Sombart on Capitalism 1925–1932

Unlike the previous chapters which focused on Sombart’s books, this chapter is devoted to covering only one book: Die Drei Nationalökonomien was intended to correct economic misunderstandings. Much of this chapter is focused on a number of smaller works. The chapter contains an examination of ten different essays and lectures, and six of them are found in Alfred Vierkandt’s massive Handwörterbuch der Soziologie. Of the sixty essays in this book, Sombart wrote six of them. Three are extremely valuable for understanding Sombart’s later views on capitalism but all of them are worth reading. This chapter also includes discussions of three other essays. There are the two which Sombart wrote for a collection on capitalism which was edited by Bernhard Harms. The first essay is mostly on the history of capitalism while Sombart’s second one is more theoretical. This chapter concludes with a discussion of Sombart’s essay on the future of capitalism. While Sombart adheres to some of his earlier ideas about modern capitalism, some of his thinking reflects his growing interest in Nazi socialism. It was originally given as a lecture and Sombart rewrote it—both the lecture and the essay caused considerable controversy.