capitalism — Bunk History

A view of Wall Street and Federal Hall in the Financial District in New York City.

In the 1970s, the Left Put a Good Crisis to Waste

In "Counterrevolution," Melinda Cooper reads the 1970s economic crisis as an elite revolt rather than proof of the New Deal order’s unsustainability.

by Scott Aquanno, Stephen Maher via Jacobin on October 24, 2024

Boiling House at the Sugar Plantation Asunción, Cuba, 1857.

Slavery Was Crucial for the Development of Capitalism

Historian Robin Blackburn has completed a trilogy of books that provide a comprehensive Marxist account of slavery in the New World.

by Robin Blackburn, Owen Dowling via Jacobin on April 10, 2024

Cotton plants.

Understanding Capitalism Through Cotton

Looking at the development of cotton as a global commodity helps us understand how capitalism emerged.

by Sven Beckert, Livia Gershon, Eric Vanhaute via JSTOR Daily on September 25, 2023

Illustration of workers designed like they are a part of a technological apparatus.

How Stanford Helped Capitalism Take Over the World

The ruthless logic driving our economy can be traced back to 19th-century Palo Alto.

by Sammy Feldblum via The Chronicle of Higher Education on July 20, 2023

Cartoon of ghosts surrounded by environmentally destructive technology.

The Palo Alto System

A new history dispenses with the sentimental lore and examines how Palo Alto has long been the seedbed for exploitation, chaos, and ecological degradation.

by Jonathan Lethem via The Nation on April 17, 2023

Fire truck at scene of California wildfire

What If Environmental Damage Is A Form of Capitalist Sabotage?

Worker sabotage is a weapon of the weak, but capitalist sabotage causes much greater damage.

by R. H. Lossin via Made By History on November 22, 2022

Man carrying bundle of sugarcane over his head walking on plank in Guyana sugarcane fields

The Capitalist Transformations of the Countryside

Centuries of capitalism saw the global countryside ruthlessly converted into cheap commodities. But at what cost?

by Sven Beckert via Aeon on October 6, 2022

Abstract collage artwork called "the weight of scars."

A Framework to Help Us Understand the World

Out of a common history emerged racism, capitalism, and the whole world. This offers us a clue on how to change that world.

by Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò via Hammer & Hope on July 26, 2022

Comic-style drawing of a man standing in the doorway with two others standing in the shadows behind him, all facing away from each other.

The Story of Capitalism in One Family

The Lehman Trilogy proposes that the downfall of a financial dynasty is enough to tell the economic and political history of America.

by Alisa Solomon via The Nation on January 26, 2022

Black and white photo of construction workers, high up in a building, looking down over industrialized NYC.

The History of the United States as the History of Capitalism

What gets lost when we view the American past as primarily a story about capitalism?

by Steven Hahn via The Nation on November 1, 2021

Political cartoon depicting stock exchange fraud.

Has Capitalism Become Our Religion?

On the myths and rituals of the market, the lost radicalism of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and the rise of neoliberalism.

by Eugene McCarraher, Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins via The Nation on October 4, 2019

Writing the History of Capitalism with Class

The "new history of capitalism" cuts class politics at the expense of history.

by Thomas Jessen Adams via Nonsite on September 9, 2019

A Hundred Years of Solidarity

If we want to fight capitalism, the US left has to figure out how to confront US empire.

by Hilary Goodfriend via Jacobin on April 27, 2019

Who Segregated America?

For all of its strengths, Richard Rothstein’s new book does not account for the central role capitalism played in segregating America's cities.

by Destin Jenkins via Public Books on December 21, 2017

The Uses and Abuses of 'Neoliberalism'

Does the term clarify or confuse our understanding of capitalism today?

by Daniel T. Rodgers via Dissent on December 13, 2017

Massive Rise Of Top Incomes Is Mostly Driven By Capital

All top 1 percent income growth after 2000 came from ownership of capital.

by Matt Bruenig via People's Policy Project on August 9, 2017

Black and Woke in Capitalist America: Revisiting Robert Allen’s "Black Awakening"... for New Times’ Sake

A look into neocolonialism in modern America.

by N. D. B. Connolly via Social Science Research Council on March 7, 2017

To Remake the World: Slavery, Racial Capitalism, and Justice

What if we use the history of slavery as a standpoint from which to rethink our notion of justice today?

by Walter Johnson via Boston Review on October 19, 2016

Garment workers use sewing machines at a textile facility in New York City in 1975.

Tariffs and the Shop Floor

A former garment worker reflects on rank-and-file agitation in the US garment industry just before the industry fled the country.

by Ron Whitehorn via Jacobin on April 26, 2025

Chinese migrants wrapped in blankets on a beach, from the cover of "Camp of the Saints."

Mutant Capitalism

How the dystopian visions of the nativist right are in keeping with a long tradition of neoliberal ideology.

by Quinn Slobodian via HNN on April 15, 2025

Elon Musk holds a chain saw as he shakes hands with Argentine president Javier Milei at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

The Method in the Far Right’s Madness

How today’s far right manages to combine the call for economic freedom with pseudoscience about natural hierarchies of race and IQ.

by Quinn Slobodian, Bartolomeo Sala via Jacobin on April 13, 2025

Headshots of Charles Murray, Friedrich Hayek, and Elon Musk in front of a red backgrounds.

Free Markets and Fixed Natures

How neoliberals fell in love with “human nature”—the glue that still unites the divergent factions of the new right.

by Quinn Slobodian via Boston Review on April 9, 2025

Harvester on farmland.

America’s Pernicious Rural Myth

An interview with Steven Conn about his new book, “Lies of the Land: Seeing Rural America for What It Is—and Isn’t.”

by Steven Conn, Jacob Bruggeman via Public Books on April 9, 2025

Farmer working a mule-drawn plow.

Racism Isn’t the Only Cause of the Racial Wealth Gap

Widening the lens to capitalism itself could yield insights on how to close the gap.

by Eric Herschthal via The New Republic on March 6, 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

W.E.B. DuBois, seated in garden reading book, while Shirley Graham DuBois waters plants.

How Black Marxists Have Understood Racial Oppression

Black Marxist thought emphasizes the centrality of capitalism to racial oppression and the destructiveness of that oppression for all workers.

by Jeff Goodwin, Jonah Birch via Jacobin on February 17, 2025

Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, flanked by the U.S. and Chinese flags.

Back to the ’80s?

Trump, Xi Jinping, and the tariffs.

by Andrew Liu via n+1 on January 30, 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

Ku Kluz Klan imperial wizard Hiram Wesley Evans.

Making Sense of the Second Ku Klux Klan

Understanding the reemergence of the Ku Klux Klan in the early twentieth century gives insight into the roots of today’s reactionary activists and policymakers.

by Chad Pearson via Jacobin on December 22, 2024

Crowd of construction workers next to the first Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center.

The Rockefeller Christmas Tree Belongs to the Working Class

Construction workers pooled their wages to erect the first one. Their bosses co-opted the gesture, transforming it into today’s consumer spectacle.

by Ashley Bishop, Spencer Snyder via Jacobin on December 17, 2024

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