Adam Smith

The proto-Taylorist methods of worker control Charles Babbage encoded into his calculating engines have origins in plantation management.

How Americans lost faith in the possibility of self-government.

A new book provides a framework that engages with “big history” or “deep history” while avoiding explanations that flirt with forms of determinism.

A new history makes a case for the world-ordering power of wheat.

A conversation with historian Gary Gerstle about understanding neoliberalism as a bipartisan worldview and how the political order it ushered in has crumbled. 

Why a policy agenda adopted in the name of entrepreneurs hurt entrepreneurs more than it helped them.

For decades, “common sense” has been a convenient framing for conservative ideas. The label hides a more complicated picture.

The fight over the American Jobs Plan reflects a long history of competing visions of public works—and, most of all, who should benefit from rebuilding.

For economist Albert Hirschman, social planning meant creative experimentation rather than theoretical certainty.

The famed economist’s theories were embraced by Beltway power brokers in both parties. Finally, a Democratic president is turning the page on a legacy of ruin.

Colonial lessons in civility from the Five Nations of the Haudenosaunee.

Robert Mundell’s theories spawned decades of economic debate and still matter to the big ideas of today.

The past has habitually been repurposed in a manner inhibiting ethical accountability in the present.

The predigital dream of the audiobook.

An activist, writer, doctor and intellectual, James McCune Smith, born enslaved, directed his talents to the eradication of slavery.

Reflections on the famous economist through the prism of the author's own mixed-race family.

In “Radical Hamilton,” Christian Parenti argues that the left should use Alexander Hamilton’s mythologized status to drive home his full agenda.

As 19th century reformers showed, only a healthy workforce can fuel economic prosperity.

Historians still lack a good way to define, discuss, and address historical actions that appear to be "conspiracies."

To fight back against corporate power, cities have to cooperate, not compete.