Karl Polanyi papers, 1937-1963, bulk 1947-1963

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Series II: Writings, 1937-1963

The Writings Series consists of material from many of Polanyi's major postwar works, including The Great Transformation, Dahomey and the Slave Trade, Trade and Markets in Early Empires, the posthumously published The Livelihood of Man, and the unpublished Freedom and Technology. Also included are the manuscripts of various essays, lectures, and other writings. The writings included herein contain drafts at various stages of completion, including simple outlines or synopses (The Great Transformation), multiple intermediate drafts and incomplete manuscripts, as well as the final and near-final drafts (Dahomey). The works placed under the heading "Non-Market Economies Writings are independent studies and essays that also reflect Polanyi's work in Trade and Markets in Early Empires. Much of Polanyi's research and scholarship was collaborative. Because of this collaborative relationship, the correspondence and notes of Rosemary Arnold on Dahomey, are included with the writings.

Also included within this series are the chapters, preface, and introduction for Polanyi's unfinished and unpublished late work, Freedom and Technology. This work, according to Polanyi's wife Ilona Polanyi, was to have been written with Abe Rotstein, but was abandoned several years before Polanyi died.

Several lectures, such as "Freedom and Technology" and "Present Age of Transformation" which are early articulations of ideas that Polanyi would later expand into book-length studies, are also found here.

The material in this series is arranged alphabetically.


Dahomey , 1948-1963



Box 1 Folder 16 Chapter I-II, 1952


Box 1 Folder 17 Chapter 3--"A Cradle of Statesmanship", undated


Box 1 Folder 18 Currencies, undated


Box 1 Folder 19-21 Draft--Early, 1953-1960 (3 Folders), 1953-1960



Box 2 Folder 1-2 Draft--Final, 1962-1963 (2 Folders), 1962-1963


Box 2 Folder 3 Drafts and Correspondence--Francisco Benet, undated


Box 2 Folder 4 Notes--Equivalencies, Money, 1940s-1950s


Box 2 Folder 5 Notes--Money, Pricing, undated


Box 2 Folder 6 Notes--Operational Devices, Money, undated


Box 2 Folder 7-8 Research Notes, Tables, Calculations, undated (2 Folders), undated



Box 3 Folder 1-6 Rosemary Arnold, 1948-1953 (6 Folders), 1948-1953


Freedom and Technology , 1956-1958


Box 3 Folder 7 "Freedom and Technology"--Lecture Notes, 1955-1956


Box 3 Folder 8-9 Notes and Chapter Drafts, 1956-1958 (2 Folders), 1956-1958


Box 3 Folder 10 "Robert Owen"--Chapter Drafts, 1957



Box 4 Folder 1 Preface and Introduction--Drafts, 1957


General Writings


Box 4 Folder 2 "A Christian Left Group", 1937-1938


Box 4 Folder 3 "Consequences of the Industrial Revolution", 1951


Box 4 Folder 4 "The Good Life in an Industrial Society", undated


Box 4 Folder 5 "Hungarian Lesson", 1957


Box 4 Folder 6-7 Lecture on Aristotle and J.K. Galbraith's The Affluent Society, 1958-1959 (2 Folders), 1958-1959


Box 4 Folder 8 "Marx on Corporativism", 1957


Box 4 Folder 9 "New West", 1958


Box 4 Folder 10 "On Propaganda", 1940


Box 4 Folder 11 "On Revisionism", undated


Box 4 Folder 12 "On the Size of Market Cultures"--Lecture, 1957-1958


Box 4 Folder 13 "Our Obsolete Market Mentality", 1947


Box 4 Folder 14 Polanyi Bibliography, 1960


Box 4 Folder 15-16 "Ports of Trade in Early Societies"--Drafts, Notes, and Research Materials--1959-1962 (2 Folders)


Box 4 Folder 17-18 "Psychology and Ideology in Institutional Change" and "The Role of Strain in Institutional Change", 1957 (2 Folders), 1957


Box 4 Folder 19 "Public Opinion and Statesmanship", 1951


Box 4 Folder 20 Review--Smelser's "Social Change in the Industrial Revolution", circa, 1959


Box 4 Folder 21 "Rousseau; or, is a Free Society Possible?", undated


Box 4 Folder 22 "Szeljegyzetek a szocialista vilagfordulohoz", 1960



Box 5 Folder 1 "Toward the Development of a System of Measuring Technological Change",, undated


Box 5 Folder 2 Untitled Essays, undated


Great Transformation , 1941


Box 5 Folder 3 "Great Transformation", 1941 (First Outline), 1941


Box 5 Folder 4 "Present Age of Transformation", 1941 (Bennington Lecture), 1941


Livelihood of Man , circa.1951


Box 5 Folder 5-6 Chapters 1-36, 1951 (Chapters 18-29 missing) (2 Folders), 1951


Box 5 Folder 7 Greek chapters, undated


Box 5 Folder 8 Synoptic Table of Contents, undated


Non-Market Economies Writings


Box 5 Folder 9-10 "Early Economies", 1960 (2 Folders), 1960


Box 5 Folder 11 "Money, Price and Trade in Pre-Industrial Societies that Possess No Market System",, 1962


Box 5 Folder 12 "Non-Market" Paper 'Authentic Version', 1959-1962


Box 5 Folder 13 "Towards a Conceptual Framework for the Study of Non-Market Economies",, 1962