History of Capitalism (HEC-AS-HISCAP-22)

HEC-AS-HISCAP-22

Description

In the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2007-08, the sovereign debt crisis of 2009-13 and the current Pandemic, renewed debates about capitalism returned the study of economic life, ideas, actors and institutions to the forefront of historical analysis of how the modern world was made. This seminar series connects these debates and diverse methodologies, sampling some of the different ways in which early modern and modern historians are asking and answering the question: when did capitalism become the dominant mode of socio-economic organisation and how has it changed the course of the world? We will discuss key themes in the history capitalism, with a focus on economic ideas, institutions and actors, and on their national and transnational settings. The seminar will also ask how the relation between polities and markets developed across periods of increasing and decreasing global integration. One of the aims of this seminar is to practice thinking and writing historically.