Sven Beckert on a Global History of Capitalism
Popular histories tend to locate capitalism's origins in Europe, only later moving outward to other parts of the globe. Not so says historian Sven Beckert. Capitalism, he argues, was born global, forg...
4 Jan 39min
Mike Glass on the Surprisingly Precarious Postwar Suburbs
Few historical tableaus are more iconic than the midcentury suburbs of Long Island. I can see it now: rows of identical houses, subsidized by federal spending, inhabited by white middle-class heterono...
9 Des 202542min
Rudi Batzell on Racialized Working-Class Politics in the U.S. and British Empires
This month's episode offers a fresh perspective on an old debate. Jettisoning outdated modes of analysis that emphasize race vs. class, guest Rudi Batzell illuminates the materialist underpinnings of ...
5 Nov 202549min
Leigh Claire La Berge on Why Capitalism Might Be A Joke
If you work at a so-called laptop job, there are moments every day when your work feels silly, pointless, absurd, even fake. What if you wrote an entire book that tried to inhabit and analyze that ver...
1 Okt 202536min
Bench Ansfield on Arson-for-Profit, Insurance Brownlining, and the Bronx
Arson - which frequently involves the destruction of property - and business are not typically thought to be compatible. Indeed, there is a whole industry - the insurance industry - whose stated busin...
9 Sep 202539min
Kendra Boyd on Black Business and Racial Capitalism during the Great Migration
Take a moment and picture the average person who came North during the Great Migration. Chances are good that you conjured someone who was African-American and working-class, bound for a city in searc...
4 Aug 202531min
Trish Kahle on Energy Citizenship and Coal-Fired Democracy in the 20th Century U.S.
What do energy consumers owe energy producers? What does it mean to be a citizen in a coal-fired democracy? In this month's episode, guest Trish Kahle reckons with the costs and benefits of coal from ...
11 Jul 202545min
Ian Kumekawa on Globalization As Told Through One Ship
How do you write the history of something as abstract, as placeless, and as vast as the globalization that has remade our world over the past several decades? If you're Ian Kumekawa, you make those i...
2 Jun 202531min
