The Exchange

Join us at noon on Friday, 23 October 2020 for a special digital version of the Inquire Capitalism’s Research in Progress Luncheon Seminar (lunch not required)  Never Enough: The Evolution of U.S. Defense Contractor Policy, 1950s-2010s Dr. Mark Wilson, University of North Carolina, Charlotte In the decades after World War II U.S. military authorities believed, as did many corporate executives, that as the defense sector became more privatized, profit margins needed to rise, to attract sufficient private investment into the defense sector. Defense officials were attempting to navigate a challenging problem in Cold War political economy: how to compete with the Soviet Union (which could command huge public investments in defense without any regard to profit), while relying substantially, and increasingly, on for-profit firms and profit-seeking investors.  It was often a quixotic project, stymied by unanticipated events and unintended consequences, including contractors’ inabilit...

  Call for Papers AHA 2022 in New Orleans Deadline: February 15th, 2021 More about the AHA meetings here: https://www.historians.org/aha22

H. Krooss Prize for Best Dissertation in Business History  Deadline: November 14, 2020 https://thebhc.org/krooss This prize consists of a $500 award (endowed) and a plaque. Only dissertations written in English will be considered. The Secretary-Treasurer will post notices about the prize in suitable newsletters, journals, guides, electronic media, and in the BHC's call for conference papers. Any dissertation in business history completed in the three calendar years immediately prior to the annual meeting can be nominated or considered, but may be submitted only once for the committee's consideration. The deadline for proposals for the Krooss prize is November 14, 2020. Nominations (or self-nominations) are to consist of a cover letter, the dissertation abstract, and the author's c.v. and are to be uploaded using this form: krooss-prize-nomination . The prize committee is to consist of three members, one of whom will be the chair. Each member serves a three-year term, rotati...

NEW BOOKS IN BUSINESS HISTORY SUMMER 2020 Coffeeland: One Man’s Dark Empire and the Making of Our Favo rite Drug , by Augustine Sedgewick. An audio sample is available here , and an interview with the author in the podcast show Who Makes Cents is available here . How the Suburbs Were Segregated: Developers and the Business of Exclusionary Housing, 1890-1960 , by Paige Glotzer. For an interview with the author in the podcast show Who Makes Cents click here . William Quinn's and John D. Turner's Boom and Bust: A Global History of Financial Bubbles came out in August 2020. The TOC is available here .    Forging Global Fordism: Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, and the Contest over the Industrial Order by Stefan J. Link.  Nate Holdren's Injury Impoverished: Workplace Accidents, Capitalism, and Law in the Progressive Era came out in April of 2020. For a TOC visit this link . There is more information and discussion on the book  The Labor and Working-Class History Association b...

[A message from BHC President Neil Rollings] The BHC 2021 annual meeting will be a virtual meeting The call for papers is being revised in line with this and the new deadline for the submission of proposals is   14 November 2020 .   Dear BHC members    I hope you are all well and I apologise for the length of this email but I believe it is necessary.    Thank you to all of you who made the effort to complete the member survey about the 2021 conference . With 139 responses it gave us a clear insight into the attitudes of the membership which gave us confidence to decide how to proceed. For anyone interested the summary results from the survey can be found at   https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1M0JS2QfhOd0jVoBlsbRsi-361rF6Kj9UNJUZditTh9Y/edit?usp=sharing . Thank you also to those who engaged in email correspondence associated with the survey.    In the light of the responses the Program Committee recommended to the BHC trustees, who agreed, that...

Virtual Roundtable— "Making Money American: The Monetary Regimes of the New United States" Thursday, October 1, 2020, 11:00 am-1:00 pm Register here The Rhodes Center for International Economics and Finance at Brown University is pleased to announce a virtual roundtable on new directions in the history of money in the Early Republic United States. This event will take place on Thursday, October 1 from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm eastern. The roundtable will address the history of money as an emerging interdisciplinary field; explore emerging conversations at the intersection of history, law, economics, and political economy; and consider how the distinctive monetary regime of the new United States broadens our understanding of money as a historical project. Panelists include: Christine Desan, Harvard University Jane Knodell, University of Vermont Jeffrey Sklansky, University of Illinois at Chicago Although this event is open to the public, registration is required. You can sign up an...

Call for Applications Secretary of the Business History Conference As a result of the recent amendments to the Business History Conference Bylaws, the BHC has decided to split the roles of Secretary and Treasurer. The Secretary, like the Secretary-Treasurer before this year’s bylaw amendments, and the Treasurer going forward, will be elected by the members after endorsement by the Trustees. The Secretary is eligible for re-election to additional four-year terms of service.  The BHC now requests applications for this important position in our scholarly society.  As the job description below indicates, the BHC Secretary performs several crucial roles.  The candidate must be a facilitator of effective committee work, a repository of institutional memory, a partner to BHC presidents in achieving their priorities, a conductor of BHC elections, a resource about the requirements of the BHC bylaws, and a key participant in discussions about the BHC’s strategic direction. Timing, ...