We hear all the time that “capitalism is the system that has shaped our world”. However, the fact that capitalism is a social system that has never existed in its full, perfect, and unregulated form is never mentioned. As Ayn Rand clearly stated, the only time in history in which we came close to a laissez-faire capitalist society was in the 19th century. The seminar explores the history of capitalism
in the last 250 years. How did capitalism function in the past? Does it still exist today? What hope is there for the future? Part 1 covers the growth and flourishing of the ideas of free-market capitalism in the 18th and 19th centuries.
