Economic and Business History

Economic and Business History

episodes

Interviews with scholars of economic and business history about their new books.

Rachel S. Gross, "Shopping All the Way to the Woods: How the Outdoor Industry Sold Nature to America" (Yale UP, 2024)

March 26, 2024

Shopping All the Way to the Woods

Rachel S. Gross
Hosted by Brian Hamilton

Rachel S. Gross's Shopping All the Ways to the Woods (Yale University Press, 2024) tells the fascinating history of the profitable paradox of the Amer…

John William Nelson, "Muddy Ground: Native Peoples, Chicago's Portage, and the Transformation of a Continent" (UNC Press, 2023)

March 23, 2024

Muddy Ground

John William Nelson
Hosted by Stephen Hausmann

The birchbark canoe is among the most remarkable Indigenous technologies in North America, facilitating mobility throughout the watery world of the Gr…

Marc-William Palen, "Pax Economica: Left-Wing Visions of a Free Trade World" (Princeton UP, 2024)

March 23, 2024

Pax Economica

Marc-William Palen
Hosted by Thomas Kingston

A new economic history which uncovers the forgotten left-wing, anti-imperial, pacifist origins of economic cosmopolitanism and free trade from the mid…

Jeffrey A. Javed, "Righteous Revolutionaries: Morality, Mobilization, and Violence in the Making of the Chinese State" (U Michigan Press, 2022)

March 23, 2024

Righteous Revolutionaries

Jeffrey A. Javed
Hosted by Yadong Li

In an era where states and politicians regularly weaponize moral emotions to foment intergroup conflict and violence, understanding the dynamics of vi…

Anelise Hanson Shrout, "Aiding Ireland: The Great Famine and the Rise of Transnational Philanthropy" (NYU Press, 2024)

March 22, 2024

Aiding Ireland

Anelise Hanson Shrout
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Famine brought ruin to the Irish countryside in the nineteenth century. In response, people around the world and from myriad social, ethnic, and relig…

Heather Akou, "On the Job: A History of American Work Uniforms" (Bloomsbury, 2024)

March 21, 2024

On the Job

Heather Akou
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Through a variety of archival documents, artefacts, illustrations, and references to primary and secondary literature, On the Job: A History of Americ…

Matthias Doepke and Fabrizio Zilibotti, "Love, Money, and Parenting: How Economics Explains the Way We Raise Our Kids" (Princeton UP, 2019)

March 20, 2024

Love, Money, and Parenting

Matthias Doepke and Fabrizio Zilibotti

Parents everywhere want their children to be happy and do well. Yet how parents seek to achieve this ambition varies enormously. For instance, America…

Max Fraser, "Hillbilly Highway: The Transappalachian Migration and the Making of a White Working Class" (Princeton UP, 2023)

March 20, 2024

Hillbilly Highway

Max Fraser
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Over the first two-thirds of the twentieth century, as many as eight million whites left the economically depressed southern countryside and migrated …

"Market pressure was growing by the day" with Charles Dallara

March 19, 2024

"Market pressure was growing by the day" with Charles Dallara

Charles Dallara
Hosted by Tim Jones

Charles Dallara, managing director of the Institute of International Finance from 1993–2013, talks about his crisis memoir: Euroshock: How the Largest…

Nancy Folbre, "The Rise and Decline of Patriarchal Systems: An Intersectional Political Economy" (Verso, 2021)

March 18, 2024

The Rise and Decline of Patriarchal Systems

Nancy Folbre
Hosted by Dhouha Djerbi

Nancy Folbre’s The Rise and Decline of Patriarchal Systems: An Intersectional Political Economy (Verso, 2021) asks the questions of why and under what…

Thomas D. Conlan, "Kings in All But Name: The Lost History of Ouchi Rule in Japan, 1350-1569" (Oxford UP, 2024)

March 17, 2024

Kings in All But Name

Thomas D. Conlan
Hosted by Jingyi Li

In the sixteenth century, members of the Ouchi family were kings in all but name in much of Japan. Immensely wealthy, they controlled sea lanes stretc…

Julie Kalman, "The Kings of Algiers: How Two Jewish Families Shaped the Mediterranean World During the Napoleonic Wars and Beyond" (Princeton UP, 2023)

March 14, 2024

The Kings of Algiers

Julie Kalman
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

On July 27th, 1827, the dey of Algiers struck the French consul over his country’s refusal to pay back its debts–specifically, to two Jewish merchant …

Victoria Perry, "A Bittersweet Heritage: Slavery, Architecture and the British Landscape" (Hurst, 2022)

March 14, 2024

A Bittersweet Heritage

Victoria Perry
Hosted by Katrina Anderson

The 2020 toppling of slave-trader Edward Colston's statue by Black Lives Matter protesters in Bristol was a dramatic reminder of Britain's role in tra…

Mark J. Higgins, "Investing in U.S. Financial History: Understanding the Past to Forecast the Future" (Greenleaf, 2024)

March 13, 2024

Investing in U.S. Financial History

Mark J. Higgins
Hosted by Robert Kowit

Most people rely only on their life experience to make investment decisions. This causes them to overlook cyclical forces that repeatedly reshape econ…

Sean M. Kelley, "American Slavers: Merchants, Mariners, and the Transatlantic Commerce in Captives, 1644-1865" (Yale UP, 2023)

March 10, 2024

American Slavers

Sean M. Kelley
Hosted by Katrina Anderson

A total of 305,000 enslaved Africans arrived in the New World aboard American vessels over a span of two hundred years as American merchants and marin…

Brian Merchant, "Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech" (LIttle, Brown, 2023)

March 10, 2024

Blood in the Machine

Brian Merchant
Hosted by Michael Vann

"Luddite" has become an insult and Brian Merchant wants to change that. Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech (Little, B…

Alicia Kennedy, "No Meat Required: The Cultural History and Culinary Future of Plant-Based Eating" (Beacon Press, 2023)

March 6, 2024

No Meat Required

Alicia Kennedy
Hosted by Kelly Spivey

A culinary and cultural history of plant-based eating in the United States that delves into the subcultures and politics that have defined alternative…

Alan Bollard, "Economists at War: How a Handful of Economists Helped Win and Lose the World Wars" (Oxford UP, 2020)

March 6, 2024

Economists at War

Alan Bollard

Wartime is not just about military success. Economists at War: How a Handful of Economists Helped Win and Lose the World Wars (Oxford UP, 2020) tells …

Joanna Crosby, "Apples and Orchards Since the Eighteenth Century: Material Innovation and Cultural Tradition" (Bloomsbury, 2023)

March 5, 2024

Apples and Orchards Since the Eighteenth Century

Joanna Crosby
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Showing how the history of the apple goes far beyond the orchard and into the social, cultural and technological developments of Britain and the USA, …

Kristine M. McCusker, "Just Enough to Put Him Away Decent: Death Care, Life Extension, and the Making of a Healthier South, 1900-1955" (U Illinois Press, 2023)

March 2, 2024

Just Enough to Put Him Away Decent

Kristine M. McCusker
Hosted by Julie Rugg

Kristine M. McCusker's book Just Enough to Put Him Away Decent: Death Care, Life Extension, and the Making of a Healthier South, 1900-1955 (U Illinois…