Download or read book Capitalism and the Emergence of Civic Equality in Eighteenth-Century France written by William H. Sewell Jr. and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2021-04-28 with total page 421 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "William H. Sewell, Jr. turns to the experience of commercial capitalism to show how the commodity form abstracted social relations. The increased independence, flexibility, and anonymity of market relations made equality between citizens not only conceivable but attractive. Commercial capitalism thus found its way into the interstices of this otherwise rigidly hierarchical society, coloring social relations and paving the way for the establishment of civic equality"--