Abstract

A seeming constant in the history of capitalism, greed has nonetheless undergone considerable transformations over the last five hundred years. This multilayered account offers a fresh take on an old topic, arguing that greed was experienced as a moral phenomenon and deployed to make sense of an unjust world. Focusing specifically on the interrelated themes of religion, economics, and health—each of which sought to study and channel the power of financial desire—Jared Poley shows how evolving ideas about greed became formative elements of the modern experience.

“…a thought-provoking study of a subject that is too often taken for granted, rather than subjected to critical examination.” • Financial Times

“…a very stimulating, multi-faceted and valuable study of morality, and economics.” • Historische Zeitschrift

“Scholarly yet accessible, this is an excellent, much-needed analysis of a subject that is both topical and timeless. Poley focuses on key figures and social forces in well-chosen case studies from throughout modern history, providing a valuable perspective on the last half millennium of globalized capital.” • Douglas McGetchin, Florida Atlantic University

Jared Poley is Professor of History at Georgia State University. He is author of Decolonization in Germany: Weimar Narratives of Colonial Loss and Foreign Occupation (2005) and a co-editor of the collections Conversion and the Politics of Religion in Early Modern Germany (Berghahn, 2012), Migrations in the German Lands, 1500–2000 (Berghahn, 2016), Kinship, Community, and Self (Berghahn, 2014), and Money in the German Speaking Lands (Berghahn, 2017).