• Identify and describe capitalism as a complex concept, built around a framework of intertwining elements of crisis and opportunity.
• Evaluate contemporary coverage of a past crisis.
• Apply historical reasoning to course materials
• Develop awareness of the importance of relevant historical contexts

2020 was a year of global challenges. The Covid-19 pandemic pushed to the limit the resources and institutions of many democratic nations; the final completion of Brexit threatened the European project; and a disputed election shook our faith in the the democratic credentials of the world’s largest economy. Already beset by catastrophic environmental damage, persistent and chronic inequalities, increasing racial cleavages, and a resurgence of nationalist populism, the global pandemic has exposed the fragilities of some of the world’s most advanced capitalist nations, particularly in North America and Western Europe. Thus, the inevitability of capitalism appears much less secure and continued uncertainties illuminate how capitalism entangles urgent political, environmental and social questions. Nonetheless, it is hard to imagine life outside of or before or after capitalism. Even critiques start from the inevitably of capitalism as we know it today. To question that inevitability is our task in this course.. That task has rarely been more urgent.

In this course we approach our task by placing the current moment in its historical context, analyzing capitalist dynamics as rooted in the interplay of processes of crisis and opportunity, an interplay through which societies try and make sense of the choices they are confronted with, choosing between alternatives, and shaping the form capitalism will take in a given context. Capitalism emerges not as driven by iron laws, but as an intensely human, messy, and contingent affair. Emphasizing human agency and choice allows us to understand not only the history that has led us to this point but how we might move forward in the future. 

Rather than attempting to offer a definitive, linear history of capitalism over the last 200 years, this course will use key switching points in that history to examine a range of core themes, including: growth, wealth, and inequality; global challenges of political and economic governance; capitalism and democracy; capitalism and climate change.

The aims and goals of the course are to introduce students to the dynamics of global capitalism over the last 200 years, exploring capitalist dynamics as the interplay of processes of crisis and opportunity. In the process, the course aims to “denaturalize,” capitalism, conceptualizing it as the outcome of human choice. A further goal is to introduce students to the notion of sense-making as a way of understanding how individuals and societies navigate crisis and opportunity and frame choices that will shape the future. In the process, students will be introduced to the concept historical thinking, strengthening their historical competencies. Ultimately, the aims and goals of the course are to aid students in understanding current crises, events, and challenges in their historical context and as the outcome of the dynamics traced in the course. Specific competences and knowledge students will gain include: knowledge of the history of global capitalism over the last years; competencies in applying historical thinking as an analytical tool.

In addition to the mandatory assignment, there will be one non-mandatory activity comprising a book/text report linked to the online reading groups (max. 3 pages). This activity will promote and assess students’ understanding of relevant core literature and concepts and will provide further opportunity for students to assess their progress and learning through feedback.

Suggested readings: 

David Graeber (2014): Debt: The First 5000 Years. Melville House Publishing.

Per H. Hansen (2012), “Making Sense of Financial Crisis and Scandal: A Danish Bank Failure in the First Era of Finance Capitalism,” Enterprise and Society, Vo. 13, No. 3, pp. 672-706

Eric Hobsbawn (1975): Age of Capital, 1848-1875. Abucus.

Adam Tooze (2019), “Introduction: The First Crisis of a Global Age,” Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crisis Changed the World, pp. 1-22. Penguin Books.

Thomas Piketty (2020), “Introduction,” Capital and Ideology; p. 1–47. Belknap Press.

Karl Polanyi (1944): The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time, chapter 4-5 (’Societies and Economic Systems’ and ’Evolution of Market Pattern’). Beacon Paperback.

Quinn Slobodian (2020): Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neo-Liberalism. Harvard University Press.

E. P. Thompson (1971), “The Moral Economy of the English Crowd in the Eighteenth Century,” Past & Present No. 50, pp. 76-136

Ellen Meiksins Wood (2002): The Origins of Capitalism: A Longer View, chapter 1 (’The Commercialization Model and its Legacy’), pp. 11-34. Verso Books.

Ellen Meiksins Wood (2008): Democracy Against Capitalism: Renewing Historical Materialism, chapter 6 (’Labour and Democracy, Ancient and Modern), pp. 181-204. Cambridge University Press.

Podcasts:

“Capitalism in Crisis: Why Do Recessions Happen?” The Socialist Program with Brian Becker, December 2020 (37min) 

“Instability as Opportunity, American Capitalism: A History,” March 2014 (9 min)  

“Black History Capitalism & Systemic Oppression,” The Mix: A Diversity Podcast, June 2020 (1h 15min)

“Can Feminism and Capitalism Co-exist and the History of Market Misogyny.” Consensual, September 2020 (45 min).