New Books in Economic and Business History

Christopher Blattman, "Why We Fight: The Roots of War and the Paths to Peace" (Viking, 2022)

23 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Why We Fight: The Roots of War and the Paths to Peace (Viking, 2022), Chris Blattman explains the five reasons why conflict (rarely) blooms int...

The Future of Public Opinion: A Conversation with Susan Herbst

21 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Politicians and corporations cannot only measure public opinion but also manipulate and create it. And they have been doing so since the 1930s when se...

Carol A. Lipscomb, "The Lady Makes Boots: Enid Justin & the Nocona Boot Company" (Texas Tech UP, 2021)

21 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In the summer of 1925, Enid Justin--daughter of H. J. Justin, founder of legendary Justin Boots--announced to her family that she was going to start h...

Robert N. Wiedenmann and J. Ray Fisher, "The Silken Thread: Five Insects and Their Impacts on Human History" (Oxford UP, 2021)

20 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Insects are seldom mentioned in discussions surrounding human history, yet they have dramatically impacted today's societies. The Silken Thread: Five...

Holger Droessler, "Coconut Colonialism: Workers and the Globalization of Samoa" (Harvard UP, 2022)

15 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Coconut Colonialism: Workers and the Globalization of Samoa (Harvard UP, 2022), Holger Droessler provides a novel history of the impact of glob...

John Wills, "Gamer Nation: Video Games and American Culture" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2019)

15 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In 1975, design engineer Dave Nutting completed work on a new arcade machine. A version of Taito's Western Gun, a recent Japanese arcade machine, Nutt...

Michael Munger, "The Sharing Economy: Its Pitfalls and Promises" (Duke UP, 2021)

15 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Transactions have always taken place. For hundreds of years that 'place' was a market or, more recently, a shopping mall. But in the past two decades ...

David de Jong, "Nazi Billionaires: The Dark History of Germany's Wealthiest Dynasties" (Mariner Books, 2022)

13 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Nazi Billionnaires: The Dark History of Germany's Wealthiest Dynasties (HarperCollins, 2022), journalist David de Jong presents a groundbreaking ...

Deindustrialization

13 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Gabriel Winant talks with Kim about the decline of the industrial working class and the rise of the health care industry. Gabriel is an assistant prof...

Sarah Teasley, "Designing Modern Japan" (Reaktion Books, 2022)

13 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Sarah Teasley's Designing Modern Japan (Reaktion, 2022) unpicks the history of Japanese design from the mid-nineteenth century to the end of the twe...

Paul Lerner et al., "Jewish Consumer Cultures in Nineteenth and Twentieth-Century Europe and North America" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022)

13 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jewish Consumer Cultures in Nineteenth and Twentieth-Century Europe and North America (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022) investigates the place and meaning ...

Mark Koyama and Jared Rubin, "How the World Became Rich: The Historical Origins of Economic Growth" (Polity, 2022)

09 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Most humans are significantly richer than their ancestors. Humanity gained nearly all of its wealth in the last two centuries. How did this come to pa...

Modernization

08 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Varsha Venkatasubramanian discusses the many trajectories of modernization as a theoretical concept. She focuses mainly on the history of development ...

Erich Schwartzel, "Red Carpet: Hollywood, China, and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy" (Penguin, 2022)

06 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

From trade to technology to military might, competition between the United States and China dominates the foreign policy landscape. But this battle fo...

Andrew Shortland and Patrick Degryse, "When Art Isn’t Real: The World's Most Controversial Objects under Investigation" (Leuven UP, 2022)

03 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In When Art Isn’t Real: The World's Most Controversial Objects under Investigation (Leuven University Press, 2022), Dr. Andrew Shortland and Dr. P...

Chris Gratien, "The Unsettled Plain: An Environmental History of the Late Ottoman Frontier" (Stanford UP, 2022)

03 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, I talk to Chris Gratien, Assistant Professor of History at the University of Virginia, about his new book, The Unsettled Plain: A...

Jessamyn Abel, "Dream Super-Express: A Cultural History of the World's First Bullet Train" (Stanford UP, 2022)

02 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jessamyn Abel’s Dream Super-Express: A Cultural History of the World’s First Bullet Train (Stanford UP, 2022) is a history of Japan’s famous ...

Irvin J. Hunt, "Dreaming the Present: Time, Aesthetics, and the Black Cooperative Movement" (UNC Press, 2022)

02 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In their darkest hours over the course of the twentieth century, W. E. B. Du Bois, Ella Baker, George Schuyler, and Fannie Lou Hamer gathered hundreds...

Ran Abramitzky and Leah Boustan, "Streets of Gold: America's Untold Story of Immigrant Success" (PublicAffairs, 2022)

01 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Streets of Gold: America's Untold Story of Immigrant Success (PublicAffairs, 2022), Ran Abramitzky and Leah Boustan reveal the true story of im...

Jonathan Saha, "Colonizing Animals: Interspecies Empire in Myanmar" (Cambridge UP, 2021)

01 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Colonial Myanmar was teeming with animals, both wild and domesticated. Yet few histories have devoted close attention to the importance of animals to ...

Tracey Deutsch, "Building a Housewife's Paradise: Gender, Politics, and American Grocery Stores in the Twentieth Century" (UNC Press, 2010)

31 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The title of the book that we are introducing today is Building a Housewife's Paradise Gender, Politics, and American Grocery Stores in the Twentiet...

Pierre Penet and Juan Flores Zendejas, "Sovereign Debt Diplomacies: Rethinking Sovereign Debt from Colonial Empires to Hegemony" (Oxford UP. 2021)

31 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Pierre Penet and Juan Flores Zendejas' book Sovereign Debt Diplomacies: Rethinking Sovereign Debt from Colonial Empires to Hegemony (Oxford UP. 2021...

Adam M. Romero, "Economic Poisoning: Industrial Waste and the Chemicalization of American Agriculture" (U California Press, 2021)

30 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The toxicity of pesticides to the environment and humans is often framed as an unfortunate effect of their benefits to agricultural production. In Ec...

Amanda Phillips, "Sea Change: Ottoman Textiles Between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean" (U California Press, 2021)

27 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Textiles were the second-most-traded commodity in world history, preceded only by grain. In the Ottoman Empire, in particular, the sale and exchange o...

Kate Luce Mulry, "An Empire Transformed: Remolding Bodies and Landscapes in the Restoration Atlantic" (NYU Press, 2021)

25 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When Charles II ascended the English throne in 1660 after two decades of civil war, he was confronted with domestic disarray and a sprawling empire in...

The Future of Neoliberalism: A Conversation with Gary Gerstle

24 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The word neoliberalism is often used more as an insult than a description of a set of beliefs. And people can be rather hazy about the beliefs it refe...

Scott Reynolds Nelson, "Oceans of Grain: How American Wheat Remade the World" (Basic Books, 2022)

23 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Grain traders wandering across the steppe; the Russian conquest of Ukraine (in the 18th century, that is); boulevard barons and wheat futures; railro...

Ran Abramitzky and Leah Boustan, "Streets of Gold: America's Untold Story of Immigrant Success" (Public Affairs, 2022)

18 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Immigration is one of the most fraught, and possibly most misunderstood, topics in American social discourse—yet, in most cases, the things we belie...

Gijs Mom, "Globalizing Automobilism: Exuberance and the Emergence of Layered Mobility, 1900–1980" (Berghahn Books, 2020)

17 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Why has "car society" proven so durable, even in the face of mounting environmental and economic crises? In Globalizing Automobilism: Exuberance and ...

Simon Peter Rowberry, "Four Shades of Gray: The Amazon Kindle Platform" (MIT Press, 2022)

15 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Four Shades of Gray: The Amazon Kindle Platform (MIT Press, 2022) is the first book-length analysis of Amazon's Kindle explores the platform's techno...

Facing Failure and the Museum Dedicated to It

12 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: Why failure is part of the hidden curriculum Why you can’t be creative or innov...

Jeff D. Colgan, "Partial Hegemony: Oil Politics and International Order" (Oxford UP, 2021)

10 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When and why does international order change? The largest peaceful transfer of wealth across borders in all of human history began with the oil crisis...

The Problem with Museums: A Conversation with Georgina Adam and Nizan Shaked

10 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In the past few years, museums of contemporary art have come under a fair deal of scrutiny. Pressures from groups such as Decoloinise This Space or ...

Mikkel Bunkenborg et al., "Collaborative Damage: An Experimental Ethnography of Chinese Globalization" (Cornell UP, 2022)

09 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Collaborative Damage: An Experimental Ethnography of Chinese Globalization (Cornell UP, 2022) is an experimental ethnography of Chinese globalization...

Emily West, "Buy Now: How Amazon Branded Convenience and Normalized Monopoly" (MIT Press, 2022)

09 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

How Amazon combined branding and relationship marketing with massive distribution infrastructure to become the ultimate service brand in the digital e...

Megan Brown, "The Seventh Member State: Algeria, France, and the European Community" (Harvard UP, 2022)Megan Brown, "The Seventh Member State: Algeria, France, and the European Community" (Harvard UP, 2022)

06 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In The Seventh Member State: Algeria, France, and the European Community (Harvard University Press, 2022), Dr. Megan Brown details the surprising st...

Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, "Straits: Beyond the Myth of Magellan" (U California Press, 2022)

05 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

2019 marked the five-hundred year anniversary of the launch of Ferdinand Magellan’s voyage around the world–a milestone marked by commemorative sa...

William Wayne Farris, "A Bowl for a Coin: A Commodity History of Japanese Tea" (U Hawaii Press, 2019)

04 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A Bowl for a Coin: A Commodity History of Japanese Tea (U Hawaii Press, 2019) is the first book in any language to describe and analyze the history o...

Jo Guldi, "The Long Land War: The Global Struggle for Occupancy Rights" (Yale UP, 2022)

03 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jo Guldi tells the story of a global struggle to bring food, water, and shelter to all. Land is shown to be a central motor of politics in the twentie...

Paul Geary, "Experimental Dining: Performance, Experience and Ideology in Contemporary Creative Restaurants" (Intellect Books, 2022)

02 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Dr. Paul Geary’s Experimental Dining: Performance, Experience and Ideology in Contemporary Creative Restaurants (Intellect, 2022) examines the wor...

Sarah Brouillette, "Underdevelopment and African Literature: Emerging Forms of Reading" (Cambridge UP, 2021)

29 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Underdevelopment and African Literature (Cambridge University Press, 2020), Sarah Brouillette tackles the print culture and literature in English...

Shobana Shankar, "An Uneasy Embrace: Africa, India and the Spectre of Race" (Oxford UP, 2021)

29 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The entwined histories of Blacks and Indians defy easy explanation. From Ghanaian protests over Gandhi statues to American Vice President Kamala Harri...

Emily Klancher Merchant, "Building the Population Bomb" (Oxford UP, 2021)

28 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Across the twentieth century, Earth's human population increased undeniably quickly, rising from 1.6 billion people in 1900 to 6.1 billion in 2000. As...

Kim Kelly, "Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor" (Atria, 2022)

27 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

American fieldworkers rejecting government-sanctioned indentured servitude across the Pacific. Incarcerated workers advocating for basic human rights ...

Robert Cliver, "Red Silk: Class, Gender, and Revolution in China's Yangzi Delta Silk Industry" (Harvard UP, 2020)

27 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Red Silk: Class, Gender, and Revolution in China's Yangzi Delta Silk Industry (Harvard UP, 2020) is a history of China's Yangzi Delta silk industry ...

Amanda D. Lotz, "Media Disrupted: Surviving Pirates, Cannibals, and Streaming Wars" (MIT Press, 2021)

27 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Has the internet really been the main culprit behind the upheaval of the contemporary media industries? In Media Disrupted: Surviving Pirates, Cannib...

Barry Eichengreen et al., "In Defense of Public Debt" (Oxford UP, 2021)

26 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Public debts have exploded to levels unprecedented in modern history as governments responded to the Covid-19 pandemic and ensuing economic crisis. Th...

Charly Coleman, "The Spirit of French Capitalism: Economic Theology in the Age of Enlightenment" (Stanford UP, 2021)

25 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Charly Coleman's latest book, The Spirit of French Capitalism: Economic Theology in the Age of Enlightenment (Stanford University Press, 2021) is at...

Faisal H. Husain, "Rivers of the Sultan: The Tigris and Euphrates in the Ottoman Empire" (Oxford UP, 2021)

22 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Rivers of the Sultan offers a history of the Ottoman Empire's management of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the early modern period. During the ear...

Thomas Piketty, "A Brief History of Equality" (Harvard UP, 2022)

21 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

There is no political power without control of the archive, if not of memory. Effective democratization can always be measured by this essential crite...

Harry Verhoeven and Anatol Lieven, "Beyond Liberal Order: States, Societies and Markets in the Global Indian Ocean" (Oxford UP, 2022)

21 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We often neglect the Indian Ocean when we talk about our macro-level models of geopolitics, global economics or grand strategy—often in favor of the...

Gavin Mueller, "Breaking Things at Work: The Luddites Are Right About Why You Hate Your Job" (Verso, 2021)

20 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Breaking Things at Work: The Luddites are Right About Why You Hate Your Job (Verso, 2021), Gavin Mueller provides a bracing and wide-ranging stu...

Mary Childs, "The Bond King: How One Man Made a Market, Built an Empire, and Lost It All" (Flatiron Books, 2021)

20 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

From the host of NPR's Planet Money, the deeply-investigated story of how one visionary, dogged investor changed American finance forever. Before Bil...

Hilton Judin, "Architecture, State Modernism and Cultural Nationalism in the Apartheid Capital" (Routledge, 2021)

19 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Hilton Judin's book Architecture, State Modernism and Cultural Nationalism in the Apartheid Capital (Routledge, 2021) is the first comprehensive in...

Charles Dellheim, "Belonging and Betrayal: How Jews Made the Art World Modern" (Brandeis UP, 2021)

19 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Since the late-1990s, the fate of Nazi stolen art has become a cause célèbre. In Belonging and Betrayal: How Jews Made the Art World Modern (Brand...

Debt

18 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Huzaifa Omair Siddiqi talks about the idea of debt, mainly with respect to the book by David Graeber on its history. This episode is dedicated to hi...

Susanne A. Wengle, "Black Earth, White Bread: A Technopolitical History of Russian Agriculture and Food" (U Wisconsin Press, 2022)

15 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Black Earth, White Bread: A Technopolitical History of Russian Agriculture and Food (University of Wisconsin Press, 2022), Dr. Susanne A. Wengle ...

Gregg Huff, "World War II in Southeast Asia: Economy and Society under Japanese Occupation" (Cambridge UP, 2020)

15 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

To say that World War II and Southeast Asia: Economy and Society under Japanese Occupation (Cambridge University Press, 2020) is an impressive achie...

Isabella M. Weber, "How China Escaped Shock Therapy: The Market Reform Debate" (Routledge, 2021)

15 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

China has become deeply integrated into the world economy. Yet, gradual marketization has facilitated the country's rise without leading to its wholes...

Diana Garvin, "Feeding Fascism: The Politics of Women's Food Work" (U Toronto Press, 2022)

15 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Diana Garvin’s Feeding Fascism: The Politics of Women's Food Work (U Toronto Press, 2022) is an expansive and multifaceted look at women’s food ...

Jonathan Beller, "The World Computer: Derivative Conditions of Racial Capitalism" (Duke UP, 2021)

15 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In The World Computer: Derivative Conditions of Racial Capitalism (Duke UP, 2021) Jonathan Beller forcefully demonstrates that the history of commod...

Tim Hwang, "Subprime Attention Crisis: Advertising and the Time Bomb at the Heart of the Internet" (FSG Originals, 2020)

14 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Subprime Attention Crisis: Advertising and the Time Bomb at the Heart of the Internet (FSG Originals, 2020), Tim Hwang investigates the way big t...

The Future of Life Expectancy: A Discussion with Angus Deaton

12 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In 2015, Professor Angus Deaton of Princeton University and his wife Professor Anne Case published a paper highlighting the rising mortality rate amon...

Sigurður Gylfi Magnússon, "Wasteland with Words: A Social History of Iceland" (Reaktion, 2010)

12 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Today we talk to Sigurður Gylfi Magnússon about Wasteland with Words (Reaktion, 2010) and about microhistory as a method. Iceland is an enigmat...

Elisabeth Anderson, "Agents of Reform: Child Labor and the Origins of the Welfare State" (Princeton UP, 2021)

11 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The beginnings of the modern welfare state are often traced to the late nineteenth-century labor movement and to policymakers’ efforts to appeal to ...

R. Douglas Arnold, "Fixing Social Security: The Politics of Reform in a Polarized Age" (Princeton UP, 2022)

08 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Since its establishment, Social Security has become the financial linchpin of American retirement. Yet demographic trends—longer lifespans and decli...

Nic Marsh et al., "Indefensible: Seven Myths that Sustain the Global Arms Trade" (Zed Books, 2017)

07 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Although there is often opposition to individual wars, most people continue to believe that the arms industry is necessary in some form: to safeguard ...

William D. Adler, "Engineering Expansion: The U.S. Army and Economic Development, 1787-1860" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2021)

07 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Engineering Expansion: The U.S. Army and Economic Development, 1787-1860 (U Pennsylvania Press, 2021) threads together political science, history, ec...

Pandemic Perspectives 5: Necessarily Global--How the Pandemic Forces Us To Think Bigger

06 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this Pandemic Perspectives Podcast, Ideas Roadshow founder and host Howard Burton talks to Andy Hoffman, the dynamic and innovative business profes...

Gary Gerstle, "The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order: America and the World in the Free Market Era" (Oxford UP, 2022)

05 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The epochal shift toward neoliberalism–– a web of related policies that, broadly speaking, reduced the footprint of government in society and reas...

Jessica P. Clark, "The Business of Beauty: Gender and the Body in Modern London" (Bloomsbury, 2020)

31 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In The Business of Beauty: Gender and the Body in Modern London (Bloomsbury, 2020), historian Jessica Clark takes the reader on a tour through the s...

Joseph Fishkin and William E. Forbath, "The Anti-Oligarchy Constitution: Reconstructing the Economic Foundations of American Democracy" (Harvard UP, 2022)

31 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Oligarchy is a threat to the American republic. When too much economic and political power is concentrated in too few hands, we risk losing the “rep...

Alexander Zaitchik, "Owning the Sun: A People's History of Monopoly Medicine from Aspirin to COVID-19 Vaccines" (Counterpoint, 2022)

30 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Although the dividing line between private life and public responsibilities can never be definite and clear, there is a moral threshold which is cross...

Thomas Haigh and Paul E. Ceruzzi, "A New History of Modern Computing" (MIT Press, 2021)

30 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In A New History of Modern Computing (MIT Press, 2021), Thomas Haigh and Paul Ceruzzi trace changes leading to the computer becoming a ubiquitous...

Tirthankar Roy and Anand V. Swamy, "Law and the Economy in a Young Democracy: India 1947 and Beyond" (UChicago Press, 2022)

30 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Law and the Economy in a Young Democracy: India 1947 and Beyond (University of Chicago Press, 2022), Dr. Tirthankar Roy and Dr. Anand Swamy prese...

The Future of Rational Decision Making: A Discussion with Olivier Sibony

29 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this podcast Owen Bennett-Jones discusses the future of rational decision making with Professor Olivier Sibony who after 25 years with McKinsey & C...

Alberto Bisin and Giovanni Federico, "The Handbook of Historical Economics" (Academic Press, 2021)

29 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Handbook of Historical Economics (Academic Press, 2021) guides students and researchers through a quantitative economic history that uses fully u...

Kathleen Courtenay Stone, "They Called Us Girls: Stories of Female Ambition from Suffrage to Mad Men" (Cynren Press, 2022)

28 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In mid-twentieth-century America, women faced a paradox. Thanks to their efforts, World War II production had been robust, and in the peace that follo...

Scott Timcke, "Algorithms and the End of Politics: How Technology Shapes 21st-Century American Life" (Bristol UP, 2021)

28 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

As the US contends with issues of populism and de-democratization, this timely study considers the impacts of digital technologies on the country’s ...

Francesca Morgan, "A Nation of Descendants: Politics and the Practice of Genealogy in U.S. History" (UNC Press, 2021)

25 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In A Nation of Descendants: Politics and the Practice of Genealogy in U.S. History (University of North Carolina Press, 2021), historian Francesca M...

Elisabeth Ceppi, "Invisible Masters: Gender, Race, and the Economy of Service in Early New England" (Dartmouth College Press, 2018)

24 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Early American literature scholar Elisabeth Ceppi’s thought-provoking new book, Invisible Masters: Gender, Race, and the Economy of Service in Earl...

Jeremy Friedman, "Ripe for Revolution: Building Socialism in the Third World" (Harvard UP, 2022)

24 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In the first decades after World War II, many newly independent Asian and African countries and established Latin American states pursued a socialist ...

Oded Galor, "The Journey of Humanity: The Origins of Wealth and Inequality" (Dutton Books, 2022)

22 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Nothing has had a more profound impact on the lives of humans than economic growth. Thus, understanding economic growth is, on its own, understanding ...

The Future of Disorder: A Discussion with Helen Thompson

22 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In her book Disorder: Hard Times in the 21st Century (Oxford UP, 2022), Cambridge academic Helen Thompson gets beyond the ephemeral and analyses in...

Peter B. Lavelle, "The Profits of Nature: Colonial Development and the Quest for Resources in Nineteenth-Century China" (Columbia UP, 2020)

22 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In The Profits of Nature: Colonial Development and the Quest for Resources in Nineteenth-Century China (Columbia UP, 2020), Peter Lavelle offers a f...

Molly M. Melin, "The Building and Breaking of Peace: Corporate Activities in Civil War Prevention and Resolution" (Oxford UP, 2021)

21 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Private corporations are rarely discussed as playing a role in efforts to curb civil violence, even though they often have strong interests in maintai...

The Future of Africa: A Discussion with James A. Robinson

15 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Africa is often portrayed in terms of dictators, starvation, corruption, tribalism, war, disease, poverty and crime. In this podcast Professor James ...

Vikrant Pande, "The SBI Story: Two Centuries of Banking" (Westland, 2021)

15 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

From princes to peasants, musicians to masons, cement plant owners to casual labourers—the State Bank of India (SBI) has been the go-to bank for the...

Lydia Pyne, "Postcards: The Rise and Fall of the World’s First Social Network" (Reaktion Books, 2021)

15 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For this episode, I met historian and writer Dr. Lydia Pyne. She is author of Postcards: The Rise and Fall of the World’s First Social Network (Re...

Peter S. Goodman, "Davos Man: How the Billionaire Class Devoured Democracy" (Custom House, 2022)

11 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Drawing on decades of experience covering the global economy, New York Times' journalist Peter S. Goodman profiles five representative Davos Men-memb...

Poulomi Saha, "An Empire of Touch: Women's Political Labor and the Fabrication of East Bengal" (Columbia UP, 2019)

11 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Can subalterns speak? Now an iconic question from a prominent postcolonial studies scholar Gayatri Spivak, the question interrogates the in-built assu...

Joshua Frens-String, "Hungry for Revolution: The Politics of Food and the Making of Modern Chile" (UC Press, 2021)

09 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Hungry for Revolution: The Politics of Food and the Making of Modern Chile (University of California Press, 2021), Joshua Frens-String explore...

Sarah-Neel Smith, "Metrics of Modernity: Art and Development in Postwar Turkey" (U California Press, 2022)

08 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Metrics of Modernity: Art and Development in Postwar Turkey (University of California Press, 2022) is a vivid portrait of the art world of 1950s Tu...

Carl Rhodes, "Woke Capitalism: How Corporate Morality is Sabotaging Democracy" (Policy Press, 2021)

24 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Today I talked to Carl Rhodes about his book Woke Capitalism: How Corporate Morality is Sabotaging Democracy (Policy Press, 2021). When Milton Frie...

Michelle Christine Smith, "Utopian Genderscapes: Rhetorics of Women's Work in the Early Industrial Age" (Southern Illinois UP, 2021)

21 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Utopian Genderscapes: Rhetorics of Women's Work in the Early Industrial Age (Southern Illinois UP, 2021) focuses on three prominent yet understudied ...

Nicholas Mulder, "The Economic Weapon: The Rise of Sanctions as a Tool of Modern War" (Yale UP, 2022)

16 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Economic sanctions dominate the landscape of world politics today. First developed in the early twentieth century as a way of exploiting the flows of ...

William D. Ferguson, "The Political Economy of Collective Action, Inequality, and Development" (Stanford UP, 2020)

15 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Political Economy of Collective Action, Inequality, and Development (Stanford UP, 2020) examines how a society that is trapped in stagnation mig...

Kurt Edward Kemper, "Before March Madness: The Wars for the Soul of College Basketball" (U Illinois Press, 2020)

14 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Big money NCAA basketball had its origins in a many-sided conflict of visions and agendas. On one side stood large schools focused on a commercialized...

Federica Francesconi, "Invisible Enlighteners: The Jewish Merchants of Modena, from the Renaissance to the Emancipation" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2021)

14 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In her recent book on the Jewish community of Modena in Italy, Federica Francesconi tells a tale of contradictions. Segregated to the city’s ghetto ...

Bruce Iglauer and Patrick A. Roberts, "Bitten by the Blues: The Alligator Records Story" (U Chicago Press, 2018)

08 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It’s time for The Blues! In Bitten by the Blues: The Alligator Records Story (University of Chicago Press, 2018), Alligator Records president and ...