- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: Princeton University Press; 1st edition (11 May 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0691118213
- ISBN-13: 978-0691118215
- Product Dimensions: 23.9 x 15.7 x 2.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 425,705 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Review
A brilliant book. -- Martin Wolf Financial Times 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 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 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 A clear, thought-provoking and elegant book. -- Howard Davies Times Higher Education Supplement An important and timely book. -- Giles Whittell The Times (London) 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 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
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 ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
(Robert M. Solow, Institute Professor Emeritus, Department of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
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.
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
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.
17 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
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!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
The shy murderous ape and the great experiment
When the first edition of this absorbing and important book appeared in 2004, the "great experiment" had already been under way for some ten thousand years, so a progress report in... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Sphex
The shy murderous ape and the great experiment
(Review of the revised edn: The Company of Strangers: A Natural History of Economic Life (Revised Edition))
When the first edition of this absorbing and important book... Read more
When the first edition of this absorbing and important book... Read more
Published on 1 Feb 2010 by Sphex
Trust me - a book of delights
A natural history of economic life - what's that? The answer is a broad essay on humankind seen through the optic of some fundamentals of economics. Read more
Published on 1 Sep 2009 by Victor Smart
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 3 Jun 2004
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