Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Lost Forms of Economic Knowledge: On the Balance of Living Beings

The Lost Forms of Economic Knowledge: On the Balance of Living Beings

Orain, Arnaud
Pernsteiner, Alexis

Hardcover

Series: The France Chicago Collection

EconomicsGeneral World History

PREORDER - Expected ship date November 3, 2026

ISBN10: 0226842517
ISBN13: 9780226842516
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: Nov 3 2026
Pages: 286
Weight: 1.00
Language: English

Traces the early history of economic knowledge developed by thinkers between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries.

Tracking the pre-history of economic thought starting in the sixteenth century, The Lost Forms of Economic Knowledge investigates its origins prior to the emergence of political economy as an autonomous discipline in the late eighteenth century. French historian Arnaud Orain reconstructs the lost forms of economic knowledge that led to a world very different from our modern system of numerical abstraction and market regulation. As Orain shows, older approaches to the economy defined it as a relationship between humans and the environment. These earlier forms of economic thought relied on and sought to advance vernacular knowledge from figures such as naturalists, artisans, farmers, and merchants on how to harness the environment to our advantage. Nonetheless, the goal was not to maximize profit, but to satisfy our needs and live in harmony with nature. At a time in which natural resources are fast depleting, Orain argues, we could do worse than to consider alternative approaches to economics that lie in our past.

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