Why am I passionate about this?

During my childhood I heard many stories of economic collapse, depression, and subsequent war. This created an early awareness of the power of financial forces to shape the welfare, security, and life chances of millions. Since then, I have worked to better understand how such things happen and what could be done about them. I have focused on the nature of power and studied the contingent and contested political processes that shape financial orders. This contestation opens up the possibility of change and makes me hope that future financial orders will, eventually, be based on a wiser, more encompassing understanding of welfare, security, and perhaps even justice, than has been the case so far. 


I wrote

Challenging Global Finance: Civil Society and Transnational Networks

By Elizabeth Friesen,

Book cover of Challenging Global Finance: Civil Society and Transnational Networks

What is my book about?

Challenging Global Finance traces how the transnational campaign for the cancellation of Third World debt mobilized to challenge the immense…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Power: A Radical View

Elizabeth Friesen Why did I love this book?

This book was a revelation.

I first encountered it when the original 1974 edition was assigned in an undergraduate course on social movement politics. I have never looked back.

Lukes’ three-dimensional view of power, and especially his two and three-dimensional views, make visible the power relations that are at work in areas where power does not seem to be active at all.

This has turned out to be an amazingly helpful way to look at power relations in the modern world. Lukes added two chapters to update his original text in the second edition.

I read Lukes’ work as anticipating constructivist insights. Even though others have since developed these ideas at greater length, in my opinion, this book remains a necessary guide to navigating the twenty-first century. 

By Steven Lukes,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Power as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The third edition of this seminal work includes the original text, first published in 1974, the updates and reflections from the second edition and two groundbreaking new chapters. Power: A Radical View assesses the main debates about how to conceptualize and study power, including the influential contributions of Michel Foucault. The new material includes a development of Lukes's theory of power and presents empirical cases to exemplify this. Including a refreshed introduction, this third edition brings a book that has consolidated its reputation as a classic work and a major reference point within Social and Political Theory to a whole…


Book cover of The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time

Elizabeth Friesen Why did I love this book?

This book looks at the relation between the market economy and society.

It challenges the conventional wisdom of classical liberal economics and sheds light on the root cause of many of the conflicts troubling the world today. Polanyi wrote this book during the Second World War as he tried to understand why Europe had descended into war yet again.

He found his answer in what he calls the “double movement” in which the outcomes of economic liberalism and self-regulating markets conflicted with a desire for social protection and the conservation of “man and nature” generating a political pushback in the form of fascism (132). This tension has not gone away. If anything, it is gaining strength again.

In The Great Transformation, Polanyi calls our attention to the dangers of policy prescriptions based on blind faith in the virtues of unregulated markets. We should pay attention.

By Karl Polanyi,

Why should I read it?

12 authors picked The Great Transformation as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In this classic work of economic history and social theory, Karl Polanyi analyzes the economic and social changes brought about by the "great transformation" of the Industrial Revolution. His analysis explains not only the deficiencies of the self-regulating market, but the potentially dire social consequences of untempered market capitalism. New introductory material reveals the renewed importance of Polanyi's seminal analysis in an era of globalization and free trade.


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Book cover of The Lion and the Fox: Two Rival Spies and the Secret Plot to Build a Confederate Navy

The Lion and the Fox By Alexander Rose,

From the author of Washington’s Spies, the thrilling story of two rival secret agents — one Confederate, the other Union — sent to Britain during the Civil War.

The South’s James Bulloch, charming and devious, was ordered to acquire a clandestine fleet intended to break Lincoln’s blockade, sink Northern…

Book cover of Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism

Elizabeth Friesen Why did I love this book?

Globalists presents an impressive account of the history of neoliberalism from a new and valuable perspective.

It adds nuance, depth, and detail to Polanyi’s analysis. Slobodian argues that neoliberals have always recognized that “free” markets require institutional supports and protection but that the neoliberal vision of these protections is in conflict with the vision of those who prioritize other goals such as social justice.

This came to a head in 1999 when, just as neoliberals seemed to have succeeded in scaling their project up to the global level, the forces of resistance also scaled up. Surprise!

Slobodian examines the significance of the protests at the 1999 WTO meetings in Seattle and concludes that neoliberalism has not yet succeeded in discrediting those who dare to contest neoliberalism’s preferred rules for the global political economy. 

By Quinn Slobodian,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked Globalists as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

George Louis Beer Prize Winner
Wallace K. Ferguson Prize Finalist
A Marginal Revolution Book of the Year

"A groundbreaking contribution...Intellectual history at its best."
-Stephen Wertheim, Foreign Affairs

Neoliberals hate the state. Or do they? In the first intellectual history of neoliberal globalism, Quinn Slobodian follows a group of thinkers from the ashes of the Habsburg Empire to the creation of the World Trade Organization to show that neoliberalism emerged less to shrink government and abolish regulations than to redeploy them at a global level. It was a project that changed the world, but was also undermined time and again…


Book cover of The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard Keynes

Elizabeth Friesen Why did I love this book?

I admire Keynes and I love this book. Not only is it beautifully written and fun to read but it is also important.

Keynes’ thought remains relevant and Carter does an excellent job of connecting Keynes’ ideas to our present-day predicaments. I feel much of Keynes’ work was motivated by a desire to prevent a repeat of World War I. When this failed, he set about doing his best to make sure that World War II ended with a more durable peace.

Keynes brought a skeptical eye to economic orthodoxy. I regret he died relatively young and was unable to weigh in on the events of the 1970s. Indeed, I regret he is not able to comment on the events of the 2020s but at least this book is. Not to be missed.  

By Zachary Carter,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Price of Peace as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An “outstanding new intellectual biography of John Maynard Keynes [that moves] swiftly along currents of lucidity and wit” (The New York Times), illuminating the world of the influential economist and his transformative ideas

“A timely, lucid and compelling portrait of a man whose enduring relevance is always heightened when crisis strikes.”—The Wall Street Journal

WINNER OF THE HILLMAN PRIZE FOR BOOK JOURNALISM • FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD AND THE SABEW BEST IN BUSINESS BOOK AWARD • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY PUBLISHERS WEEKLY AND ONE…


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Book cover of An Italian Feast: The Celebrated Provincial Cuisines of Italy from Como to Palermo

An Italian Feast By Clifford A. Wright,

An Italian Feast celebrates the cuisines of the Italian provinces from Como to Palermo. A culinary guide and book of ready reference meant to be the most comprehensive book on Italian cuisine, and it includes over 800 recipes from the 109 provinces of Italy's 20 regions.

An Italian Feast is…

Book cover of When Things Don't Fall Apart: Global Financial Governance and Developmental Finance in an Age of Productive Incoherence

Elizabeth Friesen Why did I love this book?

This book is a welcome antidote to the defeatism that results from a crisis-prone view of the world which is so easy to fall into today.

Grable argues that we should recognize that the rigid models that define a narrow “correct” path to progress are inadequate. Instead, she puts forward the value of what she calls “unscripted” innovations and reminds the reader of the value of “muddling through” and incremental change.

Grable shines a well-deserved light on earlier work by Hirschman and Lindblom. She combines an appreciation of the importance of ideas and the necessity of a high tolerance for complexity and incoherence. This book makes the case for the importance of remaining calm and carrying on, while still keeping an eye out for opportunity.  

By Ilene Grabel,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked When Things Don't Fall Apart as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

An account of the significant though gradual, uneven, disconnected, ad hoc, and pragmatic innovations in global financial governance and developmental finance induced by the global financial crisis.

In When Things Don't Fall Apart, Ilene Grabel challenges the dominant view that the global financial crisis had little effect on global financial governance and developmental finance. Most observers discount all but grand, systemic ruptures in institutions and policy. Grabel argues instead that the global crisis induced inconsistent and ad hoc discontinuities in global financial governance and developmental finance that are now having profound effects on emerging market and developing economies. Grabel's chief…


Explore my book 😀

Challenging Global Finance: Civil Society and Transnational Networks

By Elizabeth Friesen,

Book cover of Challenging Global Finance: Civil Society and Transnational Networks

What is my book about?

Challenging Global Finance traces how the transnational campaign for the cancellation of Third World debt mobilized to challenge the immense power of international finance. Through two case studies, one on the grassroots campaign and the other on the World Economic Forum, the author examines how, in the period leading up to the G8 summit in 2005, transnational civil society actors reframed the morality surrounding the concept of debt, altered the dominant discourse, and successfully challenged the rules and practices governing debt cancellation. Transnational civil society networks made innovative use of the political possibilities presented by a globalizing world. Today, in a world where the struggle over the rules and practices governing international finance continues, this research has a powerful resonance.

Book cover of Power: A Radical View
Book cover of The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time
Book cover of Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism

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