Sign-In
Cart
Losing Interest: The Antisocial History of Economic Growth
Paperback
EconomicsGeneral Political Science
Publisher Price: $20.00
Please select the version of book you would like to purchase.
ISBN10: 1849356505
ISBN13: 9781849356503
Publisher: AK Press
Published: Apr 21 2026
Pages: 236
Weight: 0.71
Height: 0.90 Width: 5.40 Depth: 8.40
Language: English
ISBN13: 9781849356503
Publisher: AK Press
Published: Apr 21 2026
Pages: 236
Weight: 0.71
Height: 0.90 Width: 5.40 Depth: 8.40
Language: English
Nothing about endless capitalist growth is normal.
Across thousands of years of human history, most cultures have placed explicit social and moral restrictions on economic growth, with charging interest scorned as benefiting from another's hardship and profit-making as divisive. So how did interest rates, monetary gains, and return on investment come to rule our modern world?
Across thousands of years of human history, most cultures have placed explicit social and moral restrictions on economic growth, with charging interest scorned as benefiting from another's hardship and profit-making as divisive. So how did interest rates, monetary gains, and return on investment come to rule our modern world?
Though most economic histories tell this story as one of overcoming superstition in favor of social progress, Losing Interest explains how the concept of interest had to be continuously rehabilitated over six centuries of European colonial expansion, transforming profit from a mortal sin into a business model. From early Medici innovations in banking to the development of insurance schemes in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, our current economic system was built on legal and financial tools that abstract capital from the ongoing reality of deception, theft, and mass murder at its core.With wit and lyricism, anthropologist Scott W. Schwartz makes a clear, commonsense appeal for our shared wellbeing against capitalism's nonsensical demand for widespread suffering to produce the mounting wealth of the few. In the spirit of David Graeber, Thomas Piketty, and Kohei Saito, Losing Interest serves as a prequel to contemporary degrowth literature, illuminating the history and mechanics of how interest has risen to take from the poor and give to the rich.
Also in
General Political Science
Capitalism and the Camera: Essays on Photography and Extraction
Coleman, Kevin
James, Daniel
Paperback
$28.45
Playing Oppression: The Legacy of Conquest and Empire in Colonialist Board Games
Jakobsson, Mikael
Flanagan, Mary
Hardcover
$52.50
The Craftivist Collective Handbook: Projects, Stories and Methods for Your Gentle Protests
Corbett, Sarah P.
Hardcover
$19.99
Guerrilleros and Neighbours in Arms: Identities & Cultures of Anti-Fascist Resistance in Spain
Marco
Paperback
From $24.99
Battling the Big Lie: How Fox, Facebook, and the Maga Media Are Destroying America
Pfeiffer, Dan
Hardcover
$10.99
Urban Revolutions: Urbanisation and (Neo-)Colonialism in Transatlantic Context
Kipfer, Stefan
Paperback
$43.50
Nonstate Warfare: The Military Methods of Guerillas, Warlords, and Militias
Biddle, Stephen
Hardcover
$67.50
By the Light of Burning Dreams: The Triumphs and Tragedies of the Second American Revolution
Talbot, David
Talbot, Margaret
Hardcover
$27.54
An Enemy Such as This: Larry Casuse and the Fight for Native Liberation in One Family on Two Continents Over Three Centuries
Correia, David
Hardcover
From $12.99
Turning the Tide: U.S. Intervention in Central America and the Struggle for Peace
Chomsky, Noam
Paperback
From $11.99
Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism
Wolin, Sheldon S.
Paperback
$11.99
Everyday Life and Politics in Nineteenth Century Mexico: Men, Women, and War
Wasserman, Mark
Paperback
$44.93
With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law Is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful
Greenwald, Glenn
Hardcover
$35.14
Broken News: Why the Media Rage Machine Divides America and How to Fight Back
Stirewalt, Chris
Paperback
From $9.99
Doing History from the Bottom Up: On E.P. Thompson, Howard Zinn, and Rebuilding the Labor Movement from Below
Lynd, Staughton
Paperback
$18.95
China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power
Wudunn, Sheryl
Kristof, Nicholas D.
Paperback
From $8.99
The Clash of Globalizations: Neo-Liberalism, the Third Way and Anti-Globalization
Kiely, Ray
Paperback
$30.00
Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump
Haberman, Maggie
Swan, Jonathan
Hardcover
$30.60
The U.S. Constitution: A Comprehensive and Annotated Guide for the Modern Reader
Murray, Melissa
Hardcover
$27.00
American Scoundrel: Roy Cohn's Dark Journey from Joe McCarthy to Donald Trump
Goldmark, Susan
Bird, Kai
Hardcover
$28.80
Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person's Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists, and Flock-Fleecing Frauds
Fugelsang, John
Hardcover
From $17.99
Live Laugh Love: The Secret History of White Christian Women and the World They Made
Kobes Du Mez, Kristin
Hardcover
From $19.99
Ordinary People, Extraordinary Times: How to Reclaim Your Power, Fight for Freedom, and Reimagine Democracy
Perryman, Skye
Paperback
$16.14
American Struggle: Democracy, Dissent, and the Pursuit of a More Perfect Union: An Anthology
Meacham, Jon
Hardcover
$34.20
The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017
Khalidi, Rashid
Paperback
$17.99
The Elijah Mandate: A Call to Courageous Faith in a Hostile World
Piflaks, Tolik
Tsarfati, Amir
Paperback
$18.04
The Counterrevolution: The Fall and Rise of Donald Trump and the Maga Movement
Hanson, Victor Davis
Hardcover
$32.30
The Crooked Places Made Straight: Reflections on the Moral Meaning of America
Warnock, Raphael G.
Hardcover
$27.00
The College Scam: How America's Universities Are Bankrupting and Brainwashing Away the Future of America's Youth
Kirk, Charlie
Hardcover
$35.99
Into the Wood Chipper: A Whistleblower's Account of How the Trump Administration Shredded Usaid
Enrich, Nicholas
Hardcover
From $19.99
The Lost Founder: James Wilson and the Forgotten Fight for a People's Constitution
Wegman, Jesse
Hardcover
$27.00
The Invisible Coup: How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Immigration as a Weapon
Schweizer, Peter
Hardcover
$30.88
The Steal: Four Right-Wing Hard-Liners, One Republican Presidency, and the Raid on America's Courts
Wagner, Alex
Hardcover
$26.99
If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All
Yudkowsky, Eliezer
Soares, Nate
Hardcover
$28.50
The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program That Shaped Our World
Bevins, Vincent
Paperback
$19.79
There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America (Pulitzer Prize Winner)
Goldstone, Brian
Paperback
$18.00
Last Branch Standing: A Potentially Surprising, Occasionally Witty Journey Inside Today's Supreme Court
Isgur, Sarah
Hardcover
$28.80
Country of Lords: Neo-Aristocrats, Social Darwinists, Tech Utopians, and the Long Fight Against Equality in America
Phillips-Fein, Kim
Hardcover
$31.50
Wtf America?!: The Way Out of This Hell and Back to Democracy
Meiselas, Jordy
Meiselas, Ben
Meiselas, Brett
Hardcover
$30.88
Pay Attention: How the Algorithms and Media Wars Are Suppressing Truth and Rewiring Your Brain
Pakman, David
Hardcover
$28.50
Not Today, Fascists: The Lies That Got Us Here, and the Truths That Will Reunite Us
Welch, Jennifer
Hardcover
$27.54
So Ordered: An Originalist's View of the Constitution, the Court, and Our Country
Alito, Samuel A., Jr.
Hardcover
$30.40
All the Wrong Moves: How Three Catastrophic Decisions Led to the Rise of Trump
Scaramucci, Anthony
Hardcover
$26.99
The Origins of Totalitarianism: With a New Introduction by Anne Applebaum
Applebaum, Anne
Arendt, Hannah
Paperback
$19.79
The Last Free Women: A Daring Escape from Afghanistan and Coming of Age in America
Blumenstein, Rebecca
Kapp, Diana
Hardcover
$28.50
There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America (Pulitzer Prize Winner)
Goldstone, Brian
Hardcover
$28.50
Fear and Fury: The Reagan Eighties, the Bernie Goetz Shootings, and the Rebirth of White Rage
Thompson, Heather Ann
Hardcover
From $19.99