Savage Economics

'This is an exciting and innovative book. Blaney and Inayatullah draw on the rich tradition of classical political economy to construct critical theoretical ways of refusing misleading choices between modern and savage, economy and culture, capitalism and anti-capitalism in the analysis of contemporary international political economy. The book is a profound and thought-provoking contribution to postcolonial, time-travelling thinking in IR/IPE.' - Kim Hutchings, Professor of International Relations, London School of Economics, UK

'In a provocative and brilliantly executed argument, Inayatullah and Blaney mobilize their postcolonial and ethnographic sensibilities in order to radically rethink the core concerns of - and solutions posited by - the classical political economy thinkers. After reading this seminal book no one will be able to doubt the intellectual and ethical urgency of building a cultural political economy approach.' - Robbie Shilliam, Political Science and International Relations Programme, Victoria University of Wellington

'Few people are able as well as Blaney and Inayatullah to connect important, pressing questions about the effects of capitalism – particularly poverty, inequality and violence - with a brilliant and sophisticated investigation of the ideas on which modern capitalism was founded and justified. Savage Economics is a tour de force in exposing the banality of much contemporary economic thought, and in reconnecting us to the ambivalence that its 18th and 19th century forebears had towards the world they saw unfolding and that we still live in.' - Matthew Paterson, University of Ottawa

'For too long the field of political economy has been dominated by technocratic analyses of market equilibria and inchoate rants about the evils of capitalist oppression. Inayatullah and Blaney's book suggests a profound reorientation of the entire discussion away from both minutia and sweeping generalization, and towards the kind of close reading that can generate a potent form of immanent critique. Their incisive discussion of some of the tradition's key texts discloses resources for ethical and political reflection that have been long obscured by the dominant mainstream reading of authors like Smith and Marx; our past is brought into dialogue with our present in a way that cannot help but dislocate the supposedly eternal verities of modern-day economics. This should be required reading for everyone who produces or consumes, especially for those producing and consuming political-economic knowledge.' - Patrick Thaddeus Jackson, Associate Professor, American University; author of Civilizing the Enemy (2006) and The Conduct of Inquiry in International Relations (2010)