Karl Polanyi

About the Author

Karl Polanyi (1886-1964) was a Hungarian-born economic historian, philosopher, and social theorist whose groundbreaking work reshaped understandings of market economies and their societal impacts. Exiled from Nazi-occupied Europe, he spent much of his career in the United States and Canada, teaching at institutions like Columbia University and Bennington College. Polanyi's seminal book, The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time, published in 1944, critiques the rise of market liberalism in the 19th century and argues that unregulated markets inevitably lead to social dislocation, necessitating protective countermeasures by society. His ideas, blending anthropology, history, and economics, continue to influence debates on globalization, neoliberalism, and the embeddedness of economic systems in social relations, offering timeless insights into the tensions between capitalism and human welfare.