Jürgen Kocka, one of the world’s leading experts on the topic, describes the most important forms and changes that commercial, industrial, and financial capitalism has gone through from the Middle Ages in Europe to today’s globalization. In this comprehensive introduction, Kocka also asks what kind of light the recent crises have shone on capitalism and whether its history can teach us something about the present. Jürgen Kocka is a retired professor of the history of the industrial world at the Free University of Berlin and is considered one of the most influential social historians of our time. He has been awarded the Leibniz Prize and the Holberg Prize for his outstanding achievements.