This historical dialectic is what Polanyi famously called the ‘double movement’. On one side, the triumphant forces of laissez-faire liberalism, building a new society based on market freedom, private interest, and a minimal state; on the other, a widespread, diffuse reaction prompted by the pragmatic collectivism of various authorities who took steps to cope with emergencies, repair market failures, and manage the social upheavals caused by the capitalist juggernaut. In the USA, a similar process unfolded: an ideological commitment to laissez-faire and market individualism being offset by public welfare laws at the local level and large-scale disaster relief periodically doled out by the federal authorities.