This book offers an ideal introduction to the social structure of accumulation (SSA) approach to the analysis of capitalist economies and societies. This approach seeks to explain the fortunes of economies in terms of the influence of political and economic institutions, and has proved to be a powerful tool for understanding economic success and failure. Combining newly written essays with classic articles of the SSA school, the book examines the international economy and the economies of Japan, South Africa, and Puerto Rico, as well as the United States.