Podcasts about Sven Beckert

The 6 C's of History, Continuity: Episode #1 of 4. Reproductive labor is the labor or work of creating and maintaining the next generation of workers. This is the work of birth, breastfeeding or bottle feeding, washing dirty butts and wiping runny noses, nursing those who unable to care for themselves, keeping living areas habitable by washing and getting rid of refuse- and figuring out how to get water or where to put trash if not living with modern conveniences, cooking- including the sourcing, storing, and knowledge of food production to not make people ill. All of the things that humans rely on but that either through biology or through gendered norms, are the domain of women. Today we're discussing the history of how reproductive labor was gendered as women's work, the continuity of the undervaluation of reproductive labor within capitalism, and how this undervaluing contributes to the implications of gendered labor. Put more bluntly, capitalism is dependent on undervalued reproductive and gendered labor, and we're gonna explore that history a bit in this episode. Find the transcript, full bibliography, our swag store, and other resources at digpodcast.org Select Bibliography Friedrich Engels, The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State, Chicago: Charles H. Kerr & Co., 1884. Sven Beckert and Seth Rockman. Slavery's Capitalism : A New History of American Economic Development. University of Pennsylvania Press. 2016. Jennifer Morgan, Laboring Women: Reproduction and Gender in New World Slavery (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004). Caitlin Rosenthal. Accounting for Slavery: Masters and Management. (Harvard University Press, 2018). Eileen Boris and Jennifer Klein, Caring for America: Home Health Workers in the Shadow of the Welfare State (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012) Evelyn Nakano Glenn, Forced to Care: Coercion and Caregiving in America (Cambridge, Mass.; London: Harvard University Press, 2012). Lauel thatcher Ulrich, The Age of Homespun: Objects and Stories in the Creation of an American Myth Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In part one of our six-part episode on Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation, we look at the evolution of historical thinking about the Civil War, slavery, and the emancipation proclamation. We discover why the moral objections to slavery held by ordinary people has become the chief driver in interpreting the war and emancipation. Part 1: Slavery and Capitalism Music Clips “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” Reinald Werrenrath (Viktor, 1917): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUPPr_AilTM “Battle Cry of Freedom” (US Everlasting, date unknown): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRHdcn-bIb4 “Old Kentucky Home,” Harry Macdonald (Victor Monarch,1901): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaNzDpLtWIo Bibliography Edward Baptist, The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism (Basic Books, 2016) Sven Beckert, Empire of Cotton: A Global History (Knopf, 2014) Sven Beckert and Seth Rockman, editors, Slavery's Capitalism: A New History of American Economic Development (University of Pennsylvania, 2014) Caitlin Rosenthal, Accounting for Slavery (Harvard, 2018) Calvin Schmerhorn, Unrequited Toil: A History of United States Slavery (Cambridge University Press, 2018)

In 2005, JP Morgan Chase, currently the biggest bank in the US, admitted that two of its subsidiaries - Citizens' Bank and Canal Bank in Louisiana - accepted enslaved people as collateral for loans. If plantation owners defaulted on loan payment the banks took ownership of these slaves. JP Morgan was not alone. The predecessors that made up Citibank, Bank of America and Wells Fargo are among a list of well-known US financial firms that benefited from the slave trade. "Slavery was an overwhelmingly important fact of the American economy," explains Sven Beckert, Laird Bell Professor of American History at Harvard University. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/seiji-hito/support

This week on Under the Radar: Harvard pubilshed its “Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery” report back in April, which detailed the institution's clear, historical ties to slavery. That included enslaved individuals on campus, funding from enslavers and dozens of faculty — including past Harvard presidents — who were enslavers themselves. This was back in the 18th century, but the commercial aspects of slavery is linked in multiple ways today. To begin redressing the university's past involvement with slavery, Harvard has pledged $100 million to create a “Legacy of Slavery Fund.” Other universities, notably Brown, have also been engaged in the work of identifying ties to slavery and how the university benefited. So how will higher education continue to investigate its slavery linked past? And will Harvard's admission move the conversation about higher education and systemic racism? GUESTS: Ruth Simmons, president of Prairie View A&M University in Texas. Previously, Simmons served as president of Smith College in Massachusetts and of Brown University in Rhode Island, where she was the first Black woman to preside over an Ivy League school. Simmons began Brown's ongoing research and redress related to its ties to slavery. Tomiko Brown-Nagin, dean of Harvard Radcliffe Institute, professor of constitutional law at Harvard Law School and professor of history at Harvard University. In 2019, she was appointed chair of the presidential committee on "Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery." Sven Beckert, Laird Bell Professor of History at Harvard University and a Harvard presidential committee member.

The United States and Brazil share the distinction of being the last places in the Americas to emancipate slaves. The Emancipation Proclamation (1863) and Fourteenth Amendment (1865) accomplished this in the U.S. and the Golden Law in Brazil did the same in 1888, although emancipation occurred gradually there over three decades. Roberto Saba calls the experience "the American Mirror" and argues that it can tell us a great deal about the hemisphere, the industrialization of American economies, and the growth of a new order.Essential Reading:Roberto Saba, American Mirror: The United States and Brazil in the Age of Emancipation (2021).Recommended Reading:Emilia Viotti da Costa, The Brazilian Empire: Myths and Histories (2000).Sven Beckert, The Empire of Cotton: A Global History (2015). Matthew Karp, This Vast Southern Empire: Slaveholders at the Helm of American Foreign Policy (2016).Angela Alonso, The Last Abolition: The Brazilian Antislavery Movement, 1868-1888 (2021).Greg Downs, The Second American Revolution: The Civil War-Era Struggle Over Cuba and the Rebirth of the American Republic (2019).Teresa Cribelli, Industrial Forests and Mechanical Marvels: Modernization in Nineteenth-Century Brazil (2016). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sugata Bose and Ayesha Jalal. Modern South Asia: History, Culture, Political economy (4th Ed.). New York: Routledge, 2017.Ayesha Jalal. Self and Sovereignty: Individual and Community in South Asian Islam Since 1850. Routledge, 2001.Amartya Sen. Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation. OUP, 1983.C.A. Bayly. Indian Society and the Making of the British Empire. CUP, 1988.Mike Davis. Late Victorian Holocausts: The Making of Indian Poverty. Verso: 2000.Susan Bean. Yankee India. Mapin, 2006.Sven Beckert. Empire of Cotton: A Global History. Vintage, 2015.Sunil Amrith. Crossing the Bay of Bengal: The Furies of Nature and the Fortunes of Migrants. HUP: 2015.Mircea Raianu. Tata: The Global Corporation That Built Indian Capitalism. HUP, 2021. https://history.wisc.edu/people/banerjee-mou/ Dr. Mou Banerjee Bio: Dr. Mou Banerjee received her Ph.D. from the Dept. of History at Harvard in 2018. Her book, “The Disinherited: Christianity and Conversion in Colonial India, 1813-1907” is forthcoming from Harvard University Press. The book-project is an intellectual and political history of the creation of the Indian political self – a self that emerged through an often-oppositional relationship with evangelical Christianity and the apologetic debates arising out of such engagements. Her research was funded by the award of the 2013 SSRC-IDRF dissertation research fellowship which enabled me to conduct research at multiple archives in the UK, in India and in Bangladesh. Her dissertation received the Harold K. Gross award , which is granted annually by the faculty of the History Department at Harvard to the graduate student whose dissertation ‘gave greatest promise of a distinguished career of historical research.” Dr. Banerjee's research interests include the religion and politics in India, the history of gender, hunger and food politics, the history of borders and immigration in colonial South Asia. Prior to her appointment at UW-Madison, she was College fellow at the Department of South Asian Studies at Harvard in 2018 and Assistant Professor of History at Clemson University in 2018-19.   Dr. Mou BanerjeeAssistant Professor of HistoryUW-Madison

Hoy ampliamos el debate sobre las condiciones laborales. La narrativa actual nos cuenta historias de concordia, entendimiento y mutuo respeto entre trabajoderos (no hay errata aquí) y patrones que, en su ánimo humanista superior, decidieron dotar al mundo de los derechos laborales. Porque, como bien sabemos, un trabajodido feliz es un trabajodido más productivo y así piensan los jefes cuando valoran el aumento que les has pedido mientras conducen su Mercedes hacia el Club de Campo. Luego ya, en el hoyo 12, se les ocurre que mejor no te lo conceden y además tampoco pero es por razones técnico-productivas complejas y que sería un rollo de explicar. Sin embargo, si hemos superado la edad infantil y somos capaces de leer un libro de historia sin que nos entre  sueño o nos de dolor de cabeza, habremos atestigüado que la historia es muy diferente. Habremos comprendido que los derechos laborales se han ganado a través de luchas cruentas y pese a la voluntad del patrón. Que ha sido la organización en colectivos de los trabajadores lo que ha posibilitado conseguir espacios de trabajo más dignos y respetuosos. Que las correas no se aflojan solas ni por la voluntad de quienes las apretaron. Hoy hablamos sobre cómo se consiguió salir de los trabajos miserables y sobre cómo se volviendo a la miseria en los trabajos. Bibliografía: El PCE y el PSOE en (la) transición. La evolución ideológica de la izquierda durante el proceso de cambio político de Juan Andrade. La formación de la clase obrera en Inglaterra por E.P. Thompson. El imperio del algodón. Una historia global por Sven Beckert. Miseria, grandeza y agonía del Partido Comunista de España 1939-1985 de Gregorio Morán. Dictadura y Transición. La España lampedusiana Vol. 1. La dictadura franquista (1939-1975) por Muniesa, Bernat. La gran huelga general. El sindicalismo contra la «modernización socialista» de Sergio Gálvez Biesca. Escucha el episodio completo en la app de iVoox, o descubre todo el catálogo de iVoox Originals

Description: Nate and Bill discuss how the Southern US slave economy was fully integrated into, not distinct from, global capitalism and industrialization, especially through the lens of the 2014 Sven Beckert book “Empire of Cotton.” Notes and links for Ep. 358 (PDF): http://arsenalfordemocracy.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/AFD-Ep-358-The-Cotton-Gin-and-Southern-Capitalism.pdf Theme music by Stunt Bird. The post Mar 14, 2021 – The Cotton Gin and Southern Capitalism – Arsenal For Democracy Ep. 358 appeared first on Arsenal For Democracy.

Do you feel lost in the Anthropocene? Would you like a map to chart your way through our changing world? How about an atlas? Well, the Feral Atlas Collective has something that might help you out. In this episode Anna Tsing, an anthropologist from U.C. Santa Cruz, tells us about the Feral Atlas: The More-than-Human Anthropocene.  Feral Atlas is one of the most unusual book projects that I have seen or been a part of (it includes my “field report” about colonial era sewer rats in Hanoi). It is a digital book published by Stanford University Press in 2020 and can be accessed for free here.  Exploring Feral Atlas is like taking a walk on the wild side as there is no structured or required way to enter into its various conversations. Instead, you are invited to explore at your own risk. There are luminary essays by Sven Beckert, Amitav Ghosh, Gabrielle Hecht, Karen Ho, Simon L. Lewis and Mark A. Maslin, David M. Richardson, and Will Steffen; field reports by dozens of scholars from the humanities and sciences; and art ranging from video to poetry to music. Informative and thought-provoking, alternately humorous and emotionally gut wrenching, and provocative in both form and content, Feral Atlas invites you to go wild. Anna Tsing is a professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her numerous books include In the Realm of the Diamond Queen: Marginality in an Out-of-the-Way Place (1993) Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection (2005) and The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins (2015). She has received far too many awards to list here but they include Harry J. Benda Prize in Southeast Asian Studies, the Victor Turner Award, and a Guggenheim. The Feral Atlas Collective is composed of: Jennifer Deger: a visual anthropologist, filmmaker, and research leader at James Cook University, as well as the president of the Australian Anthropological Society; Alder Keleman Saxena: an environmental anthropologist at Northern Arizona University who examines the relationships linking agricultural biodiversity to human food cultures; Feifei Zhou: an artist and architect who explores ecological and cultural preservation through architectural interventions; and my guest, Anna Tsing. Michael G. Vann is a professor of world history at California State University, Sacramento. A specialist in imperialism and the Cold War in Southeast Asia, he is the author of The Great Hanoi Rat Hunt: Empires, Disease, and Modernity in French Colonial Vietnam (Oxford University Press, 2018). When he’s not reading or talking about new books with smart people, Mike can be found surfing in Santa Cruz, California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm

Do you feel lost in the Anthropocene? Would you like a map to chart your way through our changing world? How about an atlas? Well, the Feral Atlas Collective has something that might help you out. In this episode Anna Tsing, an anthropologist from U.C. Santa Cruz, tells us about the Feral Atlas: The More-than-Human Anthropocene.  Feral Atlas is one of the most unusual book projects that I have seen or been a part of (it includes my “field report” about colonial era sewer rats in Hanoi). It is a digital book published by Stanford University Press in 2020 and can be accessed for free here.  Exploring Feral Atlas is like taking a walk on the wild side as there is no structured or required way to enter into its various conversations. Instead, you are invited to explore at your own risk. There are luminary essays by Sven Beckert, Amitav Ghosh, Gabrielle Hecht, Karen Ho, Simon L. Lewis and Mark A. Maslin, David M. Richardson, and Will Steffen; field reports by dozens of scholars from the humanities and sciences; and art ranging from video to poetry to music. Informative and thought-provoking, alternately humorous and emotionally gut wrenching, and provocative in both form and content, Feral Atlas invites you to go wild. Anna Tsing is a professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her numerous books include In the Realm of the Diamond Queen: Marginality in an Out-of-the-Way Place (1993) Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection (2005) and The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins (2015). She has received far too many awards to list here but they include Harry J. Benda Prize in Southeast Asian Studies, the Victor Turner Award, and a Guggenheim. The Feral Atlas Collective is composed of: Jennifer Deger: a visual anthropologist, filmmaker, and research leader at James Cook University, as well as the president of the Australian Anthropological Society; Alder Keleman Saxena: an environmental anthropologist at Northern Arizona University who examines the relationships linking agricultural biodiversity to human food cultures; Feifei Zhou: an artist and architect who explores ecological and cultural preservation through architectural interventions; and my guest, Anna Tsing. Michael G. Vann is a professor of world history at California State University, Sacramento. A specialist in imperialism and the Cold War in Southeast Asia, he is the author of The Great Hanoi Rat Hunt: Empires, Disease, and Modernity in French Colonial Vietnam (Oxford University Press, 2018). When he’s not reading or talking about new books with smart people, Mike can be found surfing in Santa Cruz, California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Do you feel lost in the Anthropocene? Would you like a map to chart your way through our changing world? How about an atlas? Well, the Feral Atlas Collective has something that might help you out. In this episode Anna Tsing, an anthropologist from U.C. Santa Cruz, tells us about the Feral Atlas: The More-than-Human Anthropocene.  Feral Atlas is one of the most unusual book projects that I have seen or been a part of (it includes my “field report” about colonial era sewer rats in Hanoi). It is a digital book published by Stanford University Press in 2020 and can be accessed for free here.  Exploring Feral Atlas is like taking a walk on the wild side as there is no structured or required way to enter into its various conversations. Instead, you are invited to explore at your own risk. There are luminary essays by Sven Beckert, Amitav Ghosh, Gabrielle Hecht, Karen Ho, Simon L. Lewis and Mark A. Maslin, David M. Richardson, and Will Steffen; field reports by dozens of scholars from the humanities and sciences; and art ranging from video to poetry to music. Informative and thought-provoking, alternately humorous and emotionally gut wrenching, and provocative in both form and content, Feral Atlas invites you to go wild. Anna Tsing is a professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her numerous books include In the Realm of the Diamond Queen: Marginality in an Out-of-the-Way Place (1993) Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection (2005) and The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins (2015). She has received far too many awards to list here but they include Harry J. Benda Prize in Southeast Asian Studies, the Victor Turner Award, and a Guggenheim. The Feral Atlas Collective is composed of: Jennifer Deger: a visual anthropologist, filmmaker, and research leader at James Cook University, as well as the president of the Australian Anthropological Society; Alder Keleman Saxena: an environmental anthropologist at Northern Arizona University who examines the relationships linking agricultural biodiversity to human food cultures; Feifei Zhou: an artist and architect who explores ecological and cultural preservation through architectural interventions; and my guest, Anna Tsing. Michael G. Vann is a professor of world history at California State University, Sacramento. A specialist in imperialism and the Cold War in Southeast Asia, he is the author of The Great Hanoi Rat Hunt: Empires, Disease, and Modernity in French Colonial Vietnam (Oxford University Press, 2018). When he’s not reading or talking about new books with smart people, Mike can be found surfing in Santa Cruz, California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alicia Mazzara (1:52) of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities spoke with Mountain Money on the disproportionate way COVID impacts communities of color in the nation, particularly from an economic perspective. (19:44) In this episode, Mountain Money replayed an interview conducted in June 2020 Sven Beckert , professor of History at Harvard University. Sven spoke about the historical relationship between capitalism and slavery and its impacts on the world we live in today. (35:13) The hour ended with Nicole Thomas , owner of LatterDayBride, and Casey Metzger , Top Shelf Utah owner, about how the current COVID relief bill falls far short of the assistance they and other small businesses need.

Spinning threads and weaving truth.    The origins of the first world and the debt we owe.... 

During today's show, Mountain Money hosts spoke with (2:06) Kyle Hegarty, author of The Accidental Business Nomad: A Survival Guide for Working Across a Shrinking Planet. Kyle highlighted stories from his book that focuses on doing business across cultures. (18:17) Sven Beckert, professor of History at Harvard University, joined the hosts to speak about the historical relationship between capitalism, cotton and slavery and the impacts of those relationships on the world we live in today. (41:31) Sam Harris, the owner of Sammy’s Bistro, joined the hosts at the end of the hour to talk about his new venture Sammy’s Express, in Kimball Junction.

Phil Magness returns to the show to discuss his work on slavery and capitalism, particularly as it relates to the New History of Capitalism (NHC) and the New York Times' 1619 project. Phil recently wrote an article entitled, "How the 1619 Project Rehabilitates the 'King Cotton' Thesis." In it, he argues that the NHC has unwittingly adopted the same untenable economic arguments made by slaveowners in the antebellum South: that slave-picked cotton was "king" in the sense of being absolutely indispensable for the global economy during the industrial revolution. [T]he economic reasoning behind King Cotton has undergone a surprising — perhaps unwitting — rehabilitation through a modern genre of scholarly works known as the new history of capitalism (NHC). While NHC historians reject the pro-slavery thrust of Wigfall and Hammond’s bluster, they recast slave-produced cotton as "not just as an integral part of American capitalism, but . . . its very essence," to quote Harvard’s Sven Beckert. Cornell historian Ed Baptist goes even further, describing slavery as the indispensable causal driver behind America’s wealth today. Cotton production, he contends, was "absolutely necessary" for the Western world to break the "10,000-year Malthusian cycle of agriculture." And this same NHC literature provides the scholarly foundation of the ballyhooed New York Times' 1619 Project — specifically, its foray into the economics of slavery. Guided by this rehabilitated version of King Cotton, Princeton sociologist Matthew Desmond enlists the horrors of the plantation system to launch a blistering attack on modern American capitalism. Desmond projects slavery's legacy onto a litany of tropes about rising inequality, the decline of labor-union power, environmental destruction, and the 2008 financial crisis. The intended message is clear: Modern capitalism carries with it the stain of slavery, and its putative excesses are proof of its continued brutality. It follows that only by abandoning the free market and embracing political redistribution will we ever atone for this tainted inheritance.

Sven Beckert is Laird Bell Professor of American History at Harvard University, where he teaches the history of the United States in the nineteenth century, and global history. Patrick French is a biographer and historian, Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences and Professor for the Public Understanding of the Humanities at Ahmedabad University. This episode is a live session from day 2 of #ZEEJLF2019.

How did cotton trade, slavery and colonialism play a role in the emergence of capitalism? What role did cotton play in India's struggle for freedom? How was capitalism re-imagined around the 1950s? This enlightening conversation between historian and author of Empire of Cotton, Sven Beckert and Patrick French, sheds some light on how the present global world came to exist on the foundation of cotton trade. 

Join the historian and author of "Empire of Cotton" in conversation with Patrick French about how cotton trade, slavery and colonialism played a role in the emergence of capitalism.

Rachel May's new book, An American Quilt, has an innocuous enough title, invoking an innocent American pastime. But sometimes ugly secrets can be hidden in the stitchwork—or even, as in the case of the quilt at the heart of May’s book, behind it. The paper-pieced quilt was stitched together from fabric basted onto hexagon-shaped paper templates. These scraps, which turned out to be letters and documents dating all the way back to 1798, tie together one family from the abolitionist North and one from the slave-owning South. This paper trail led May to stitch together the stories of the women behind the quilt, enslaved and free. In the process, she shows how dependent the “free” North was on the enslaved labor of its southern neighbor.Go beyond the episode:Rachel May’s An American Quilt: Unfolding a Story of Family and SlaveryFor a peek at the global history of the stuff quilts are made of, read an excerpt from Sven Beckert’s Empire of CottonPeruse the National Museum of American History’s extensive National Quilt CollectionThe National Park Service offers a brief visual history of quilting in America, with a special focus on quilting in the WestThe Library of Congress has oral recordings with Appalachian quiltmakers, who discuss the social history of quiltingThe Whitney Museum’s 1971 exhibition of “Abstract Design in American Quilts” ignited our contemporary quilting renaissance. To view these, and hundreds of others, you can peruse the online collection of the International Quilt Study Center and MuseumTune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.Subscribe: iTunes • Feedburner • Stitcher • Google Play • AcastHave suggestions for projects you’d like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! Our theme music was composed by Nathan Prillaman. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Rachel May's new book, An American Quilt, has an innocuous enough title, invoking an innocent American pastime. But sometimes ugly secrets can be hidden in the stitchwork—or even, as in the case of the quilt at the heart of May’s book, behind it. The paper-pieced quilt was stitched together from fabric basted onto hexagon-shaped paper templates. These scraps, which turned out to be letters and documents dating all the way back to 1798, tie together one family from the abolitionist North and one from the slave-owning South. This paper trail led May to stitch together the stories of the women behind the quilt, enslaved and free. In the process, she shows how dependent the “free” North was on the enslaved labor of its southern neighbor.Go beyond the episode:Rachel May’s An American Quilt: Unfolding a Story of Family and SlaveryFor a peek at the global history of the stuff quilts are made of, read an excerpt from Sven Beckert’s Empire of CottonPeruse the National Museum of American History’s extensive National Quilt CollectionThe National Park Service offers a brief visual history of quilting in America, with a special focus on quilting in the WestThe Library of Congress has oral recordings with Appalachian quiltmakers, who discuss the social history of quiltingThe Whitney Museum’s 1971 exhibition of “Abstract Design in American Quilts” ignited our contemporary quilting renaissance. To view these, and hundreds of others, you can peruse the online collection of the International Quilt Study Center and MuseumTune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.Subscribe: iTunes • Feedburner • Stitcher • Google Play • AcastHave suggestions for projects you’d like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! Our theme music was composed by Nathan Prillaman.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week at In The Past Lane, the history podcast, we present Part 3 of our multi-episode examination of the Gilded Age. In this episode, we look at some of the people and organizations that took on the problems that arose in the Gilded Age. In the case of the former, we examine reformers like Henry George and Mary Elizabeth Lease. And in the latter, we tell the story of the Knights of Labor and the People’s Party. Taken together, these people and organizations pushed the nation to rethink its commitment to small and decentralized government, arguing that to let big business and banks operate with no regulations would lead to the disintegration of American democracy. This three-part series on the Gilded Age should remind us that all the things Americans value in their nation – all the rights, laws, norms, and liberties that we would never want to live without – have come from struggle. None of them fell from the sky. Rather, they’ve always come from the hard work, sacrifice, and vision of people who worked against the odds to push the nation to live up to its high ideals. Among the many things discussed in this episode:  How did reformers in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era push the nation to redefine its understanding of the role of government vis-a-vis liberty? Who was Henry George and why did he wield such influence in the Gilded Age? How America has two competing traditions, individualism and the common good. What was the Knights of Labor and what did its members want? What was the extraordinary Henry George campaign for Mayor of NYC in 1886 about? What was the People’s Party insurgency of the 1890s? How did Gilded Age activists set the table for Progressive Era reformers? Recommended reading:  Sven Beckert, The Monied Metropolis: New York City and the Consolidation of the American Bourgeoisie, 1850-1896 (2001) Rebecca Edwards, New Spirits: Americans in the Gilded Age: 1865-1905 (2006) Michael McGerr, A Fierce Discontent: The Rise and Fall of the Progressive Movement in America, 1870-1920 (2003) Edward T. O’Donnell, Henry George and the Crisis of Inequality: Progress and Poverty in the Gilded Age (2015) Nell Irvin Painter, Standing at Armageddon: A Grassroots History of the Progressive Era (1987) Heather Cox Richardson, The Death of Reconstruction: Race, Labor, and Politics in the Post-Civil War North, 1865-1901 (2001) Richard White, The Republic for Which It Stands: The United States during Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, 1865-1896 (Oxford, 2017) Related ITPL Podcast Episodes: Episode 44 with Richard White on the Gilded Age and Reconstruction http://inthepastlane.com/episode-044/ Music for This Episode Jay Graham, ITPL Intro (JayGMusic.com) Kevin McCleod, “Impact Moderato” (Free Music Archive) Blue Dot Sessions, “Sage the Hunter” (Free Music Archive) Jon Luc Hefferman, “Winter Trek” (Free Music Archive) The Bell, “I Am History” (Free Music Archive) Production Credits Executive Producer: Lulu Spencer Associate Producer: Tyler Ferolito Technical Advisors: Holly Hunt and Jesse Anderson Podcasting Consultant: Darrell Darnell of Pro Podcast Solutions Photographer: John Buckingham Graphic Designer: Maggie Cellucci Website by: ERI Design Legal services: Tippecanoe and Tyler Too Social Media management: The Pony Express Risk Assessment: Little Big Horn Associates Growth strategies: 54 40 or Fight © In The Past Lane, 2018

This week at In The Past Lane, the history podcast, we present Part 2 of our multi-episode examination of the Gilded Age. In this episode, we take a hard look at the dark side of the Gilded Age – all the troubling trends that challenged the ebullient celebration of progress in the late 19th century. We’ll start by talking about the broad fear that the US was becoming Europeanized – not ethnically, but rather politically and socially. If the great fear in the 20th century was that America might descend into communism, the 19th century equivalent was that America would regress towards Europeanism – that is, become a society dominated by an entrenched aristocracy, fixed social classes, stifled opportunity, and incessant social unrest. Then we’ll examine the key trends that stoked this fear of creeping Europeanization – the rise of powerful corporations, the extraordinary and undemocratic political power wielded by industrialists, the sense among workers and farmers that upward mobility was diminishing due to manipulation of the economy by big business, the troubling arrogance of “robber baron” industrialists, and the soaring incidence of labor-capital conflict. Among the many things discussed in this episode:  What troubling trends in the Gilded Age challenged the notion that it was an era of progress? What was different about the modern corporations that emerged in the Gilded Age. Why some Americans have always feared monopoly power. Why did many Americans in the Gilded Age fear the US was regressing towards a European-style society of inequality, aristocracy, and stifled opportunity? How and why the wealthy of the Gilded Age adopted the opulent lifestyles of European aristocrats. Why many Americans in the Gilded Age were concerned about the soaring number of labor strikes. Why American workers and farmers in the Gilded Age believed that big business was stifling their opportunities for success and upward mobility. How Gilded Age Americans came to fear the undemocratic political power of Big Business. Recommended reading:  Sven Beckert, The Monied Metropolis: New York City and the Consolidation of the American Bourgeoisie, 1850-1896 (2001) Rebecca Edwards, New Spirits: Americans in the Gilded Age: 1865-1905 (2006) Michael McGerr, A Fierce Discontent: The Rise and Fall of the Progressive Movement in America, 1870-1920 (2003) Edward T. O’Donnell, Henry George and the Crisis of Inequality: Progress and Poverty in the Gilded Age (2015) Nell Irvin Painter, Standing at Armageddon: A Grassroots History of the Progressive Era (1987) Heather Cox Richardson, The Death of Reconstruction: Race, Labor, and Politics in the Post-Civil War North, 1865-1901 (2001) Richard White, The Republic for Which It Stands: The United States during Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, 1865-1896 (Oxford, 2017) Recommended Viewing: PBS's American Experience documentary, "The Gilded Age"  Related ITPL Podcast Episodes: Episode 052 What Was the Gilded Age? Part 1  http://inthepastlane.com/episode-052/ Episode 044 with Richard White on the Gilded Age and Reconstruction http://inthepastlane.com/episode-044/  Music for This Episode Jay Graham, ITPL Intro (JayGMusic.com) Kevin McCleod, “Impact Moderato” (Free Music Archive) Jon Luc Hefferman, “Winter Trek” (Free Music Archive) The Bell, “I Am History” (Free Music Archive) Production Credits Executive Producer: Lulu Spencer Technical Advisors: Holly Hunt and Jesse Anderson Podcasting Consultant: Darrell Darnell of Pro Podcast Solutions Photographer: John Buckingham Graphic Designer: Maggie Cellucci Website by: ERI Design Legal services: Tippecanoe and Tyler Too Social Media management: The Pony Express Risk Assessment: Little Big Horn Associates Growth strategies: 54 40 or Fight © In The Past Lane, 2018

This week at In The Past Lane, the history podcast, we begin a multi-episode look at that fascinating period known as the Gilded Age. This seemed a good time to do it because PBS just aired its new documentary called The Gilded Age. I was lucky enough to be one of the featured historians. The premiere on Feb 6 drew a big audience and rave reviews. And it’s not too difficult to see why: there are so many parallels between the Gilded Age (1870-1900) and the era in which we now live. The nation then and now was consumed with intense debates over wealth inequality, labor unions, immigration, terrorism, women’s rights, family values, money in politics, voter disenfranchisement, Wall Street recklessness, political polarization and paralysis, religion vs. secularism, individualism vs. the common good, free market capitalism vs. regulation and wars of choice vs. diplomacy. Many people these days want to know: are we living in a second Gilded Age? Well, the best way to find out is to learn more about the first Gilded Age. So let’s do it. Among the many things discussed in this episode:  What was the Gilded Age? What were the positive aspects of the Gilded Age that led many Americans see it as an age of progress? What were the negative aspects of the Gilded Age that promoted many Americans to worry about the future of the republic? Are we in 2018 living in a second Gilded Age? Recommended reading:  Sven Beckert, The Monied Metropolis: New York City and the Consolidation of the American Bourgeoisie, 1850-1896 (2001) Rebecca Edwards, New Spirits: Americans in the Gilded Age: 1865-1905 (2006) Michael McGerr, A Fierce Discontent: The Rise and Fall of the Progressive Movement in America, 1870-1920 (2003) Edward T. O’Donnell, Henry George and the Crisis of Inequality: Progress and Poverty in the Gilded Age (2015) Nell Irvin Painter, Standing at Armageddon: A Grassroots History of the Progressive Era (1987)  Heather Cox Richardson, The Death of Reconstruction: Race, Labor, and Politics in the Post-Civil War North, 1865-1901 (2001) Richard White, The Republic for Which It Stands: The United States during Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, 1865-1896 (Oxford, 2017) Related ITPL Podcast Episodes: Episode 44 with Richard White on the Gilded Age and Reconstruction http://inthepastlane.com/episode-044/ Music for This Episode Jay Graham, ITPL Intro (JayGMusic.com) Kevin McCleod, “Impact Moderato” (Free Music Archive) Lee Rosevere, “Going Home” (Free Music Archive) Jon Luc Hefferman, “Winter Trek” (Free Music Archive) The Bell, “I Am History” (Free Music Archive) Production Credits Executive Producer: Lulu Spencer Technical Advisors: Holly Hunt and Jesse Anderson Podcasting Consultant: Darrell Darnell of Pro Podcast Solutions Photographer: John Buckingham Graphic Designer: Maggie Cellucci Website by: ERI Design Legal services: Tippecanoe and Tyler Too Social Media management: The Pony Express Risk Assessment: Little Big Horn Associates Growth strategies: 54 40 or Fight © In The Past Lane, 2018  

It is a fibre and a fabric that is part of many people's daily lives, it grows wild on at least three continents, it has been woven into cloth and traded all over the world for thousands of years. And when machines made possible the mass production of cotton, its story became entwined with the history of human slavery: making fortunes for a few, and condemning many to a life of misery. So what are the milestones in the history of cotton? And why has it always proved such a popular clothing material across the centuries and across the world? Bridget Kendall is joined by four textile historians to trace cotton's origins and its evolution into one of the world's most important global commodities: Sven Beckert, Professor of History at Harvard, Prasannan Parthasarathi, Professor of History at Boston College, Giorgio Riello, Professor of Global History and Culture at the University of Warwick and the President of the Textile Society Mary Schoeser. Photo: Cotton yarn (Getty Images)

In this pilot episode of AHR Interview, a production of the American Historical Review, intern Clay Catlin speaks with Sven Beckert about his article “American Danger: United States Empire, Eurafrica, and the Territorialization of Industrial Capitalism, 1870–1950,” which appears in the journal’s October 2017 issue. Beckert is Laird Bell Professor of History at Harvard University. He is the author of the 2001 book The Monied Metropolis: New York City and the Consolidation of the American Bourgeoisie and the 2014 book Empire of Cotton: A Global History, which won the Bancroft Prize and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Most recently he served as coeditor for the 2016 volume Slavery's Capitalism: A New History of American Economic Development. Read the article at https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article-abstract/122/4/1137/4320241/American-Danger-United-States-Empire-Eurafrica-and?redirectedFrom=fulltext

Al Brophy returns to discuss, among other things, his new book on the connections between slavery, the academy, legal theory, and the judiciary. This show’s links: Al Brophy’s faculty profile and writing Alfred Brophy, University, Court, and Slave: Pro-Slavery Thought in Southern Colleges and Courts and the Coming of Civil War; see also Al’s blog post about the book and Google books page where you can browse a bit Oral Argument 76: Brutality (guest Al Brophy) Brooks Barnes and Cara Buckley, ‘The Birth of a Nation,’ Nate Parker’s Heralded Film, Is Now Cloaked in Controversy Birth of a Nation (2016) trailer State v. Mann Sally Green, State v. Mann Exhumed About Thomas R.R. Cobb Thomas Cobb, An Inquiry into the Law of Negro Slavery in the United States of America Daniel Victor, Bill O’Reilly Defends Comments About ‘Well Fed’ Slaves Sarah Roth, Gender and Race in Antebellum Popular Culture (browse here on Google Books); see also Al’s blog post Slavery’s Capitalism (Sven Beckert and Seth Rockman, eds.); see also Al’s blog post about the book and containing links) State v. Negro Will, Slave of James S. Battle Special Guest: Al Brophy.

Cotton. Not quite a food item, but a plant nonetheless with a rather complicated history and an enduring relevance in our lives. Today, a typical day cannot pass without using this pillowy crop that rules our commodified lives. In this edition of the Secret Ingredient with Raj Patel, Tom Philpott, and Rebecca McInroy: Sven Beckert,...

Cotton. Not quite a food item, but a plant nonetheless with a rather complicated history and an enduring relevance in our lives. Today, a typical day cannot pass without using this pillowy crop that rules our commodified lives. In this edition of the Secret Ingredient with Raj Patel, Tom Philpott, and Rebecca McInroy: Sven Beckert,...

Cotton. Not quite a food item, but a plant nonetheless with a rather complicated history and an enduring relevance in our lives. Today, a typical day cannot pass without using this pillowy crop that rules our commodified lives. In this edition of the Secret Ingredient with Raj Patel, Tom Philpott, and Rebecca McInroy: Sven Beckert, […]

Interview with Sven Beckert for NPR affiliate KUAR on Clinton School Presents, a weekly dialogue of distinguished guests that visit the Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock, Arkansas. Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with Sven Beckert, who is Laird Bell Professor of History at Harvard University. Beckert’s research and teaching center on the history of the United States in the nineteenth century, with a particular emphasis on the history of capitalism, including its economic, social, political and transnational dimensions. His publications have focused on the history of economic elites, on labor, on democracy and, in recent years, on the global history of capitalism. Beckert teaches courses on the history of American capitalism, Gilded Age America, the political economy of modern capitalism, labor history and global capitalism. He is co-chair of the Program on the Study of Capitalism at Harvard University, and the Weatherhead Initiative on Global History, also at Harvard. Beyond Harvard, he co-chairs an international study group on global history, is co-editor of a series of books at Princeton University Press on “America in the World,”and has co-organized a series of conferences on the history of capitalism. He has received many fellowships and awards, including the Newcomen Fellowship at Harvard Business School, and fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies and the Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library. Beckert is a Guggenheim Fellow. He has lectured all over the world.

For the Delta to become the chief grower of the industrial world's most important commodity – a kind of Saudi Arabia of the early 19th century – its land had to be taken from its ...

This week, Phillip Lopate discusses Charles D’Ambrosio’s “Loitering”; Alexandra Alter has news from the publishing world; Sven Beckert talks about “Empire of Cotton”; and Gregory Cowles has best-seller news. Parul Sehgal is the host, filling in for Pamela Paul.