After a long feast of prosperity in the western world, the crisis in the financial markets has conjured up an old spectre – the spectre of capitalist crisis, which many thought had been finally exorcised. On past experience, a full-blown capitalist crisis would bring with it the threat of slump, collapse, polarisation, conflict, and even war, spreading to all parts of the global economy - hence the great efforts being made to contain the present downturn. This important new book by a leading authority sets the financial crisis of 2007/8 in historical context and assesses its global consequences, how far it might go, and what is to be done.

ANDREW GAMBLE is Professor and Head of Department of Politics, University of Cambridge. His many books include Britain in Decline, The Free Economy and the Strong State and Between Europe and America also published by Palgrave Macmillan. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and the Academy of Social Sciences and was awarded the Sir Isaiah Berlin Prize for Lifetime Contribution to Political Studies by the UK Political Studies Association in 2005.