L'interprétation économique de l'histoire dans le projet de Karl Polanyi

This article consists in outlining the Polanyi's project. He supports humanistic socialism and critizes strongly those who advocates the idea of centrally planned economy. Against popular marxism and mainstream economics, he tries also to clarify the place of economic determinations in history by using "substantive economy" concept : this is exemplified by the case of ancient Greece. Finaly, Polanyi criticisms has consequences for present time : as soon as for the 1940's, he warns against American capital hegemony that aims at taking up again the Big Market utopia.