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The four Harper Brothers, founders of the namesake publishing giant.
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The 200 Year History of American Virtue Capitalism

Despite the recent backlash against DEI, there is a longstanding tradition of virtue capitalism in the United States.
by Joseph P. Slaughter via Made By History on July 23, 2025
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
Marketplace in New Orleans, 1936.

New Orleans as a Nexus of Power

American empire, bananas, and the Crescent City.
by Glenn Chambers Jr. via 64 Parishes on June 1, 2024
Sam Bankman-Fried of FTX at a House hearing in 2021.
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‘Effective Altruism’ Isn’t As Newfangled As It Seems

Times have changed since the days of Carnegie and Rockefeller, but much in philanthropy has remained the same.
by John R. Thelin, Richard W. Trollinger via Made By History on February 6, 2023
Mitch McConnell
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The Fissure Between Republicans and Business is Less Surprising Than it Seems

Business groups have always worked with both parties to support globalization and free trade.
by Jennifer Delton via Made By History on June 7, 2021
Handcuffs with chain of $

The Men Who Turned Slavery Into Big Business

The domestic slave trade was no sideshow in our history, and slave traders were not bit players on the stage.
by Joshua D. Rothman via The Atlantic on April 20, 2021
Illustration of Kim Kardashian taking a selfie with drawn-on glasses and hat to resemble James Joyce.

James Joyce, Like Kim Kardashian, Understood a Sex Scandal Could Be Good for Business

'Blank Space' and 'A Danger to the Minds of Young Girls' examine capitalism and the arts in different eras.
by Mark Athitakis via Los Angeles Times on December 11, 2025
Cardboard cutouts of Donald Trump Ronald Reagan.

How the Republican Party Slipped Its Leash

The Republican Party’s descent into chaos is a product of capitalist fragmentation.
by Meagan Day via Jacobin on December 10, 2025
Gillette print advertisement, 1932, showing unemployed man who hasn't shaved.

Things Fall Apart: Herbert Hoover And The Risks Of Certitude

On the rhetoric and failure of the Hoover administration.
by Michael Liss via 3 Quarks Daily on December 1, 2025
A blank crossword puzzle

How Crossword Puzzles Underwrote Three of America’s Major Publishers

The origin stories of Simon & Schuster, Random House, and Farrar, Sraus and Giroux.
by Natan Last via Literary Hub on November 25, 2025
'A slave auction at the South' by Theodore R. Davis, from Harper’s Weekly, July 1861

Speculation in Human Property

The survival of slave trading during the Civil War suggests that enslaved people remained valuable commodities in a time of economic upheaval.
by James Oakes via New York Review of Books on October 30, 2025
An anti-capitalist political cartoon depicting a capitalist rhinoceros blocking the tracks for a train of the people.

How Capitalism Survives

According to John Cassidy’s century-spanning history "Capitalism and Its Critics," the system lives on because of its antagonists.
by Erik Baker via The Nation on September 24, 2025
President-elect Franklin Roosevelt and Raymond Moley in February 1933.

The New Deal's Radical Uncertainty

The New Deal didn’t solve the economic problems behind the Great Depression—it made them worse.
by James E. Hartley via Law & Liberty on September 23, 2025
Young Donald Trump by the staircase in his fancy home.

The Real Estate Roots of Trumpism and the Coming Clash With Democratic Socialism

Trump’s brand of authoritarianism emerges out of New York City’s real estate industry. As mayor, Zohran Mamdani vows to curb that sector’s outsized power.
by John Whitlow via The Nation on September 18, 2025
Books lined up.

How Translations Sell: Three U.S. Eras of International Bestsellers

A translation renaissance in US publishing just ended. And you probably missed it.
by Jed Kudrick, Sean DiLeonardi ‪ via Public Books on September 16, 2025
Photo of Claudine gay testifying to Congress.

What a 1964 Book About American Anti-Intellectualism Can Teach Us About the Trump Era

On Richard Hofstadter and the current assault on academia.
by Peter Balakian via Literary Hub on July 9, 2025
Six stools with increasingly pixilated versions of "The Thinker."

Perplexity

Why is the essential promise of technology and the alleviation of drudgery not enough?
by Trevor Quirk via The Hedgehog Review on July 7, 2025
A mouse hovers over a screen filled with buttons for purchase choices that all look the same.

Americans Are Tired of Choice

How did freedom become synonymous with having lots of options?
by Gal Beckerman via The Atlantic on June 23, 2025
A woman peering into the cave of Sarah Bishop c. 1900.

The Curious History of New England’s Hermit Tourism

From Revolutionary War-era recluses to 1920s roadside attractions, meet the solitary figures who turned isolation into a destination.
by Ryan Shea via Atlas Obscura on June 13, 2025
Irving Thalberg and his wife, with Louis Mayer.

The Wizard Behind Hollywood’s Golden Age

How Irving Thalberg helped turn M-G-M into the world’s most famous movie studio—and gave the film business a new sense of artistry and scale.
by Adam Gopnik via The New Yorker on June 9, 2025
A magnifying glass on C. Wright Mills's book "The Power Elite."

Whatever Happened to the Power Elite?

The trio of interests atop business, military, and government depicted in C. Wright Mills’s postwar critique is no longer united in setting the national agenda.
by Peter Dreier via The New Republic on May 5, 2025
A drawing of human eyes behind a variety of consumer goods, including milk, shoes, and toothpaste.

The Surprising History of the Ideology of Choice

How endless options became our only option.
by Andrew Lanham via The New Republic on April 11, 2025
An illustration of a government building holding up an American home with a stylized hand.

The Good Society Department

Once upon a time, there was a federal government department that helped design and distribute tools for living the good life. What happened to that vision?
by John Last via Noema on April 3, 2025
The title card of George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead.

George Romero’s Pittsburgh

City of the living dead.
by Victoria Timpanaro via The Metropole on February 20, 2025
A man in a suit with angel wings clipped to his back, tipping a hat with six different arms.

The Cult of the Entrepreneur

Why do Americans idealize people who found businesses?
by Robin Kaiser-Schatzlein via The New Republic on February 17, 2025
A drawing of a man riding a train and laying down train tracks in front of him.

The Insidious Charms of the Entrepreneurial Work Ethic

You’re passionate. Purpose-driven. Dreaming big, working hard, making it happen. And now they’ve got you where they want you.
by Anna Wiener via The New Yorker on January 27, 2025
A painting of a large camera on a film set, surrounded by green screens.

Casual Viewing

Why Netflix looks like that.
by Will Tavlin via n+1 on December 16, 2024

How Jukeboxes Made Memphis Music

When R.E. Buster Williams ruled jukeboxes and jukeboxes ruled music.
by Robert Gordon via Oxford American on December 10, 2024
A painting of Roland G. Hazard.

The Hazards of Slavery

Scott Spillman reviews Seth Rockman’s “Plantation Goods: A Material History of American Slavery.”
by Scott Spillman via Los Angeles Review of Books on December 2, 2024
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.
by Caroline Jack via HNN on November 26, 2024
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