The Exchange

The Nineteenth Century Studies Association (NCSA) will hold its 34th annual meeting on March 7-9, 2013, in Fresno, California. The theme of the meeting is "Loco/Motion"—how the nineteenth century witnessed "the world on the move." As the call for papers suggests, Travel became increasingly important for business and pleasure, for war and peace. At the same time, new forms of moving people arose: the balloon, ships, undergrounds, funiculars, the railroads. Each carried riders to great distances, different locales, and novel pursuits. But motion wasn’t purely spatial; new movements arose as well, sweeping the inhabitants of the period into fresh vistas of thought and endeavor. We seek papers and panels that capture the sense of movement at work and at play during the long nineteenth century (1789-1914).    Abstracts (250 words) for 20-minute papers should be e-mailed to Prof. Toni Wein at NCSA-2013@sbcglobal.net by September 30, 2012 . E-mails should provide t...

Ideas in History , the journal of the Nordic Society for the History of Ideas, has issued a call for papers on the history of economic ideas. The organizers contend that the world has changed dramatically since the 1980s, but "intellectual historians have yet to seize the opportunity of offering historical in-depth understandings of the changes of global capitalism, then and now. This . . . special issue of Ideas in History calls for an 'economic turn' of the discipline of intellectual history." The call for papers states, in part: We are interested in work that investigates the moral and cultural histories of economic rationalities and practice; work that traces the ways in which modern economic rationality became natural, and the ways in which it had to struggle (or collaborate) with religious and scientific authorities in order to gain legitimacy. Studies might concern various economic topics and practices, such as finance, poverty, markets, the state, regula...

Last year we mentioned Syracuse University Library's "Plastics" collection. The library has recently launched a newly redesigned and expanded version of the website , which now offers approximately 3,000 objects with high-quality photographs, information about plastic materials and processes, and twice the previous number of biographies and company histories. In addition to the resources just listed, one can also find essays on specific topics, such as "Racism, Stereotype, and Plastic Product Premiums." Viewers can now submit additional information about objects, people, and companies through the site.

Those close to New York City and environs might wish to take advantage of a program on Monday, June 25, at the Museum of the City of New York (MCNY). Entitled "Booms, Bubbles, and Busts: Spectacular Moments in New York's Banking History," the conversation will be moderated by Mark Gongloff, chief financial writer of the Huffington Post, and will feature historians Steven Fraser, Columbia University, author of Every Man a Speculator (HarperCollins, 2005); Julia Ott, The New School, author of When Wall Street Met Main Street (Harvard University Press, 2011) and Robert E. Wright, Augustana College, author of One Nation Under Debt (McGraw-Hill 2008). According to the press release, "The history of Wall Street is a series of speculative ups and crashing downs. The panel will explore the cyclical nature of New York’s economic history through dramatic events and reappearing themes, and extract lessons for the present and the future."    The session will begin at 6...

A conference on "Immigration and Entrepreneurship" will be held on September 13-14, 2012, jointly sponsored by the German Historical Institute in Washington, D.C., and the Center for the History of the New America and the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute , both at the University of Maryland, College Park. The September 13 sessions will be held at the GHI, the September 14 sessions at the University of Maryland. The preliminary program has now been posted. Participants include Hartmut Berghoff, David Sicilia, Dan Wadhwani, W. Bernard Carlson, Hasia Diner, Andrew Godley, David Kirsch, and Will Hausman.     Additional details will be posted on the conference website as they become available.

The German Historical Institute, Washington D.C. (GHI) announces the on-line launch of “Immigrant Entrepreneurship: German-American Business Biographies, 1720 to the Present.” The project offers a collection of essays on first- and second-generation German-American immigrant entrepreneurs from John Peter Zenger and Adolphus Busch to Carl Laemmle and Lillian Vernon, as well as contextual essays on topics such as the 1848 revolutions and the impact of Prohibition that provide further background on the history of German-American entrepreneurship. A variety of photographs, media clips, and business documents are used to illustrate the essays. Other components of the project will include bibliographies for further research and suggestions for using the "Immigrant Entrepreneurship" website in the classroom.    The project has identified more than 200 potential candidates for biographical essays, and the GHI continues to commission new essays for publication. A ful...

Earlier this month, the Bank of England Archive placed the catalogue for most of its holdings on-line. The site includes various search options, instructions, and links to a name search that provides biographies of key actors. The Bank of England Archive contains over 80,000 ledgers, files, and individual records relating to all aspects of the history of the Bank and its work, dating from its foundation in 1694 to the present. As the Archives website explains: The Bank's records are of prime importance to economic historians, but our holdings are also of interest to social, local, and business historians, architectural specialists, biographers and genealogists. In addition to long series of customer account and stock ledgers, our records include branch records, architectural plans and drawings, staff records, diaries and papers of members of staff, records from the Bank's solicitors which include case files on forgery and prisoners' correspondence, and modern files de...

The theme for the XVIth World Economic History Congress in South Africa is "The Roots of Development."  The five-day congress will comprise more than 150 sessions, with over 950 speakers; each day is divided into four time blocks of 90 minutes each (two before and two after lunch). A number of plenary sessions, in which keynote speakers will address all the delegates, are also scheduled. Confirmed speakers include the South African Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan, Deirdre McCloskey, James Robinson, and Gareth Austin.    The mammoth program lists several sessions featuring BHC regulars, including "Varieties of Capitalism: Theory and Historical Evidence of Institutional Change during the 20th Century," "Transportation and Institutional Change in Global Perspective," "The International Networks Forged by the Insurance Industry since the End of the 18th Century," "Business Groups in a Historical and...

The twelfth annual conference of the Program in Early American Economy and Society (PEAES) of the Library Company of Philadelphia , co-sponsored with the Rothschild Archive , London, will be held Thursday and Friday, October 11-12, 2012. The theme is "Foreign Confidence: International Investment in North America, 1700 to 1860." The keynote address will be given by Emma Rothschild of Harvard University, followed by a number of papers that explore "how foreign networks of individuals and institutions provided funds, credit, and knowledge to North Americans during a heady period of transnational investment and development." Papers will also highlight the rich resources abroad for doing future research on these themes. The program is now available.    For information about the goals of this conference, speakers, and accommodations, please visit the PEAES "Foreign Confidence" website .    There is no registration fee, but in order to receive the pre-circ...

The 16th Biennial Conference on Historical Analysis and Research in Marketing (CHARM) will be held May 30–June 2, 2013, in Copenhagen, hosted by Copenhagen Business School. The theme of the meeting will be "Varieties, Alternatives, and Deviations in Marketing History." To celebrate its 30th anniversary, CHARM invites "business, marketing, social science, and humanities scholars from all backgrounds to join us in Copenhagen for a friendly, collegial, and interdisciplinary research conference. In celebrating three decades of marketing historical research at CHARM, we call on scholars from around the globe to cast a critical look back into marketing’s past and forward into its future."    Doctoral students with a particular interest in research methods in marketing history and marketing theory are invited to attend a two-day workshop that will immediately precede the conference. There will also be a special track for the presentation of doctoral projects at the con...

The 2013 Asia-Pacific Economic and Business History (APEBH) Conference will meet at Seoul National University in Seoul, South Korea, on February 14-16. The meeting is being organized by the Korean Economic History Society in cooperation with the Institute of Economic Research (Seoul National University) and the Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand . Proposals for papers and sessions are invited for the APEBH 2013 conference. The main theme is "Markets, Institutions and People in Economic Crisis and Recovery," but the organizers are open to proposals for contributions on other topics in economic, social, and business history, as well as proposals for sessions on particular themes. Researchers across a broad range of disciplines are warmly welcomed. Early career researchers are encouraged to participate. The conference organizers are particularly interested in attracting papers that examine developments in countries and areas in the Asia-Pacific region and...

The June 2012 issue of the Journal of American History is a special issue on "Oil in American History." According to the editors, Titusville, Pa., 1860s The goal of the contributors to this special issue . . . is not only to provide new analyses of traditional oil subjects, such as business, technology, and foreign policy, but also to explore novel themes, such as the social and cultural aspects of oil consumption, the environmental politics and impact of oil development, oil’s relationship to evangelical Christianity, oil and urbanization, labor organizing and government taxation of oil, and the depiction of oil in print, television, and film.    Business historians contributing to the issue include Joseph Pratt, Tyler Priest, and Diana Davids Hinton. Oxford University Press, which now produces the journal, has made the contents of this issue freely available on its JAH website .    The JAH has also created a companion website for the special issue that i...

The Business History Initiative at Harvard Business School announces a conference, to be held at HBS on June 28, 2012, on "Business History: Incorporating New Research into Course Development." The conference web page includes information about the schedule, participants, lodging, and an on-line registration form. The conference aims to address the following questions: What are the challenges and opportunities of teaching business history? What are innovative ways of the teaching the subject? What are important new cases, textbooks, videos, or electronic resources? How can new research in finance, emerging markets, and leadership be incorporated into business history courses? What are the core requirements of a doctoral program in business history?