| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 92.1

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to JAH online. About 179 words from this article are provided below; about 410 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the Organization of American Historians, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time.
If you are not a member of the Organization of American Historians, you can:: • Join the OAH and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the Journal of American History.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two-hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the Journal of American History (86.1-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the Journal of American History.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 92.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

The Soul's Economy: Market Society and Selfhood in American Thought, 1820–1920. By Jeffrey Sklansky. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002. xvi, 313 pp. Cloth, $45.00, ISBN 0-8078-2725-8. Paper, $19.95, ISBN 0-8078-5398-4.)

A century ago, the founders of American social science portrayed laissez-faire liberals and revolutionary socialists as reductionists who transformed the supple complexities of human experience into one-dimensional cartoons featuring "economic man" or "the proletariat," creatures governed by determinist formulas such as the iron law of rent or dialectical materialism. Today the Progressive reforms inspired by those social scientists have been dismantled; champions of unregulated free enterprise dominate national politics and seek to export their gospel to the world. In this spirited and ambitious book, Jeffrey Sklansky argues that the American thinkers who traded class analysis for social psychology made possible a cultural accommodation with capitalism that resulted in grinding poverty for the many and unprecedented wealth for a few. Even readers put off by Sklansky's forthright embrace of class analysis will be rewarded by his subtle arguments, fine prose, and meticulous scholarship.

. . .

There are about 410 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.