Humanities
Capitalism — Rise, Crack, Collapse?
- Joe Enright
- Autumn 2026
- Short Course
- 10am - 12pm
- Tuesday
- 5 Weeks From 3rd November 2026
- £56
You were told the system worked. That hard work was rewarded. That wealth, if left to flow freely, would eventually reach everyone. That the market knew best. What if the people who told you that had read the wrong books — or hadn't read them at all? Adam Smith promised the invisible hand would lift all boats. Thomas Piketty proved it had been picking pockets all along. Yanis Varoufakis watched the whole edifice quietly collapse. This interactive course traces capitalism's extraordinary three-hundred-year journey: from Smith's elegant Scottish vision of self-correcting markets, through Piketty's devastating lifetime of data proving the system was rigged from the start, to Varoufakis's bombshell conclusion — that capitalism is already dead, replaced by something older, darker, and far harder to resist than anything Marx ever imagined. No economics degree required. Just curiosity, life experience, and a willingness to ask the question that three centuries of powerful people have worked very hard to prevent you from asking:
Was the promise ever real — and who exactly was it made to?
This is an interactive course which will involve discussions and pair/ small group work.
Humanities
Capitalism — Rise, Crack, Collapse?
- Joe Enright
- Autumn 2026
- Short Course
- 10am - 12pm
- Tuesday
- 5 Weeks From 3rd November 2026
You were told the system worked. That hard work was rewarded. That wealth, if left to flow freely, would eventually reach everyone. That the market knew best. What if the people who told you that had read the wrong books — or hadn't read them at all? Adam Smith promised the invisible hand would lift all boats. Thomas Piketty proved it had been picking pockets all along. Yanis Varoufakis watched the whole edifice quietly collapse. This interactive course traces capitalism's extraordinary three-hundred-year journey: from Smith's elegant Scottish vision of self-correcting markets, through Piketty's devastating lifetime of data proving the system was rigged from the start, to Varoufakis's bombshell conclusion — that capitalism is already dead, replaced by something older, darker, and far harder to resist than anything Marx ever imagined. No economics degree required. Just curiosity, life experience, and a willingness to ask the question that three centuries of powerful people have worked very hard to prevent you from asking:
Was the promise ever real — and who exactly was it made to?
This is an interactive course which will involve discussions and pair/ small group work.