the Bazaar: A Natural History of Markets by J McMillan

The Company of Strangers: A Natural History of Economic Life + Reinventing the Bazaar: A Natural History of Markets
Price For Both: £25.20

Show availability and shipping details


Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Reinventing the Bazaar: A Natural History of Markets

Reinventing the Bazaar: A Natural History of Markets

by J McMillan
5.0 out of 5 stars (2)  £10.79
The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth

The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth

by Benjamin M. Friedman
5.0 out of 5 stars (1)  £9.85
The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World

The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World

by Niall Ferguson
4.4 out of 5 stars (30)  £5.99
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable

The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable

by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
3.3 out of 5 stars (112)  £6.16
Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism

Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism

by George A. Akerlof
4.4 out of 5 stars (7)  £12.69
Explore similar items

Product details

  • Paperback: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Princeton University Press; New edition edition (18 Jul 2005)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0691124523
  • ISBN-13: 978-0691124520
  • Product Dimensions: 23.2 x 15 x 2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 113,764 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
  • See Complete Table of Contents

Product Description

Review
The Company of Strangers is a model of how different disciplines can enrich each other to explain human progress.
(George Peden Times Literary Supplement )

A welcome and important contribution. . . . The Company of Strangers exemplifies a new breed of economic analysis, seeking answers to fundamental questions wherever they are found and ignoring disciplinary boundaries. . . . [It] is highly readable and will be accessible to a wide audience.
(bert Gintis," Nature )

A very unusual new book about economics, and much else besides. . . . Elaborate co-operation outside the family, but within the same species, is confined to humans. The requirements for such co-operation, and hence for modern economic life, which is founded on specialization and an infinitely elaborated division of labor, are more demanding than you might suppose. . . . The fact that things could have turned out so differently makes the modern global economy, with all its awesome productivity, seem even more miraculous.
(The Economist )

A clear, thought-provoking and elegant book.
(Howard Davies Times Higher Education Supplement )

An important and timely book.
(Giles Whittell The Times (London) )

An entertaining, wide-ranging account about how the economy evolved in a way that allowed strangers, even potentially hostile strangers, to cooperate and even collaborate within market-based institutionsS. Seabright tells the story of how human beings, despite their genetic predisposition toward violent and even murderous behavior, have managed to produce a complex civilization through market-based institutions.
(Choice )

We now depend on the efforts of many strangers for our lives. In these days of terror and conflict, Seabright's stunning exploration of this human social experiment is timely. . . . This is a book every concerned citizen should read, along with anybody in business who ever has to tangle with government regulations or the law, and who wants to understand why those relationships are so complex.
(Diane Coyle Strategy and Business )

A brilliant book.
(Martin Wolf Financial Times )

In his absorbing book, Seabright . . . marvels at how easily we 'entrust our lives to the pilot of an aircraft, accept food from a stranger in a restaurant, enter a subway train packed full of our genetic rivals.' It's not often that an economist provides nuggets for cocktail party conversation.
(Peter Young Bloomberg News )

Few economists are so sweeping in their ideas as Seabright, and few so anxious to make us look freshly at the world. . . . In The Company of Strangers, Seabright has produced one of those books that lie low, speak quietly, but work a change on the reader.
(Robert Fulford National Post )

There seems to be no place where Seabright is a stranger. He obviously feels as much at home among classical economists as among evolutionary biologists, quotes modern literature and ancient history with equal aplomb, jumps from experimental psychology to political philosophy and draws liberally on his personal memories of places from Ukraine to India. . . . [His] book is obviously not meant as an exercise in planned economy, but as an excursion, without blinkers and without apprehension, through a tumultuous crowd of ideas.
(Karl Sigmund American Scientist )

So what does it take to become truly global? In a nutshell, it means learning how to live in The Company of Strangers. In [this] illuminating book . . . Paul Seabright, himself an economist, brings together insights from history, biology and sociology to explain the concept of modern civilization.
(Korea Herald )

Paul Seabright contends that the Neolithic revolution, which saw the beginning of farming, changed not only the environment but also human nature. Settling down to tend fields promoted societies based on trust. Today, he says, all our economic institutions rely on trust. . . . [I]t is a provocative read.
(Maggie McDonald New Scientist )

Review
No one, economist or civilian, could turn the pages of this book without spotting, time and again, some unexpected and arresting idea that really wants to be thought about. Paul Seabright takes the evolutionary point of view seriously and asks how human institutions make social life possible at all, especially when the many people on whom we depend for our subsistence are strangers. From biology to banking, it is a lively landscape.
(Robert M. Solow, Institute Professor Emeritus, Department of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences )

See all Product Description

Inside This Book (Learn More)
First Sentence
This morning I went out and bought a shirt. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Search inside this book:

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
Check a corresponding box or enter your own tags in the field below
economics
cooperation
natural history

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?


 

Customer Reviews

4 Reviews
5 star:
 (4)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
5.0 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The Future of Reciprocity, 26 May 2004
By Michael Holyoke (Oxford, Oxon United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
Very briefly, the book is extremely illuminating on the strangeness of economic communities, on what in our nature makes these possible, and therefore very suggestive on the implications for future communities and future roots of conflict. It is also very well written and purposely avoids economic jargon - a light touch on a deep subject.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Packed with Knowledge!, 30 Mar 2005
By Rolf Dobelli "getAbstract.com" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
Credit author Paul Seabright's achievement on several scores. First, he is an economist who thinks outside the supply-and-demand box, and whose thoughts actually are comprehensible to the average reader. Second, his ideas are original, blending evolution, economics and sociology. In his view, the daily trusting interaction of complete strangers is a marvel that is unprecedented in the animal kingdom. Moreover, this high degree of non-familial social cooperation has only arisen in the past 10,000 years or so, despite the six to seven-million-year existence of 'Homo sapiens'. Although the average businessperson probably has no direct application for Seabright's book, it's interesting, worthwhile reading anyway. In a world where the need for global cooperation is greater, and its existence more fragile, we recommend this book for its unique, valuable perspective.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Is everything for sale?, 28 Jun 2004
This book ranges from the role of delegated decision-making to the auction of dancing girls at Sotheby's. In between it explains how we can exist in a world full of strangers without being mugged, robbed and cheated every time we enter into a transaction.

Economic theory can be dry and the examples used be economists often leave the rest of us cold, but Paul Seabright brings to life some of the arid territory of abstract reasoning and shows that once it is well watered with insight from other disciplines, it can be a fascinating area of study. The writing is lively and well sprinkled with vivid examples that make you grin, rather than grimace.

But this is more than just a treatise - the final section of the book shows how fragile this 'great experiment' could be. Seabright deals with the threats to our life among strangers in a way that could almost make you begin to appreciate the way your credit card company chases you for a payment every month!

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars From transaction economics to terrorism -- book of the year?
It's a scary world out there, but Professor Seabright helps explain why we're prepared to put our trust in people to whom we're not related. Read more
Published on 4 Jun 2004

Only search this product's reviews



Customer Discussions

 Beta (What's this?)
This product's forum (0 discussions)
  Discussion Replies Latest Post
  No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
  [Cancel]


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums


Listmania!


Look for similar items by category


Feedback


The Body Shop

The Body Shop - Vitamin C Skin Boost
Protect and boost your glow with The Body Shop Vitamin C Skin Boost.

Shop The Body Shop

 

Let Olay Amaze You

Olay Total Effects Day Moisturiser SPF15 50ml
Amazon.co.uk sells all your favourite ranges from Olay, including Regenerist and Total Effects.

Discover Olay at Amazon.co.uk

 

A Close Shave

Philips Nivea Coolskin HS8060 Moisturizing Rotary Shaving System
For all types of hair removal, stay smooth with Amazon.co.uk.

Discover Shaving & Hair Removal

 

Treat Someone

Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificates--available in any amount from £5 to £500 With an Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate, you can get them what they want (even if you don't know what that is).

Learn more about Gift Certificates

 
Ad

Where's My Stuff?

Delivery and Returns

Need Help?

Your Recent History

  (What's this?)
You have no recently viewed items or searches.

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.

Look to the right column to find helpful suggestions for your shopping session.

Continue Shopping: Top Sellers

amazon.co.uk Amazon Home
International Sites:  United States  |  Germany  |  France  |  Japan  |  Canada  |  China
Business Programs: Sell on Amazon  |  Fulfilment by Amazon  |  Join Associates  |  Join Advantage
Customer Service  |  Help  |  View Basket  |  Your Account
About Amazon.co.uk  |  Careers at Amazon
Conditions of Use & Sale |  Privacy Notice  © 1996-2009, Amazon.com, Inc. and its affiliates