Capitalism: A Fresh Look from Historians

Recent developments in the institutional practices of the U.S. historical profession indicate substantial rethinking of traditional boundaries dividing the study of capitalism. In the Business History Conference, some have advocated rechristening the conference to indicate a consideration of capitalism more generally. Western Hemispheric labor historians are writing more transnational histories and exploring new analytic frameworks, many under the banner of the new journal Labor: Studies in Working-Class History of the Americas. In a sign of the new interest, last year Harvard University hosted a graduate conference on the History of Capitalism, focused particularly on its division into labor history, business history and economic history. A brief account of recent institutional developments regarding the history of capitalism, including how jobs are defined, within economic, labor, business and political history in the Americas could profitably inform a discussion of capitalism as an historical field. A more complete picture of how historians are employing theories of capitalism and reinterpreting received historical boundaries requires an analysis at the level of individual research projects. In addition to a brief institutional history, I propose to survey recent journal articles employing the category of capitalism and their distribution among regional and thematic specialities. This may unearth discrepancies between historical institutions and the practice of historians. For example, it may reveal a gap between the number of jobs that are defined for historians of capitalism and the number of historians using that framework.