From "The Mind and Body of Capitalism," a review of The Capitalist Manifesto by Robert Tracinski in Vol. 19, No. 2 of The Intellectual Activist magazine:

"[What] makes Andrew Bernstein's new book, The Capitalist Manifesto, such a valuable addition to the pro-capitalist literature [is that] the target of this book is precisely the existing gap between the practical case for capitalism—provided in abundant detail by historians and economists—and the moral and philosophical case.

"Here is how Bernstein describes the problem in the book's introductory chapter.

The system of freedom and wealth is repeatedly and savagely attacked by many intellectuals and other highly educated individuals—worse, by men and women claiming to be "liberals," humanists, lovers of man, i.e., the very individuals who should function as the protectors and preservers of human life. There is an enormous disconnect between the facts of capitalism's nature and history—and the evaluation of these by many "progressive" writers and the millions whose thinking they influence….

The reason is that the objections to capitalism are not based on factual grounds…. The criticisms are motivated solely by moral and philosophical theories….

From its birth…capitalism was an intellectual anomaly: a great boon to human prosperity that was unsupported, even opposed, by men's dominant moral and philosophical codes.

"The goal of the rest of the book is to present an integrated case for capitalism, one that connects the economic and historical facts with the wider moral and philosophical case for capitalism.

"That integration is made possible by Bernstein's identification of the unifying principle that explains all of the virtues of capitalism: 'Regarding the enormity of capitalism's success, both morally and practically, in different centuries, on far-flung continents, involving a hundred issues, the explanatory principle that will emerge is: capitalism is par excellence the system of liberated human brain power.' Capitalism as 'the system of the mind' is a theme that is capable of uniting every element of the case for capitalism: its economic mechanisms, its political principles, its history, its heroes, its moral code—all the way down to the epistemology that capitalism encourages and institutionalizes....

"Above all, this volume achieves something no other history of capitalism has yet done: it provides the solution to today's cultural and political mind-body dichotomy, showing how the material achievements of capitalism's innovators flow from the highest moral and intellectual ideal: the commitment to the liberation of the individual mind. In doing so, The Capitalist Manifesto makes a valuable addition to the growing foundation for a secular moral case for liberty."

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