A fascinating look at how Jews have shaped capitalism and how capitalism has shaped the Jewish experience from medieval times to today.

“The question of why so many Jews have been so good at making money is a touchy one. For hundreds of years, it has been fraught with suspicion, denial, resentment, guilt, self-hatred and violence. No wonder Jews and gentiles alike are so uncomfortable confronting Jewish capitalistic competence. Jerry Z. Muller presents a provocative and accessible survey of how Jewish culture and historical accident ripened Jews for commercial success and why that success has earned them so much misfortune.” New York Times Book Review

“Drawing freely upon economic history, Jewish history, and the history of ideas, Jerry Muller moves deftly from European thinkers to Jewish traders and from Communists to nationalists. Along the way, he dispenses fresh insights, little known information, and much common sense concerning issues too often shrouded in myth, bigotry, ideology, and apologetics." —Jonathan D. Sarna, Brandeis University

“Jerry Muller has written an indispensable book correcting myriad misperceptions about capitalism, the Jews, and the affinities between them. He treats troubling subjects such as the relation of Jews to Communism and the persistence of anti-Semitism with exceptional delicacy and common sense. If clarification could bring about correction, this compressed historical account would do much to 'repair the world.'"—Ruth R. Wisse, Harvard University

Jerry Z. Muller is professor of history at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. His previous books include "The Mind and the Market: Capitalism in Modern European Thought." His writing has appeared in the "Wall Street Journal," the "New Republic," and the "Times Literary Supplement,” among other publications.