Escape from Capitalism, Clara E. Mattei
Escape from Capitalism, Clara E. Mattei
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Escape from Capitalism
An Intervention

Author: Clara E. Mattei

Narrator: Deborah McBride

Unabridged: 5 hr 5 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/27/2026


Synopsis

Capitalism isn’t inevitable, scientific, or natural—it's a relatively young system that can be replaced.

We live in a world where cuts to social programs are deemed necessary, unemployment is considered natural, and rising living costs are accepted as normal. We’re told that change isn’t possible—the markets know best and there’s no alternative to capitalism. But what if mainstream economics itself is the problem?

In this groundbreaking manifesto, economist Clara E. Mattei shows us how the dogma that rules our economies is not only delusional but also detrimental to our societies and livelihoods and fundamentally hostile to working people. Pseudoscientific models are used to justify enduring problems such as poverty and inequality in order to support a system that unfairly rewards people who already have the most resources.

Today’s economic institutions, from the Federal Reserve to the International Monetary Fund, wield immense power over monetary policy yet are shielded from democratic scrutiny. All the major problems we face—from a health care system that prioritizes profits over well-being to the rise of ultranationalism—are rooted in an economic system that fails to serve the common good.

Why should we accept this? In this urgent intervention against capitalism, Mattei shows how escaping this system begins with understanding the economy from a fundamentally different perspective. The time has come to challenge the broken economics of our modern age—to achieve true economic freedom and finally escape from capitalism.

About Clara E. Mattei

Clara E. Mattei is a professor of economics at The University of Tulsa. She is the Founding President of FREE—the Forum for Real Economic Emancipation—and the author of The Capital Order (University of Chicago Press), which was praised by The Financial Times as one of the ten best economics books of 2022 and has been translated into over a dozen languages.


Reviews

Goodreads review by mood_reading_maya on November 17, 2025

Thank you to Simon & Schuster for the e-ARC. “Capitalism has no vision for humanity.” Leftist economic political theory? Let’s fuckinggggggg go. This was my first reading of Mattei’s writing and I found the arguments to be interesting and approachable. The primary caveat being that this will be most in......more

Goodreads review by Chrystal on August 15, 2025

Dense but Necessary Reading for Economic Rebels Clara E. Mattei’s Escape from Capitalism is a passionate critique of the economic system we live in—and the myths that keep it in place. She makes a compelling argument that unemployment, poverty, and wage suppression are not flaws in capitalism, but fe......more

Goodreads review by Julie on January 31, 2026

Thank you to LibroFM for the advanced listening copy. When capitalism suits those that rule there seems little hope for an alternative to be established. This book makes total sense to me and I would like to live in a world that didn't work for the fortunate few to the detriment of the majority. We ar......more

Goodreads review by Susie on September 26, 2025

Very effective at arguing WHY we should escape capitalism, lighter on the HOW (or IF it's even possible). Highly recommend for anyone interest in the economics of capitalism and why it fails the majority of people while claiming to help them.......more


Quotes

"A compelling and insightful book on austerity that, through meticulous research and historical documentation, unveils the deep political forces behind economic decisions and offers essential tools for understanding today’s world."
—Thomas Piketty, author of Capital in the Twenty-First Century

"Capitalism seems invincible and inevitable. It is neither. Clara Mattei's new book illustrates brilliantly its fragility and, in so doing, restores hope that everything could be different."
 —Yanis Varoufakis, author of Technofeudalism

“A brilliantly illuminating book that reveals how political power is encoded within the very structure of economic theory.”
— Adam Tooze, author of Crashed and Shutdown

"One of the brightest voices of a coming generation, Clara Mattei here offers an impassioned plea for new and wider economic and political horizons."   
—James K. Galbraith, Professor of Government, The University of Texas at Austin

"Clara Mattei has written a powerful plaidoyer for the return of economics to what it was, and should be: an art and science for the improvement of lives of ordinary people not a seemingly non-political and technocratic instrument for the enrichment of the few."
—Branko Milanovic, author of Capitalism, Alone

"A book for the times. Mattei takes aim at the notion that the forces which regulate market and social outcomes are socially neutral."
—Anwar Shaikh, author of Capitalism

"The increasingly dysfunctional capital order we live in is neither inevitable nor permanent. Clara Mattei brilliantly shows this order was built by design and provocatively challenges us to imagine new, genuinely democratic ones in its place."
Daniela Gabor, Professor of Economics, SOAS University of London
 

"A brilliant and lucid exposé of how capitalism actually works, and the myths that economists have spun to hide that reality."
—William Davies, author of The Happiness Industry

“Mattei concisely and elegantly runs through common claims in capitalism’s favor… Readers will come away ready for change.”
Publishers Weekly

"As people struggle with the volatility and inequities of capitalism, this relevant book will spark conversation."
Library Journal (starred review)