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"Soulsville" mural in Memphis, Tennessee.

Capitalism and (Under)Development in the American South

In the American South, an oligarchy of planters enriched itself through slavery. Pervasive underdevelopment is their legacy.
by Keri Leigh Merritt via Aeon on April 2, 2024
Collage illustration of a civil rights protest, inflated gas prices, and a Richard Nixon campaign poster.

Why America Abandoned the Greatest Economy in History

Was the country’s turn toward free-market fundamentalism driven by race, class, or something else? Yes.
by Rogé Karma via The Atlantic on November 25, 2023
Cover for a book of scrip for use at American Potash and Chemical’s company stores, 1937.

Greenbacks, Chits, and Scrip

Alternative currencies flourish in desperate times and situations.
by Michael Meyer via Distillations on May 3, 2022
Illustration of separated city buildings surrounding a globe embedded in the ground.

Reconstruction Finance

Popular politics and reconstructing the Reconstruction Finance Corporation.
by Nic Johnson via Phenomenal World on April 28, 2021
Milton Friedman.

Milton Friedman Was Wrong

The famed economist’s “shareholder theory” provides corporations with too much room to violate consumers’ rights and trust.
by Eric Posner via The Atlantic on August 22, 2019

A Centuries-Old Idea Could Revolutionize Climate Policy

The Green New Deal’s mastermind is a precocious New Yorker with big ambitions. Sound familiar?
by Robinson Meyer via The Atlantic on February 19, 2019
European immigrants in line at Ellis Island.

How Immigrants Fit Into America's Economy, Now and 100 Years Ago

Compared to 19th-century arrivals, today's new arrivals are much more likely to be at the extreme ends of the earnings spectrum.
by Gillian B. White via The Atlantic on January 24, 2016
Photo illustration of Luigi Mangione and John Dillinger.

Why the CEO Shooter Makes the Perfect American Folk Hero

Our country has a long history of admiring particular acts of violence.
by Elliott Gorn via Slate on December 18, 2024
partner

Nuggets of Condescension

By universalizing their own economic history, Western observers have used the past to portray African economic culture as backward and inadequate.
by Bronwen Everill via HNN on December 17, 2024
A sign in support of Donald Trump in front of an Ohio junkyard in 2024.
partner

The 2024 Election Marked the Inversion of the Electoral Map

Basic political geography means Democrats might need to ask themselves a broader question as they look to rebound.
by Stephanie Ternullo via Made By History on December 16, 2024
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.
by Richard Vague via Democracy Journal on December 12, 2024

"It's the Economy, Stupid" is Never Just About the Economy

Can the Clinton campaign slogan chart a path forward for Democrats? Its history tells another story.
by Jacob Rosenberg via Mother Jones on December 12, 2024
Photo of Grover Cleveland and then a photo of Donald Trump next to each other.
partner

Will Grover Cleveland's Second Term Foreshadow Trump's Future?

The only president before Trump to win, lose, and win again ended up decimating his own party during his second term.
by Luke Voyles via Made By History on November 21, 2024
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.
by Bhaskar Sunkara via Jacobin on November 21, 2024
Donald Trump at a podium

The New Trumpian Bargain

Trump's second term echoes 19th-century policies: tariffs and immigration limits protect workers, while deregulation risks widening inequality.
by Sohrab Ahmari via New Statesman on November 12, 2024
View of mountains on the horizon

Who Owns the Mountains?

Hurricane Helene has revived urgent questions about the politics of land — and tourism — in Appalachia.
by Olivia Paschal via New York Review of Books on November 3, 2024
Donald Trump

Donald Trump Would Be Weaker the Second Time Around

Donald Trump wants the ideology of William McKinley and Gilded Age Republicanism, but with a totally different social base. It won’t work.
by Paul Heidman via Jacobin on October 23, 2024
Campaign poster for Tom Watson

The Original Angry Populist

They say there’s never been a man like Donald Trump in American politics. But there was—and we should learn from him. Look back to early-20th-century Georgia.
by Zachary D. Carter via Slate on October 16, 2024
A World History Encloypedia graphic image/illustration of The Feudal Society in Medieval Europe.

American Feudalism

A liberalism that divides humanity into a master class and a slave class deserves an asterisk as “white liberalism.”
by Paul Crider via Liberal Currents on October 2, 2024
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.
by Benjamin Kunkel via The Nation on August 26, 2024
Alexander Hamilton, with superimposed map of Atlantic world.

The Return of Hamiltonian Statecraft

A grand strategy for a turbulent world.
by Walter Russell Mead via Foreign Affairs on August 20, 2024
Palm trees on an island made of cash.

The American Con Man Who Pioneered Offshore Finance

How a now-obscure financier turned the Bahamas into a tax haven—and created a cornerstone of global plutocracy.
by Brooke Harrington via The Atlantic on August 19, 2024
Eisenhower.
partner

The GOP's 72-Year-Old Inflation Playbook

Since the 1950s, the GOP has simplified the causes of inflation in order to blame Democrats.
by Johnny Fulfer via Made By History on August 14, 2024
Men and women working in a factory during World War 2.

Dispelling the WWII Productivity Myth

Generally speaking, emergencies tend to reduce productivity, at least in the short and medium terms.
by Alberto Mingardi via Law & Liberty on July 30, 2024
The White House surrounded by outlines of Iran, Russia, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, China, Syria, and Afghanistan.

How Four U.S. Presidents Unleashed Economic Warfare Across the Globe

U.S. sanctions have surged over the last two decades and are now in effect on almost one-third of all nations. But are they doing more harm than we realize?
by Jeff Stein, Federica Cocco via Washington Post on July 25, 2024
Chalkboard in a classroom.

What Are You Going to Do With That?

The future of college in the asset economy.
by Erik Baker via Harper’s on July 23, 2024
Oil on canvas (1993–94) depicting the third signing of the Louisiana Treaty in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Trade, Ambition, and the Rise of American Empire

High ideals have always gone together with economic self-interest in the history of the United States.
by Samuel Gregg via Law & Liberty on July 17, 2024
Map of West Florida.

From Subjects To Citizens

The West Florida revolt in the Age of Revolutions.
by Colin Mathison via Age of Revolutions on July 8, 2024
Engraving of the Battle of Lexington After Alonzo Chappel: American colonists and British soldiers exchange fire at the Battle of Lexington, the first skirmish in the US War of Independence.

Taking Up the American Revolution’s Egalitarian Legacy

Despite its failures and limitations, the American Revolution unleashed popular aspirations to throw off tyranny of all kinds.
by Taylor Clark via Jacobin on July 4, 2024
Illustration of the Georgia Peach.

The Georgia Peach: A Labor History

The peach industry represented a new, scientifically driven economy for Georgia, but it also depended on the rhythms and racial stereotypes of cotton farming.
by Livia Gershon via JSTOR Daily on July 1, 2024
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