New Books in Economic and Business History

Lawrence Glickman, "Free Enterprise: An American History" (Yale UP, 2019)

2019/9/13

“Free enterprise” is an everyday phrase that connotes an American common sense. It appears everywher

Michael Zakim, "Accounting for Capitalism: The World the Clerk Made" (U Chicago Press, 2018)

2019/8/8

The clerk attended his desk and counter at the intersection of two great themes of modern historical

Vicki Howard, "From Main Street to Mall: The Rise and Fall of the American Department Store" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2015)

2019/7/24

This week we take a break from fun and games to talk about business and consumerism–which, to be sur

Richard Vague, "A Brief History of Doom: Two Hundred Years of Financial Crises" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2019)

2019/7/4

Richard Vague really really cares about private-sector debt. And he thinks you should too. In A Brie

Kris Lane, "Potosí: The Silver City That Changed the World" (U California Press, 2019)

2019/5/20

In 1545, a native Andean prospector hit pay dirt on a desolate red mountain in highland Bolivia. The

Michael R. Cohen, "Cotton Capitalists: American Jewish Entrepreneurship in the Reconstruction Era" (NYU Press, 2017)

2019/4/17

Michael R. Cohen is Associate Professor of Jewish Studies at Tulane University, where he holds a Siz

Caitlin C. Rosenthal, “Accounting for Slavery: Masters and Management” (Harvard UP, 2018)

2018/10/31

The familiar narrative of American business development begins in the industrial North, where patern

Rupali Mishra, “A Business of State: Commerce, Politics, and the Birth of the East India Company” (Harvard UP, 2018)

2018/8/29

Though today the public and private sectors are treated as distinct if not separate, the situation w

Peter James Hudson, “Bankers and Empire: How Wall Street Colonized the Caribbean” (U Chicago Press, 2017)

2018/8/28

Histories of banking and finance aren’t particularly well-known for being riveting, adventurous read

Fahad Bishara, “A Sea of Debt: Law and Economic Life in the Western Indian Ocean, 1780-1950” (Cambridge UP, 2017)

2018/4/3

Today I talked to Fahad Bishara about his book A Sea of Debt: Law and Economic Life in the Western I

Alexia Yates, “Selling Paris: Property and Commercial Culture in the Fin-de-siecle Capital” (Harvard UP, 2015)

2017/7/12

What comes to mind when you think of Paris in the nineteenth century? For me, its revolutionary poli

Kiran Klaus Patel, “The New Deal: A Global History” (Princeton UP, 2016)

2017/7/12

There are as many New Deals as there are books on the subject. Yet only recently have historians beg

Chris Miller, “The Struggle to Save the Soviet Economy” (UNC Press, 2016)

2016/12/29

One of the most interesting questions of modern history is this: Why is it that Communist China was

Barbara Hahn and Bruce Baker, “The Cotton Kings: Capitalism and Corruption in Turn-of-the-Century New York and New Orleans” (Oxford UP, 2015)

2016/9/16

With the recent economic collapse and rising income inequality, lessons drawn from turn-of-the centu

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