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Liberian workers at the Firestone Plantation carrying buckets of latex in buckets on their shoulders.

The Human Price of American Rubber

Segregated lives of pride and peril on Firestone's Liberian plantations.
Mary Vanderlight’s Titled Account Book, from the collections of the John Carter Brown Library.

The Brown Brothers Had a Sister

Women’s work is often hidden or marginal within historical records that were meant to show men’s economic and political lives.
A boy holding a bottle of Coca-Cola
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Extracting Coca-Cola: An Environmental History

In its early days, Coca-Cola established key relationships in the supply chain ranging from natural resources to pharmaceuticals to achieve market dominance.
Donald Trump, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, and Vince McMhaon at a press conference before Wrestlemania 23, 2007.

The Misunderstood History of American Wrestling

A recent biography of Vince McMahon presents him as an entertainment tycoon who changed culture and politics. The real story is as banal as it is brutal.
Milton Friedman in front of a graph.

The Myth of the Friedman Doctrine

Friedman's viewpoint went far deeper and has been more lasting than the politics of 1970.
A building with Amazon's logo
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How Public Opinion May Decide the FTC Amazon Antitrust Suit

In the 1920s, electricity monopolies survived an antitrust investigation because they had won over the public.
Collage of Ebony cover, makeup ad, and card catalogue.

Rebrand

"Ebony" strives to become a one-stop shop.
The "fangs" of private equity dripping blood on the U.S. economy.

Conspicuous Destruction

Two books argue that private equity created an economic order in which getting rich quickly preempts other values, undermining companies and evading the law.

What Even Is "Leadership"?

And why won't all the worst people stop talking about it?
The Tri-City ValleyCats played in the Baseball Hall of Fame’s showcase game during induction weekend in 2004.

The Supreme Court May Overturn the Error That Made Major League Baseball Rich

A pair of minor league clubs are asking the court to reverse the league’s lucrative 101-year-old antitrust exemption.
United Auto Workers members at a rally.

UAW Strikes Built the American Middle Class

Today’s strikers are seeking to renew the broadly shared prosperity that earlier UAW work stoppages created.
Strikers outside Walt Disney Studios in 1941.

Disney Animators Strike During WWII Changed the Company — and Hollywood

The 1941 strike, following the spectacular success of “Snow White,” stunned Walt Disney and rattled his now-storied company.
Attendees of the 1908 Conference of Governors.

When American Governors and Moguls Came Together to Prevent Environmental Catastrophe

A historic 1908 conference transcended party and personal interest for the ‘common good.'
Spectators lined up outside the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 12, 1977, hoping to witness arguments in the Regents of University of California v. Bakke case.

The Uses of Affirmative Action

The right denounced it as “reverse racism,” while the liberal center hailed it as the endpoint of egalitarianism. But it has never been either.
A businessman superimposed over the Wall Street skyline.

How Not to Tell Stories About Corporate Capitalism

Turning the history of capitalism into a morality tale about good guys and bad guys is tempting.
Police and bystanders at night.

Do Cartels Exist?

A revisionist view of the drug wars.
Graphic showing a gasoline tank (in green) leaking underground.

The Hidden Cost of Gasoline

Gas stations caused a $20 billion toxic mess — and it’s not going away.
Calculating machines.

Plantations, Computers, and Industrial Control

The proto-Taylorist methods of worker control Charles Babbage encoded into his calculating engines have origins in plantation management.
Boxing great Joe Louis stands in a gymnasium boxing ring as if ready for a match.

How Racist Car Dealers KO’d Joe Louis

A never-before-published tranche of letters reveals the white-collar racism that prevented the world’s most popular athlete from selling Fords.

Traffic Jam

Ben Smith’s book on the history of the viral internet doesn’t truly reckon with the costs of traffic worship.

Anatomy of an ‘American Transit Disaster’

In his new book, historian Nicholas Dagen Bloom chronicles the collapse of public transportation in US cities — and explains who really deserves the blame.
CEO Eli Black (middle) talking with farmers at a lettuce farm.

The Banana King Who (Tried to) Put People Over Profits

1970s United Fruit CEO Eli Black got caught between the warring ideals of ‘social responsibility’ and shareholder gains.
Illustrated J. Crew cover, showing a blonde white couple wearing "preppy' clothing sitting by a river; a young man's khaki shorts, boat shoes, and school books on a campus; a crew team on the water. Illustration by Nada Hayek.

J. Crew and the Paradoxes of Prep

By mass-marketing social aspiration, the brand toed the line between exclusivity and accessibility—and established prep as America’s visual vernacular.
Tourists taking photos at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
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Martin Luther King Jr. and the Coca Cola Strategy: Selling King’s Dream to the World

Martin Luther King’s words are available publicly — for a price.
Looney Tunes "That's all Folks" on a TV screen.

HBO Max’s Great Looney Tunes Purge

Hundreds of classic cartoons vanished without warning. How can you raise your kids on favorites you can’t access anymore?
Incumbent Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and his wife, Casey, wave from behind a podium.
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Miami Once Provided a Model for Diversity. Now DeSantis Won It Big.

The county once championed a divisive, but productive, method of training professionals to deal with diversity.
Mary Kay Ash photo with pink filter.

How Mary Kay Contributed to Feminism – Even Though She Loathed Feminists

Ash derided women’s liberation as “that foolishness” – but her success story is very feminist.
Photo of an elderly Jane Stanford, dressed in lace and beads.

The Robber Baroness of Northern California

Authorities who investigated Jane Stanford’s mysterious death said the wealthy widow had no enemies. A new book finds that she had many.
Interior of car dealership.

Why Car Shopping is So Bizarre in the United States

The reasons have to do with the complexity of the transaction, but also with the industry’s explosive growth in its early years.
Crowd at Black Flag concert

The Unraveling of SST Records

Jim Ruland’s book on the legendary punk label helps explain why we lack a meaningful counterculture today.

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