Instructor: Sean Capener

In this course, we’ll examine and assess a number of proposed origin stories for the economic, political, and social structure critics call ‘capitalism.’ In the process, we’ll explore various ways in which each answer to the question ‘when is capitalism’ might really be a way of litigating a series of related, but different questions—questions like ‘what is capitalism’ and ‘how does capitalism differ from whatever came before it?’ At stake throughout are questions about money, power, and politics in the present era, as well as narratives of legitimacy, illegitimacy, and historical change.