Schumpeter's Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy was published in 1942—after he had published Business Cycles in 1939. These books contrast sharply. While Capitalism can be read fairly easily by interested laymen, even experts find that Cycles is hardly readable in its totality. Cycles represents Schumpeter's research efforts during the 1930s to integrate theory, history, and statistics in order to explain business cycles as reflecting the process of capitalist economic evolution. Its architecture can be compared with that of a Gothic cathedral: out of an initially simple structure emerges an enormous degree of complexity. In comparison, Capitalism's treatment of the topic of the destiny of capitalism has a functionalist architecture.

The preparation of the relatively straightforward treatment of the problems of capitalism started in parallel with the production of Cycles and it was completed between 1939 and 1942. Therefore, Capitalism has sometimes been interpreted as the outcome of Schumpeter's need to relax. This interpretation explains the writing style and the provocative formulations that have served to make Capitalism his most-read book. It also explains why Schumpeter defensively told Paul Samuelson (2003, 465) that he had produced an “off-the-cuff pot-boiler”—that is, a rough sketch that is written to make money. The famous economist Lionel Robbins drove the idea of relaxation to the extreme by suggesting, in a conversation, that the book provides “supremely intelligent after-dinner talk” (quoted by Elster, 1983, 112).