Like anything dreamed up by human beings, capitalism has a history. As historians, we can trace its origins, its develop, and the ways in which it changes through time. But people living within a capitalist economy don’t always understand its history; like any foundational social system, capitalism can appear ahistorical and ordained by nature. This blog is an effort to qualitatively assess current popular understandings of capitalism and of its history, particularly in relation to the United States. It consists of interviews with members of the public about their understandings of the history and meanings of American capitalism, as well as reflection pieces about the themes of those interviews. This site is a collaborative project of Will Mackintosh‘s Cultural History of Capitalism seminar at the University of Mary Washington.
