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A view of Wall Street and Federal Hall in the Financial District in New York City.

In the 1970s, the Left Put a Good Crisis to Waste

In "Counterrevolution," Melinda Cooper reads the 1970s economic crisis as an elite revolt rather than proof of the New Deal order’s unsustainability.
Boiling House at the Sugar Plantation Asunción, Cuba, 1857.

Slavery Was Crucial for the Development of Capitalism

Historian Robin Blackburn has completed a trilogy of books that provide a comprehensive Marxist account of slavery in the New World.
Cotton plants.

Understanding Capitalism Through Cotton

Looking at the development of cotton as a global commodity helps us understand how capitalism emerged.
Illustration of workers designed like they are a part of a technological apparatus.

How Stanford Helped Capitalism Take Over the World

The ruthless logic driving our economy can be traced back to 19th-century Palo Alto.
Cartoon of ghosts surrounded by environmentally destructive technology.

The Palo Alto System

A new history dispenses with the sentimental lore and examines how Palo Alto has long been the seedbed for exploitation, chaos, and ecological degradation.
Fire truck at scene of California wildfire
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What If Environmental Damage Is A Form of Capitalist Sabotage?

Worker sabotage is a weapon of the weak, but capitalist sabotage causes much greater damage.
Man carrying bundle of sugarcane over his head walking on plank in Guyana sugarcane fields

The Capitalist Transformations of the Countryside

Centuries of capitalism saw the global countryside ruthlessly converted into cheap commodities. But at what cost?
Abstract collage artwork called "the weight of scars."

A Framework to Help Us Understand the World

Out of a common history emerged racism, capitalism, and the whole world. This offers us a clue on how to change that world.
Comic-style drawing of a man standing in the doorway with two others standing in the shadows behind him, all facing away from each other.

The Story of Capitalism in One Family

The Lehman Trilogy proposes that the downfall of a financial dynasty is enough to tell the economic and political history of America.
Black and white photo of construction workers, high up in a building, looking down over industrialized NYC.

The History of the United States as the History of Capitalism

What gets lost when we view the American past as primarily a story about capitalism? 
Political cartoon depicting stock exchange fraud.

Has Capitalism Become Our Religion?

On the myths and rituals of the market, the lost radicalism of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and the rise of neoliberalism.

Writing the History of Capitalism with Class

The "new history of capitalism" cuts class politics at the expense of history.

A Hundred Years of Solidarity

If we want to fight capitalism, the US left has to figure out how to confront US empire.

Who Segregated America?

For all of its strengths, Richard Rothstein’s new book does not account for the central role capitalism played in segregating America's cities.

The Uses and Abuses of 'Neoliberalism'

Does the term clarify or confuse our understanding of capitalism today?

Massive Rise Of Top Incomes Is Mostly Driven By Capital

All top 1 percent income growth after 2000 came from ownership of capital.

Black and Woke in Capitalist America: Revisiting Robert Allen’s "Black Awakening"... for New Times’ Sake

A look into neocolonialism in modern America.

To Remake the World: Slavery, Racial Capitalism, and Justice

What if we use the history of slavery as a standpoint from which to rethink our notion of justice today?
Crowd of construction workers next to the first Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center.

The Rockefeller Christmas Tree Belongs to the Working Class

Construction workers pooled their wages to erect the first one. Their bosses co-opted the gesture, transforming it into today’s consumer spectacle.
The edges of two credit cards, prominently displaying the MasterCard and Visa logos.

Our Plastic Obsession

The story of credit cards is the story of industry versus regulators. Industry won.
Farm for sale in Kansas, 1938.
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The Early History of “Selling America to Americans”

Using film and advertising to sell capitalism and nationalism to immigrants in the early 20th century.
Barack Obama and Chinese president Xi Jinxing looking away from each other.

The Bipartisan Origins of the New Cold War

Starting with Obama, American presidents embraced the idea of arresting China’s rise, opening the door to Trump’s trade wars and hawkishness.
Tony Blair and Bill Clinton giving a talk together at Queen's Univesity Belfast.

The Age of Class Dealignment

Over the course of decades, social democracy abandoned workers. Then workers abandoned social democracy.

The Second Abolition

Robin Blackburn’s sweeping history of slavery and freedom in the 19th century.
An artistic collage juxtiposing a transatlantic slave ship with a tenement in Harlem.

How the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Continues to Impact Modern Life

A new Smithsonian book reckons with the enduring legacies of slavery and capitalism.
Senator J.D. Vance and Patrick Deneen at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

Toward a Christian Postliberal Left

A truly Christian postliberalism would imagine and enact an alternative modernity with a different standard of progress.
Ibn Khaldun

The Muslim Thinker Who Inspired Reagan

How Ibn Khaldun influenced the president and a generation of conservative tax policy.
A homesteader woman feeding chickens.

Some Country for Some Women

As women stretch themselves thin, homesteader influencers sell them an image of containment.
Portrait of Julius Rosenwald hanging on a wall.

Finding Philanthropy’s Forgotten Founder

Julius Rosenwald understood that charity is not just about giving, but about fixing the inequalities that make giving necessary.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner testifying before the Senate Budget Committee in 2009.

The Intractable Puzzle of Growth

The key measure of a healthy economy has long been growth, yet if production and consumption expand at their current rate we risk the health of the planet.

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