Bibliograph

The Company of Strangers, a Natural History of Economic Life, Paul Seabright

Type

Label

The Company of Strangers, a Natural History of Economic Life, Paul Seabright

Language

eng

Index

no index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

The Company of Strangers

Medium

electronic resource

Nature of contents

dictionaries

Responsibility statement

Paul Seabright

Sub title

a Natural History of Economic Life

Summary

The Company of Strangers shows us the remarkable strangeness, and fragility, of our everyday lives. This completely revised and updated edition includes a new chapter analyzing how the rise and fall of social trust explain the unsustainable boom in the global economy over the past decade and the financial crisis that succeeded it. Drawing on insights from biology, anthropology, history, psychology, and literature, Paul Seabright explores how our evolved ability of abstract reasoning has allowed institutions like money, markets, cities, and the banking system to provide the foundations of social trust that we need in our everyday lives. Even the simple acts of buying food and clothing depend on an astonishing web of interaction that spans the globe. How did humans develop the ability to trust total strangers with providing our most basic needs?

Target audience

adult

Classification