Popular histories tend to locate capitalism’s origins in Europe, only later moving outward to other parts of the globe. Not so, says historian Sven Beckert. Capitalism, he argues, was born global, forged through the connections made by merchants and others from Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. In this month’s episode, Beckert brings listeners on an epic ride, tracing global capitalism’s rise during the past millennium and around the world, from merchant businesses in Aden, onto the terrifyingly violent sugar plantations in Barbados, and, finally, to the rising industrial power of contemporary China. Colonialism, coercion, and, notably, state power all featured prominently in capitalism’s rise, helping this radical new way of organizing economic life overcome elite and non-elite resistance to become one of the most powerful forces in human history.
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- Lior B. Sternfeld, Between Iran And Zion, Jewish Histories of Twentieth-Century Iran – 13 September 2019
- History and Helplessness: Mass Mobilization and Contemporary Forms of Anticapitalism, by Moishe Postone – 1 January 2006
- The State of Africa in the New World Order, by Will Shoki – 2 April 2025
- A Generational Change in Nepali Politics, by Pranaya Rana – 26 May 2026
- Five Years of Coup: Burmese Anarchists within and without the Revolution (Htet Khine Soe interviewed by Ban Ge, CrimethInc.) – 10 February 2026
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