Hagley 2018 Fall Conference: Schedule Available

The 2018 fall conference, sponsored by the Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society at the Hagley Museum and Library, will take place on November 8-9.  The topic, "Seeing Like a Capitalist: Histories of Commercial Surveillance in America," will examine the "non-state surveillance activities that might be found in a variety of business settings and industries, involve a range of formal or informal practices, and might be directed at customers, media audiences, borrowers, consumer markets, employees, or labor." The program has now been posted on the Hagley website.
    Sarah E. Igo (Vanderbilt University) will open the conference with a keynote address on Thursday, evening, November 8, in which she will discuss her new book, The Known Citizen: A History of Privacy in Modern America (Harvard University Press, May 2018). Conference panels will take place throughout the day on Friday, November 9.    
      There is no fee, but attendees must register in advance. Please contact Carol Lockman if you would like to attend, and see the full conference announcement on the Hagley website.

Over the Counter: No. 43

News of interest from around the web:
From H-Soz-u-Kult, a summary [in English] of the presentations at a workshop, "Business and the Law: Perspectives on Legal Change," held at the University of Bayreuth in June.

The Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society at the Hagley Museum and Library has announced that the 2018–2019 Jefferson Scholars/Hagley Library Fellow in Business and Politics will be A. J. Murphy, a doctoral candidate in the Department of History at Columbia University.

An interesting blog maintained by Irwin Collier: "Economics in the Rear-View Mirror: Archival Artifacts from the History of Economics."

Stephen Mihm of the University of Georgia has been awarded a grant of $60,000 under the NEH's Public Scholar Program for a book project entitled "Industrial and Technical Standards in Modern Life: A History," on the history, from the late eighteenth century to the present, of the industrial and technical standards that enable modern life.

Mihm also writes occasional pieces for Bloomberg Opinion; his latest is "As an Economic Forecaster, Copper Fails Miserably."

The 16th annual St. Louis Fed Professors Conference will meet this year on November 1-2; speakers include Martha Olney and Lisa Cook.

The Institute of Historical Research held a conference last winter focused on "Home: New Histories of Living"; the program, with abstracts, remains available online.

Two useful digital directories from the American Historical Association are back online: the Directory of History Dissertations and the Directory of History Departments and Institutions.

Tirthankar Roy participated in a video interview about his book on the East India Company for Bloomberg Quint.

Caitlin Rosenthal wrote an opinion piece for Time on "How the History of Slavery in America Offers an Important Labor Day Lesson."

Sad to report that Ferry de Goey (1959-2018) of Erasmus University passed away on July 22; a remembrance can be found here.

The first volume (2018) of Current Research in Digital History features two articles of particular interest: the first, by Atiba Pertilla, is "Mapping Mobility: Class and Spatial Mobility in the Wall Street Workforce, 1890–1914"; the second, by Marcy L. Galbreath and Amy L. Giroux, is "Researching Genres in Agricultural Communities: The Role of the Farm Record Book." The latter introduces the Historical Agricultural News (HAN) website, a search tool they developed that enables users to filter agriculturally related topics in digitized newspaper articles.

There have been several recent interviews of interest on the "New Books Network" blog:

Peter James Hudson, Bankers and Empire: How Wall Street Colonized the Caribbean;
Rupali Mishra, A Business of State: Commerce, Politics, and the Birth of the East India CompanyDavid George Surdam and Michael J. Haupert, The Age of Ruth and Landis: The Economics of Baseball during the Roaring TwentiesWilliam D. Bryan, The Price of Permanence: Nature and Business in the New South

New Books of Interest: Summer 2018 Edition

A (by no means complete) listing of new and forthcoming books of interest for this summer, covering late May-September 2018:

Bernardo Batiz-Lazo, Cash and Dash: How ATMs and Computers Changed Banking (Oxford University Press, September 2018)

Michael Bliss, Northern Enterprise: Five Centuries of Canadian Business (new ed., ed. John Turley-Ewart) (Rock's Mills Press, August 2018) [no publisher page].

William D. Bryan, The Price of Permanence: Nature and Business in the New South (University of Georgia Press, August 2018)

John W. Chaffee, The Muslim Merchants of Premodern China: The History of a Maritime Asian Trade Diaspora, 750–1400 (Cambridge University Press, August 2018)

Nicholas Crafts, Forging Ahead, Falling Behind and Fighting Back: British Economic Growth from the Industrial Revolution to the Financial Crisis (Cambridge University Press, September 2018)

Ben Dew, Commerce, Finance, and Statecraft: Histories of England, 1600-1780 (Manchester University Press, August 2018)

Joe Dobrow, Pioneers of Promotion: How Press Agents for Buffalo Bill, P. T. Barnum, and the World’s Columbian Exposition Created Modern Marketing (University of Oklahoma Press, June 2018)

Rodney Edvinsson, Tor Jacobson, and Daniel Waldenstrom, eds., Sveriges Riksbank and the History of Central Banking (Cambridge University Press, June 2018)

Janet R. Goodwin and Joan R. Piggott, eds., Land, Power, and the Sacred: The Estate System in Medieval Japan (University of Hawai'i Press, July 2018)

Shane Hamilton, Supermarket USA: Food and Power in the Cold War Farms Race (Yale University Press, September 2018)

Daniel Hershenzon, The Captive Sea: Slavery, Communication, and Commerce in Early Modern Spain and the Mediterranean (University of Pennsylvania Press, September 2018)

David M. Higgins, Brands, Geographical Origin, and the Global Economy: A History from the Nineteenth Century to the Present (Cambridge University Press, May 2018)

Louis Hyman, Temp: How American Work, American Business, and the American Dream Became Temporary (Viking, August 2018)

Kristian Kristiansen, Thomas Lindkvist, and Janken Myrdal, eds., Trade and Civilisation: Economic Networks and Cultural Ties, from Prehistory to the Early Modern Era (Cambridge University Press, August 2018)

Bettina Liverant, Buying Happiness: The Emergence of Consumer Consciousness in English Canada (University of British Columbia Press, June 2018)

Christopher Miller, Planning and Profits: British Naval Armaments Manufacture and the Military Industrial Complex, 1918-1941 (Liverpool University Press, June 2018)

Lars Olsson, Women's Work and Politics in WWI America: The Munsingwear Family of Minneapolis (Palgrave Macmillan, June 2018)

Caitlin Rosenthal, Accounting for Slavery: Masters and Management (Harvard

University Press, August 2018)

David George Surdam and Michael J. Haupert, The Age of Ruth and Landis: The Economics of Baseball during the Roaring Twenties (University of Nebraska Press, June 2018)

C. Bruce Tarter, The American Lab: An Insider’s History of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (Johns Hopkins University Press, June 2018)

Adam Tooze, Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World (Viking, August 2018)

John Wall, Streamliner: Raymond Loewy and Image-making in the Age of American Industrial Design (Johns Hopkins University Press, June 2018)

Pim de Zwart and Jan Luiten van Zanden, The Origins of Globalization: World Trade in the Making of the Global Economy, 1500-1800 (Cambridge University Press, September 2018)

Workshop and Seminar Schedule, Fall 2018

As the new academic year begins, we again offer a round-up of ongoing workshops, forums, and discussion groups in business and economic history. Please check each website for more detailed information. Some groups, particularly those in non-US universities, may not yet have posted Fall 2018 information; in those cases, a link to the home site or last available listing is included.
     In addition to their value for those able to participate directly, these groups often maintain mailing lists and sometimes make speakers' papers freely available.

Business History Seminar, Harvard Business School
Business History @ Erasmus Seminars
Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society (Hagley) Research Seminars
Columbia University Seminar in Economic History
Economic History Seminar, LSE
Economic History Seminar, Stern School of Business, NYU
Economic History Seminar, University of California, Berkeley
Economic History Workshop, Stanford University
Economic and Social History of the Premodern World, IHR, University of London
Economic and Social History Seminar, Utrecht University (scroll down)
Harvard Economic History Workshop
History and Economics Seminar, Harvard University
International and Global History Forum, Harvard University
Newberry Seminar on the History of Capitalism
Northwestern Economic History Workshop
Oxford Graduate Seminar in Economic and Social History
Paris School of Economics, Economic History Seminar
PEAES Fellows Colloquium and Seminars, Library Company of Philadelphia
Penn Economic History Forum
Queen's University (Ontario) Economic History Workshop
Queen's University (Belfast) Centre for Economic History Workshop
Seminars in Economic and Social History, University of Cambridge
Vanderbilt University Economic History Workshop
Washington (D.C.) Area Economic History Seminar
Yale Economic History Workshop

In addition, a sampling of other seminars which, though not specifically focused on business or economic history, often have papers of interest:

Massachusetts Historical Society Seminars
MIT Seminar on Environmental and Agricultural History
McNeil Center for Early American Studies
Omohundro Institute Colloquium
Georgetown Institute for Global History Seminar Series

Prizes Awarded: EHA 2018

The Economic History Association (EHA) has just completed its annual meeting, this year held in Montreal, Canada. The organization has announced its award recipients:

The Allan Nevins Prize for the best dissertation in U.S. or Canadian economic history: Gillian Brunet, “Understanding The Effects of Fiscal Policy: Measurement, Mechanisms, and Lessons from History” (University of California Berkeley)

Alexander Gerschenkron Prize for the Best Dissertation in non-US or Canadian economic history:  Erik Prawitz, “On the Move: Essays on the Economic and Political Development of Sweden” (Stockholm University)

Jonathan Hughes Prize for Excellence in Teaching Economic History:  Howard Bodenhorn (Clemson University)

Arthur H. Cole Prize for the best article published in the Journal of Economic History Mohamed Saleh, “On the Road to Heaven: Taxation, Conversions, and the Coptic-Muslim Socioeconomic Gap in Medieval Egypt” (June 2018)

Ranki Prize for the best book published in the previous year: Leah Bustan, Princeton University, for Competition in the Promised Land: Black Migrants in Northern Cities and Labor Markets (Princeton University Press)

Alice Hanson Jones Prize for the best book in North American economic history: Douglas Irwin, Clashing over Commerce: A History of US Trade Policy (University of Chicago Press)

Engerman-Goldin Prize for compilation and distribution of a dataset within the last five years: Jeremy Atack (Vanderbilt University) (his databases are available here.)

Larry Neal Prize for the best article published in Explorations in Economic History: Jim Siodla, “Clean Slate: Land-Use Changes in San Francisco after the 1906 Disaster”
 (April 2017)

Those who missed the meeting can find relevant posts on Twitter at #EHA2018. The final program booklet also contains abstracts of all the papers.

EBHA 2018: Papers Online

Those unable  to attend the 2018 European Business History Association (EBHA) congress, currently taking place at the Università Politecnica delle Marche in Ancona, Italy, might wish to check out the final version of the meeting program. Nearly 75 of the papers have been uploaded and are freely available. Facebook users can see images on the EBHA Facebook site; on Twitter it's #ebha2018.

Business History in the Blogosphere, August 2018

A number of business historians have written or been quoted in blog posts recently. A sampling:

For the Economic History Society blog, "The Long Run," Aaron Graham writes "Wages of Sin: Slavery and the Banks, 1830-50," drawing on data from the "Legacies of British Slave Ownership Project."

For SHOT's "Technology's Stories" blog, Daniel Levinson Wilk writes about "A Brief Episode in the History of Dusting."

For the Society of U.S. Intellectual History blog, Andy Seal begins a series "Asking New Questions of the New History of Capitalism." Subsequent posts so far are "When Did the History of Capitalism Become New? Periodizing the Field" and "Two Paths for the History of Capitalism: Commodification and Proletarianization."

On "Black Perspectives," the blog of the African American Intellectual History Society, Paige Glotzer writes about "The Connections between Urban Development and Colonialism."

For the Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era (SHGAPE), J. Martin Vest writes "On Nippers, Nipper-Napping, and the New York Public Library."

At the Legal History Blog, Laura Phillips Sawyer continues her series of posts: "On Finding a Dissertation Project. . ."; "From Brandeis and the American Fair Trade League to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Antitrust Reform"; and "Legal Research at the Hagley Museum & Library."

Natalya Vinokurova discusses (audio and transcript) her research on the development of mortgage-backed securities and the parallels to the present day on "Knowledge@ Wharton."

Caitlin Rosenthal is interviewed by John Fea on his "The Way of Improvement Leads Home" about her new book, Accounting for Slavery.

Louis Hyman talks (audio and transcript) with Kara Swisher about his new book, Temp: How American Work, American Business and the American Dream Became Temporary, on "Recode Decode."

WEHC 2018 Wrap-Up

The 2018 World Economic History Congress (WEHC) in Boston is over, but materials of interest remain on the website. The media page for the Congress has links to the slides presented by each of the plenary speakers, as well as links to interviews with Thomas Piketty and Anne McCants. The site also lists the winners of both the dissertation and the poster competitions.
    For those on Facebook or Twitter, posts of interest can be found at the WEHC2018 Facebook site, at the Twitter account @WEHC2018., and with #wehc2018. 

Immediate Job Opening: Research Fellow and Intern at Hagley

The Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society at the Hagley Museum and Library is recruiting for a twelve-month Research Fellow and Intern to take up duties as soon after September 1, 2018, as possible. The position requires approximately two days per week of work which must be conducted at Hagley, and permits the Fellow to make use of a private office for his/her own research activities. It may be held in conjunction with other employment (e.g., teaching or fellowships) so long as those duties do not interfere with Hagley responsibilities, especially Thursday events.
Responsibilities include:

• To be present at Hagley on average two days per week, including attending and assisting as assigned at the Center’s author talks, seminars, conference, and brown bags;
• Conduct research interviews with visiting scholars that will be included in the Center’s "Stories from the Stacks" program;
• Obtain and edit blog articles from visiting scholars that will appear in Hagley’s Research and Collection News;
• Prepare promotional materials for the Center to post on Hagley’s web page and manage social media for the Center;
• Network with resident scholars at Hagley and enhance Hagley’s scholarly community;
• Engage in and share personal scholarship while at Hagley

Compensation: $24,000 for eleven months of work in a twelve-month period; private office and computer accessible during Hagley’s regular business hours; status as funded scholar, providing use of Hagley mail, Internet, and interlibrary loan; $1,500 stipend for travel to scholarly events or for personal research. No healthcare or other benefits provided.

Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in history or related discipline; ABD status or above preferred 
• Research interests relevant to Hagley’s collections 
• Experience with programming and/or event coordination 
• Knowledge of social media, spreadsheets, and web page software 
• Well-organized and self-motivated

Interested applicants should send a letter and c.v. to Roger Horowitz, Director, Center for the History of Business, Technology and Society, Hagley Museum and Library, rhorowitz@Hagley.org. The letter should address the following: the applicant’s research interests, programming experience, and social media experience. Applications should be sent as soon as possible and will be accepted until the position is filled.

CFP: “Investigating Mid-Atlantic Plantations”

A joint call for papers has been issued for "Investigating Mid-Atlantic Plantations: Slavery, Economies, and Space," to be held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on October 17-19, 2019. The Program in Early American Economy and Society (PEAES) at the Library Company of Philadelphia, the Stenton Museum, the McNeil Center for Early American Studies (MCEAS), Cliveden of the National Trust, and the Graduate Program in Historic Preservation at the University of Pennsylvania seek proposals to contribute scholarly findings at a conference exploring the creation and development of plantations in the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century mid-Atlantic region. According to the call for papers:

A real-world challenge to Thomas Jefferson’s vision of an agrarian republic of (white) smallholders, plantations were sites of concentrated wealth and exploitation. More familiar in a Southern context, mid-Atlantic plantations had their own forms, meanings, and relationships. This conference seeks to understand the unique qualities of plantation complexes in the middle colonies (states) while also comparing these regional phenomena with better-known Southern institutions and situating them within the larger contexts of British North America and the United States. 

Participants are sought

from diverse fields including economic, social, and cultural history; African American studies; geography, archeology, and material culture; and museum studies, cultural resource management, and historic preservation. Paper proposals might address economic, familial, and religious networks; enslavement, indenture, and “free” labor; land ownership and land development; agricultural and horticultural practices; architecture, circulation, and spatial relationships; physical and cognitive maps; foodways and music; industry and commerce; and the construction of gendered or racial categories. 

Conference organizers will consider individual papers and panel submissions. Papers will be pre-circulated. Please submit an abstract (250 words) and a short curriculum vitae to mceas@ccat.sas.upenn.edu. Proposals for panels should include materials for each participant.
     The deadline for submissions is September 15, 2018. Please see the full call for papers for additional details.