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capitalism

“You can’t hold onto anything in this world. That doesn’t mean you can’t squeeze it all so tightly to your heart that it hurts.”

John Fea   |  March 28, 2025

I recently put Will Bardenwerper’s book Homestand: Small Town Baseball and the Fight for the Soul of America on my reading list. After reading Timothy Carney’s review of the book at the Washington Free Beacon I moved it to the […]

The Author’s Corner with Ellen Hartigan-O’Connor

Rachel Petroziello   |  January 16, 2025

Ellen Hartigan-O’Connor is Professor of History and Associate Dean for Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Scholars at the University of California, Davis. This interview is based on her new book, America Under the Hammer: Auctions and the Emergence of Market Values (University […]

The Author’s Corner with Justene Hill Edwards

Rachel Petroziello   |  November 4, 2024

Justene Hill Edwards is Associate Professor of History at the University of Virginia. This interview is based on her new book, Savings and Trust: The Rise and Betrayal of the Freedman’s Bank (W. W. Norton & Company, 2024). JF: What led […]

The Author’s Corner with David M. Emmons

Rachel Petroziello   |  October 29, 2024

David M. Emmons is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Montana. This interview is based on his new book, History’s Erratics: Irish Catholic Dissidents and the Transformation of American Capitalism, 1870-1930 (University of Illinois Press, 2024). JF: What […]

The Author’s Corner with Mary Bridges

Rachel Petroziello   |  October 25, 2024

Mary Bridges is an Ernest May Fellow in History and Policy at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. This interview is based on her new book, Dollars and Dominion: US Bankers and the Making of a […]

Cornerstone University president Gerson Moreno-Riaño says the quiet parts out loud

John Fea   |  July 27, 2024

I was going to take some time off from the blog this weekend to get some work done on a book manuscript, but this story pulled me back, Michael Corleone-style. (Not familiar with what is going on these days at […]

Is for-profit journalism sustainable?

John Fea   |  June 14, 2024

The editors of Current talk about this all the time and we hope to make some of our own news on this front soon. In the meantime, Stephen Prager makes some good points in his recent piece at Current Affairs […]

What is “progressive capitalism”?

John Fea   |  May 13, 2024

Nobel prize-winning Columbia University economist Joseph Stiglitz lays it out in today’s Washington Post. Here is a taste: Champions of the neoliberal order, moreover, too often fail to recognize that one person’s freedom is another’s unfreedom — or, as Isaiah […]

The Author’s Corner with Shaun S. Nichols

Rachel Petroziello   |  March 26, 2024

Shaun S. Nichols is Assistant Professor of History at Boise State University. This interview is based on his new book, Manufacturing Catastrophe: Massachusetts and the Making of Global Capitalism, 1813 to the Present (Oxford University Press, 2024). JF: What led […]

The Author’s Corner with Scott Gac

Rachel Petroziello   |  March 18, 2024

Scott Gac is Professor of History and American Studies at Trinity College. This interview is based on his new book, Born in Blood: Violence and the Making of America (Cambridge University Press, 2024). JF: What led you to write Born […]

The Author’s Corner with Brian M. Ingrassia

Rachel Petroziello   |  March 11, 2024

Brian M. Ingrassia is Associate Professor of History at West Texas A&M University. This interview is based on his new book, Speed Capital: Indianapolis Auto Racing and the Making of Modern America (University of Illinois Press, 2024). JF: What led […]

The Author’s Corner with Caleb Wellum

Rachel Petroziello   |  March 5, 2024

Caleb Wellum is Assistant Professor of U.S. History at the University of Toronto, Mississauga. This interview is based on his new book, Energizing Neoliberalism: The 1970s Energy Crisis and the Making of Modern America (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2023). JF: […]

Episode 124: “Christian Capitalism in Early America”

John Fea   |  December 12, 2023

In this episode we talk with Wesleyan University historian Joseph Slaughter, author of Faith in Markets: Christian Capitalism in Early America. He offers a new account of the interplay between religion and capitalism in early American history by focusing on 19th-century […]

The Author’s Corner with Adam R. Nelson

Rachel Petroziello   |  December 11, 2023

Adam R. Nelson is Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of Educational Policy Studies and History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. This interview is based on his new book, Exchange of Ideas: The Economy of Higher Education in Early America (University of Chicago […]

The Author’s Corner with Michael A. Blaakman

Rachel Petroziello   |  November 16, 2023

Michael A. Blaakman is Assistant Professor of History at Princeton University. This interview is based on his new book, Speculation Nation: Land Mania in the Revolutionary American Republic (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2023). JF: What led you to write Speculation […]

Can one oppose abortion and still be a democratic socialist?

John Fea   |  August 25, 2023

Check out Matt McManus‘s review of Sohrab Ahmari’s Tryanny , Inc.: How Private Power Crushed American Liberty–and What to Do About It at Jacobin. As I noted in an earlier post, socialists really like this book despite Ahmari’s social conservatism. […]

A right-wing intellectual takes on capitalism. Some socialists are fine with it.

John Fea   |  August 22, 2023

Some of you may know the name Sohrab Ahmari from his 2019 argument with David French over the meaning of conservatism. Since that debate, Amari has co-founded Compact, a journal critical of liberalism of both the left and the right […]

A socialist take on the Barbie movie

John Fea   |  August 10, 2023

This week Current ran two great pieces on the Barbie movie. Check out Christina Bieber Lake’s “Barbie. . . and Ken” and Beatruce Scudeler’s “Material Girls.” Over at Current Affairs, Nathan Robinson interprets the movie through the lens of consumer […]

Has the GOP rejected Reaganomics?

John Fea   |  August 8, 2023

Check out David Leonardt’s interesting piece at The New York Times: The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board has spent the last few months trying to boost Gov. Ron DeSantis’s presidential campaign. It has called his legislative record “as impressive as […]

When Gucci and Judith Butler meet

John Fea   |  July 24, 2023

What happens when Gucci uses a book by philosopher Judith Butler to sell high-priced wallets? Here is Umut Özkırımlı at The Critic: Books as objects of attraction? Is that what brought Butler and Gucci together? I don’t mean the commodification […]

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