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On systems of production, consumption, and trade.

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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.
by Kyle Edward Williams via The Hedgehog Review on June 30, 2023
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.
by Harold Meyerson via The American Prospect on September 18, 2023
A man and a dog walk among blighted buildings in the Bronx.

The Persistence of American Poverty

“We could afford to end poverty,” Matthew Desmond tells us. That we don’t is a choice.
by Marcia Chatelain via The Nation on August 21, 2023
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.
by Kate Yoder via Grist on June 14, 2023

Exhibits

Exhibit

The Way We Tax

From municipal government to international trade, these writings examine the political rhetoric, economic theories, and changing policies of taxation in the U.S.

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
A gun shop in Dunedin, Florida.

America Fell for Guns Recently, and for Reasons You Will Not Guess

The US today has extraordinary levels of gun ownership. But to see this as a venerable tradition is to misread history.
by Megan Kang via Aeon on April 9, 2024
Two men carrying a weakened hunger striker.

Remembering the 1932 Ford Hunger March: Detroit Park Honors Labor and Environmental History

On March 7, workers at the Ford Rouge River plant marched for better working conditions. Almost a century later, a quiet park honors their memory.
by Paul Draus via The Conversation on April 2, 2024
"Soulsville" mural in Memphis, Tennessee.

Capitalism and (Under)Development in the American South

In the American South, an oligarchy of planters enriched itself through slavery. Pervasive underdevelopment is their legacy.
by Keri Leigh Merritt via Aeon on April 2, 2024
University of Michigan women’s basketball team, 1977
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This Is Standby Alert

The history of the battle to keep Title IX out of college sports.
by Matthew Lindaman via HNN on April 2, 2024
Cover page of an AP Psychology exam

Bankrupt Authority

Advanced Placement testing is "a money-making racket that lets states off the hook for underfunding education."
by KJ Shepherd via Contingent on March 31, 2024
Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1933 presidential inauguration.

The First New Deal

Planning, market coordination, and the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933.
by Sanjukta Paul via Phenomenal World on March 28, 2024
Illustration of a literary rejection letter.

There Is No Point in My Being Other Than Honest with You: On Toni Morrison’s Rejection Letters

Autopsies of a changing publishing industry; frustrations with readers' tastes; and sympathies for poets and authors drawn to commercially hopeless genres.
by Melina Moe via Los Angeles Review of Books on March 26, 2024
Orange cider booth at the World's Fair.

The Hottest Drink of the 1893 World's Fair Was an Artificial Orange 'Cider'

"You're drinking something that some guy just cobbled together out of Lake Michigan water and food dye.”
by Anne Ewbank via Atlas Obscura on March 25, 2024
Law and Political Economy Project

Recovering the Left-Wing Free Trade Tradition

Free trade has been defended primarily by neoliberals who cared little about social justice or democracy. An examination of its history paints a different picture.
by Marc-William Palen via LPE Project on March 21, 2024
Branko Milanovic, 2017.

The Problematic Past, Present, and Future of Inequality Studies

An intellectual history of inequality in economic theory reveals the ideological reasons behind the field’s resurgence in the last few decades.
by Branko Milanovic, Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins via The Nation on March 20, 2024
Etching of friends playing a game of chess, dated to the nineteenth century.

Get Capitalists’ Grubby Hands Off Our Hobbies

Christian moralists long promoted hobbies as a way to occupy idle hands, bringing the work ethic into free time. Today hobbies risk turning into side hustles.
by Helmer Stoel via Jacobin on March 19, 2024
The United Farm Worker’s 1,000 Mile March, 1975.

How Unions Are Made

A new history of labor organizing in Coachella tells us the story of the United Farm Workers and how its rank-and-file members drove the union to success.
by Juan Ignacio Mora via The Nation on March 19, 2024
Title card of the cartoon, featuring FDR committing money to a federal housing program.

The Tragedy and Tenacity of Public Housing in America

A cartoon report on the only policy proven to address the housing shortage and how racism, inept management, and disinvestment led to long-term decline.
by Eric Orner via The Nation on March 18, 2024
The cover of "Beyond Norma Rae" by Aimee Loiselle

Who Makes the American Working Class: Women Workers and Culture

Female industrial workers across the country and from diverse racial backgrounds fought to tell their own stories.
by Brock Schnoke via UNC Press Blog on March 13, 2024
Depositors of a failed bank hold a protest during the Great Depression.

A Decisive Influence: The American Public’s Role in Financial Regulation

The history of grassroots banking politics has been overlooked — and even denied.
by Christopher W. Shaw via Process: A Blog for American History on March 12, 2024
Continental Congress voting for independence.

Mother’s Milk of the Revolution

Right from the beginning, a commercial spirit and the wealth it generated were essential to creating and constituting America.
by John O. McGinnis via Law & Liberty on March 7, 2024

The Deep and Enduring History of Universal Basic Income

While the concept stretches back centuries, it has garnered significant attention in recent decades.
by Karl Widerquist via The MIT Press Reader on March 7, 2024
A photograph of Anne Morrissy next to the cover of her book, "Street Fight."

The Chicago Taxi Wars of the 1920s

The turbulent history of an often forgotten moment that would leave blood in the streets and shape the modern landscape of Chicago.
by Anne Morrissy, Michael Welch via Chicago Review Of Books on March 6, 2024
A photograph of an AR-15 rifle, a pistol, and a knife in camoflage print, as well as bullets and a pair of gloves.

Give Your Mom a Gun

America’s favorite gun.
by Geoff Mann via London Review of Books on March 1, 2024
Caitlin Clark celebrating on basketball court

Caitlin Clark’s Scoring Record Spotlights the History of a Forgotten College Sports Association

Before being pushed aside by the NCAA, the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women governed women’s college athletics.
by Diane Williams via The Conversation on February 29, 2024
An early Paramount logo, picturing the iconic ring of stars around a mountain with the words "A Paramount Release."

The Ruthless Rise and Fall of Paramount Pictures During Hollywood’s Golden Age

The venerable movie studio once defined the industry's zeal for consolidation, pioneering vertical integration and serving as the model for its major rivals.
by Thomas Doherty via The Hollywood Reporter on February 29, 2024
Ferris wheel at Cony Island.
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Spending My Free Time Researching Free Time

One academic tells the story behind his new book -- and his next one.
by Gary Cross via HNN on February 27, 2024
Greenwood District, Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Class, Race, and the Formation of Urban Black Communities

A review of three new studies about how race and class intersect.
by Randal Maurice Jelks via The Common Reader on February 21, 2024
The State Capitol building in Richmond, Va.
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Debt Has Long Been a Tool for Limiting Black Freedom

In pre-Civil War Richmond, Black people were forced to literally pay for the mechanisms of white supremacy.
by Amanda White Gibson via Made by History on February 19, 2024
"Choosing the Ring" painting by Jean Carolus (1814–1897).

How Diamond Rings Became a Symbol of Love

While engagement or wedding rings are certainly not a new idea, the prevalence of diamonds is a more recent phenomenon.
by Einav Rabinovitch-Fox via The Saturday Evening Post on February 13, 2024
Irma Sherman, Chair of McMaid Workers Organizing Committee.

How Four Black Women Changed Labor Organizing Forever

40 years ago in Chicago, McMaid workers sparked a movement.
by Keith Kelleher via The Forge on February 13, 2024
A man surfs the web on an early box-computer which emits neon green light

How Corporations Tried—And Failed—To Control the Spread of Content Online

The recent history of copyright in music cannot be separated from the rise of technologies for the recording and transmission of content online.
by David Bellos, Alexandre Montagu via Literary Hub on February 8, 2024
Economist Milton Friedman poses next to a bust sculpture of himself

The Century of Milton Friedman

An interview with Jennifer Burns on her authoritative new biography of the American economist and the personal and intellectual origins of his theories.
by Jennifer Burns, Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins via The Nation on February 5, 2024
Book cover; painting of Founding Fathers sitting around a table

The Continental Dollar: How the American Revolution Was Financed with Paper Money

Economists and historians have been telling us the wrong story about Continental currency for two centuries.
by Gabriel Neville via Journal of the American Revolution on January 29, 2024
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