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The Canadian and American flags.

Canada’s Heroic Delusion

The country’s 40-year-ago embrace of free trade with the U.S. has come back to haunt it.
by Dónal Gill via The Dial on October 28, 2025
Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Franklin D. Roosevelt, Free Trader

A little understood part of the New Deal.
by John Ganz via Unpopular Front on April 4, 2025
Statue of Richard Cobden.

The Forgotten History of Left-Wing Free Traders

Discussing the little-known lineage of leftists who helped shape modern ideas of free trade.
by Marc-William Palen, Jacob Bruggeman via Fusion on July 25, 2024
Members of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.

Feminism's Forgotten Free-Trade Past

Jane Addams and the interwar women’s peace movement: feminist contributions to international relations.
by Marc-William Palen via History Matters on April 23, 2024
Law and Political Economy Project

Recovering the Left-Wing Free Trade Tradition

Free trade has been defended primarily by neoliberals who cared little about social justice or democracy. An examination of its history paints a different picture.
by Marc-William Palen via LPE Project on March 21, 2024
Collage depicting shipping containers, a scale weighing American dollars, and a screen of numbers and percentages

Free Trade's Origin Myth

American elites accepted the economic theory of "comparative advantage" mainly because it justified their geopolitical agenda.
by Oren Cass via Law & Liberty on January 2, 2024

Ross Perot, Populist Harbinger

Views that were fringe in Perot’s day had, by the 2016 election, taken center stage.
by Jacqueline Brandon via Dissent on July 10, 2019
Trump speaks to auto workers.
partner

Donald Trump Wants to Take Republicans Back to Their Roots

The GOP was once the party of protectionism, while the Democrats led the way on free trade.
by Jennifer Delton via Made By History on March 12, 2018
Donald Trump and Theresa May
partner

Protectionism 100 Years ago Helped Ignite a World War. Could it Happen Again?

Abandoning free trade doesn't just hurt the economy. It threatens peace and stability across the globe.
by Marc-William Palen via Made By History on June 30, 2017
Ross Perot speaking in front of a banner opposing NAFTA.

End of the End of History, Redux

Remember Perot?
by Frank Guan via n+1 on March 24, 2016

America’s Greatest Mistake

Globalization left millions behind as a policy and transformed the world politically, a new book argues.
by Siddhartha Mahanta via The American Prospect on October 3, 2025
Demonstratoars protest Donald Trump’s comments about Canada becoming the 51st state of the United States, March 22, 2025.

Anti-Americanism in Canada Is Nothing New — It’s a Tradition

Trump’s tariffs/threats have sparked boycotts and motivated voters north of the border, but Canadians’ desire to distance themselves from the US has deep roots
by Jake Pitre via New Lines on September 19, 2025
Photograph of Friedrich Ratzel (1844–1904).

How National Self-Sufficiency Became a Goal of the Right

What looks like Trump-era economic nationalism has deep roots. German nationalists of the 1800s and fascist leaders of the 1930s imagined power through autarky.
by Ian Klinke via Jacobin on September 7, 2025
A WTO protest banner in front of the Space Needle in Seattle.

When Trade Was at a Crossroads

When the WTO gathered in Seattle in 1999, protests erupted. Their strategy offers a model for resisting globalization at a time of renewed urgency.
by E. Tammy Kim via New York Review of Books on September 4, 2025
Men unloading imported goods from a ship to waiting horse carts.

Biff-Bang: Tariffs Before Trump

Trump's tariffs echo centuries of global protectionism, but history and economics question their effectiveness and long-term value.
by Ferdinand Mount via London Review of Books on August 14, 2025
U.S Custom House.

Lessons from Early America’s Tariff Wars

The 1790s debate shows that, even when they aim at moral goods, tariffs abet cronyism and corruption.
by John C. Pinheiro via Law & Liberty on April 23, 2025
Floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

Regime Change in the West?

Where amid this turmoil does neoliberalism stand? In emergency conditions it has been forced to take measures.
by Perry Anderson via London Review of Books on March 25, 2025
Thousands of shipping containers at the terminal at Port Elizabeth, New Jersey.

No Tariffs Without Representation

Executive trade power has gone too far.
by Erik Matson via Law & Liberty on March 19, 2025
Henry Carey.

The Thinker Who Explains Trump’s Tariffs

Henry Charles Carey is arguably the most influential economist in American history.
by Adam Rowe via Compact on March 4, 2025
William McKinley making a campaign speech in 1896.

Why Trump Admires President McKinley, the Original ‘Tariff Man’

President Donald Trump says McKinley made the United States prosperous through tariffs. Historians say that’s an incomplete understanding of the 25th president.
by Andrew Jeong via Retropolis on January 27, 2025

Globalism, Sovereignty, and Resistance

Quinn Slobodian and Jennifer Mittelstadt discuss their research on the meanings of “globalism” and “sovereignty” throughout history.
by Jennifer Mittelstadt, Quinn Slobodian via History & Political Economy Project on November 18, 2024
Collage of American events in the 1990s.

The Nutty Nineties

What was in the water circa 1992?
by Katrina Gulliver via Law & Liberty on July 9, 2024
WTO protestors in 1999.

How Activists Across the Pacific Northwest Planned the 1999 Seattle WTO Protests

Looking back on the environmentalist and anti-globalization movements of the 1990s.
by D. W. Gibson via Literary Hub on June 21, 2024
Volunteers at Big Creek Missions in Leslie County, Kentucky

Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood

I’ve been going back to eastern Kentucky for over a decade. Since 2016, something there has changed.
by Bradley Devlin via The American Conservative on April 22, 2024
President Bill Clinton signing NAFTA

The Long Shadow of NAFTA

Neither side of the border has seen the benefits it was promised.
by Helen Andrews via The American Conservative on February 12, 2024
Bill Clinton presenting the V-chip, 1996.

Cold Controls

“National security” and the history of US export controls.
by Ella Coon via Phenomenal World on January 18, 2023
Adam Smith.

The Contradictions of Adam Smith

Smith's influence on American politics, and the misunderstanding at the heart of our idea of the "champion of capitalism."
by Glory M. Liu, Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins via The Nation on December 14, 2022
American politicians with supporters and German citizens in the background

1989-2001: America’s Long Lost Weekend

From the fall of the Berlin Wall to 9/11, we had relative peace and prosperity. We squandered it completely.
by Walter Shapiro via The New Republic on June 27, 2022
Cover to Eric Helleiner's "The Neomercantilists: A Global Intellectual History," a Japanese=style screen print depicting men discussing business by a train, with boats in the background.

Developmental Realism

Now is a critical time to acquire a better understanding of this misunderstood and oversimplified philosophy known as Neomercantilism.
by Justin H. Vassallo via Phenomenal World on June 16, 2022
Black and white photograph of crowd in China holding pictures of Mao Zedong in celebration.

U.S. Relations With China 1949–2022

U.S.-China relations have evolved from tense standoffs to a complex mix of intensifying diplomacy, growing international rivalry, and increasingly intertwined economies.
via Council On Foreign Relations on May 26, 2022
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