Money

How black freedom benefited poor whites.

A third-generation mill worker pays homage to the controversial industrialist.

Economic analyses of the antebellum era upend the notion that Southern whites were united in their support of slavery.

A look into neocolonialism in modern America.

The U.S. didn't buy a huge tract of land from France. It bought the right to displace Native Americans from that land.

A new book asks: Can the surplus of capitalist exploitation be used to aid those on whose backs this surplus is generated?

How much did slave owners pay for antebellum-era policies from Aetna, AIG, and New York Life?

Some historians think Benedict Arnold's treason may well have aided the American cause in the Revolutionary War.

A primary source set and teaching guide created by educators.

On the widespread boycotts of British-made goods in the American Colonies.

Elon Musk and the rise of Silicon Valley’s strange trickle-down science.

Columbia professor Richard R. John explains the history of U.S. monopolies and why antimonopoly should not be conflated with antitrust.

In the 1970s, a new wave of post-Watergate liberals stopped fighting monopoly power. The result is an increasingly dangerous political system.

The story of America's oldest counterfeiters and why the Civil War spurred the Secret Service into hunting them down.

Looking for an easy buck, con artists in the early 1900s infamously "sold" the Brooklyn Bridge to immigrants fresh off the boat.

Richmond was the epicenter of black finance. What happened there explains the decline of black-owned banks across the country.

The Internet was built by public institutions — so why is it controlled by private corporations?

How big business lies behind early efforts to encourage Americans to recycle.

A discussion of the booming 19th-century trade in scrap metal.

The U.S. has long supplied the world with AR-15 rifles. But only when we see its grim effects at home do politicians call for restricting its sale.

Interpreting dreams for fun and profit. The importance of oneiromancy (dream reading) to American betting culture.

Bill Clinton’s 1996 welfare reform was supposed to move needy families off government handouts and onto a path out of poverty. How has it turned out?

The critical role that banking played in the political struggles of early American history.

They were enormous, tech-savvy, and invasive in their methods—and they enlisted Abraham Lincoln into their ranks.

Suburban corporate campuses have isolated themselves by design from the communities their products were supposed to impact.

The Digital Public Library of America brings together the riches of America’s libraries, archives, and museums, and makes them freely available to the world.

How every major industry and marketplace in America came to be controlled by a single, monolithic player.

Land redistribution could have served as the primary means of reparations for former slaves. Instead, it did exactly the opposite.

Victorian diners loved white tile, too.

The desire for dignity runs deep.