American Capitalism

Sven Beckert and Christine Desan are leaders in the burgeoning history of capitalism field, and they have put together a volume of outstanding scholars whose essays, in their chronological reach and subject matter, show this new literature at its best. A very fine and promising collection. -- Steven Hahn, New York University This stunning volume not only captures the most vibrant, challenging work in the history of capitalism, but also distills the central themes and defining contributions of the field. The essays speak to all historians, not just those working in the history of capitalism. A must-read. -- Laura F. Edwards, Duke University American Capitalism represents the coming of age of a field of historical research. Rarely, in any field, has one volume featured the work of so many talented and accomplished historians. Each chapter breaks fresh ground and proposes new lines of inquiry. The editors have assembled a landmark and agenda-setting book that no student of economic life in the United States can afford to ignore. -- Jonathan Levy, University of Chicago From the creditor constitution to the market for slave clothing to early American mercantilist thinking, this deftly curated book samples some of the best work that the history of capitalism literature has to offer. Readers interested in new and provocative explorations of the politics, law, and culture enmeshed in American economic institutions need look no further. -- Suresh Naidu, Columbia University Few historical subfields are more important and timely than the critical history of capitalism. In this volume, Sven Beckert and Christine Desan have assembled cutting-edge work on topics as diverse as slavery, credit, insurance and risk, financial crises, race, gender, agriculture, and law and regulation. These essays combine chronological breadth, analytical depth, and geographic scope, linking the micro and macro, the local and the global. Essential reading. -- Thomas J. Sugrue, New York University American Capitalism shows us the benefits of a broad approach to the study of capitalism, and scholars from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds will learn much from its essays. -- John N. Blanton * The Gotham Center for New York History *

Sven Beckert is Laird Bell Professor of History and cofounder of the Program on the Study of Capitalism at Harvard University. He is the author of Empire of Cotton: A Global History (2014). Christine Desan is Leo Gottlieb Professor of Law and cofounder of the Program on the Study of Capitalism at Harvard University. She is the author of Making Money: Coin, Currency, and the Coming of Capitalism (2014).

Acknowledgments Introduction Part I. Making Markets 1. The Capitalist Constitution, by Woody Holton 2. What Was the Great Bull Market? Value, Valuation, and Financial History, by Julia Ott 3. The New York City Fiscal Crisis and the Idea of the State, by Kim Phillips-Fein Part II. Claiming and Contesting Capitalism 4. Utopian Capitalism, by Richard White 5. The Sovereign Market and Sex Difference: Human Rights in America, by Amy Dru Stanley 6. Negro Cloth: Mastering the Market for Slave Clothing in Antebellum America, by Seth Rockman 7. Revulsions of Capital: Slavery and Political Economy in the Epoch of the Turner Rebellion, Virginia, 1829-1832, by Christopher Tomlins Part III. "Knowing" Capital 8. Risk, Uncertainty, and Data: Managing Risk in Twentieth-Century America, by Mary Poovey 9. Representations of Capitalism in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, by Peter Knight 10. Value of Life: Insurance, Slavery, and Expertise, by Michael Ralph Part IV. Refiguring Space from the Local to the Global 11. War by Other Means: Mercantilism and Free Trade in the Age of the American Revolution, by Eliga H. Gould 12. "Innovative Solutions to Modern Agriculture": Capitalist Farming, Global Competition, and the Devolution of the U.S. Rice Industry, by Peter A. Coclanis 13. Importing the World's Fair, by Michael Zakim 14. Plantation Dispossessions: The Global Travel of Agricultural Racial Capitalism, by Kris Manjapra Selected Bibliography List of Contributors Index