text: Polanyi sets forth an incredibly relevant, radical, and all too plausible theory in this book.
  
  Going beyond a mere analysis of how the market system functions, Polanyi endeavors to answer the question as to how the market came about. Polanyi's answer will not be pleasing to libertarians, he argues that a free land and labor market can only come about through government intervention, and must be sustained through further intervention. He also argues that the market ransforms the nature of social relations. Usually, economic relations were a result of social relations, under the market, it is the latter.
  
  Polanyi attempts to show how a market for land and labor came about in Britain. His argument that government "enclosures" created it through dislodging the poor and turning their land into sources of economic production is convincing. However, other arguments Polanyi advances simply demonstrate a central government repealing the interventions of subaltern governments.
  
  Polanyi's argument that there was no "rent-seeking" (he doesn't use that term) involved in the enactment of state intervion in the economy ("proving" that this intervention was objectively necessary is suspect. One 19th century investigators conclusions don't serve to overturn the implications of public choice theory.
  
  The greatest problem with this book is that Polanyi doesn't do too much to back up his arguments. He fortunately has a section called "notes and sources" where he lists his research material, but I'd wager that most of this is difficult to find 60 years later
  