The Closed Commercial State: Perpetual Peace and Commercial Society from Rousseau to Fichte

Description

Presents an account of Johann Gottlieb Fichte's Closed Commercial State, a major early nineteenth-century development of Rousseau and Kant's political thought. This book shows how Fichte reformulated Rousseau's constitutional politics and radicalized the economic implications of Kant's social contract theory with his defense of the right to work.

Isaac Nakhimovsky is a junior research fellow at Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge.

"Nakhimovsky's book is rewarding to read. Not only does it give a rich, vivid description of the issues and contending forces at a time when the future of the European nation-state system hung in the balance; it also calls into question some pervasive assumptions about the rise of capitalism."--Michael Rosen, The Nation "The [book] is a fascinating and always judicious account of a world of argument over whether and how European states could pursue economic vitality without destroying themselves and the rest of the world in the process... Nakhimovsky's lucid and engaging book is an invaluable contribution to that project, as well as to the broader study of the history of political and international thought and the contemporary resonances of historical debates."--Jennifer Pitts, Perspectives on Politics