I fear Clark glosses over why other social scientists actually enjoy the book. Even if you disagree about the consequences of laissez-faire or Polanyi's anthropological claims, I think his point about the embeddedness of markets in society is still worth considering and is probably the main reason sociologists and others still recommend the book. I think Clark's general aversion to institutional explanations for economic outcomes (see also his negative review of Avner Greif's book) precludes him from giving this full consideration.