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A port city in the 1600s.

Sven Beckert’s Chronicle of Capitalism’s Long Rise

Capitalism is a global economic system, so a proper chronicle of its rise to dominance has to examine the entire world.
by Nelson Lichtenstein via Jacobin on December 4, 2025
Screen shots and captions from a public service campaign about the economy.

The Ad Campaign for Capitalism

In the 1970s, corporate America struck back at the forces attempting to rein it in. One of their tactics was a public service announcement.
by David Sirota, Jared Jacang Maher via The American Prospect on October 13, 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
John Cassidy

John Cassidy on Capitalism and Its Critics

The author on capitalism’s critics, why everyone is so unhappy with the system, and what may come next.
by John Cassidy, James Surowiecki via The Yale Review on May 27, 2025
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
Frozen ruins of Barnum’s Museum as it appeared immediately after the fire of March 3rd 1868

Capitalism and Fire in the Nineteenth-Century United States

L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is productively understood in terms of this widespread fight over the value of fire and the shape of capitalism.
by Daniel Immerwahr via Past & Present on March 9, 2024
Cotton plants.
partner

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
partner

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
Construction workers, high up in a building, looking down over New York City.

Land of Capital

The history of the United States as the history of 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

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
A movie still from Scarface (1932) depicting members of the mafia.

Mob Rules

The Chicago Outfit’s second life as nostalgia—and as presidential politics.
by Caleb Brennan via The Baffler on December 18, 2025
Martin Wong, The Flood (1984)

FIREstorm

A conversation on the wave of landlord perpetrated arson in the Bronx during the 1970s.
by Bench Ansfield, Andrew Anastasi via History & Political Economy Project on December 9, 2025
Man setting out a placard, on the cover of the book "Make Your Own Job"

Make Your Own Job

A new book examines Americans' long obsession with the enticing and oppressive concept of entrepreneurship.
by Andrew Hartman via Society for U.S. Intellectual History on November 30, 2025
Portrait of Benjamin Franklin reading.

Benjamin Franklin’s Experiments

The mindset Franklin demonstrated in his scientific work helps us understand his political accomplishments.
by Ferdinand Mount via London Review of Books on November 27, 2025

The Progress Paradox

Neoliberals long preached that markets and technology reinforce each other. In reality, when one develops, the other tends to stagnate.
by Matt Prewitt via Noema on November 13, 2025
Illustration of draping a Pizza Hut tarp over the Hammer and Sickle.

Pizzastroika

In 1990, one of the great forgotten acts of American subterfuge unfolded. It involved Pizza Hut.
by Josh Levin, Kelly Jones via Slate on November 13, 2025
Female prisoners at Parchman sewing.

From Chain Gangs to the “Modern” Southern Prison

Those who sought to modernize and reform prisons have expanded them in the process and more permanently entrenched a racialized carceral state.
by Kirstine Taylor via Inquest on October 29, 2025
Food stand at a carnival advertising a wide ranging menu.

Why an Abundance of Choice Is Not the Same as Freedom

It’s only in recent history that freedom has come to mean having a huge array of choices in life. Did we take a wrong turn?
by Sophia Rosenfeld via Aeon on October 16, 2025
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