The Past Speaks

My central research interest is the history of capitalism. In the last few years, there has been a resurgence in interest in capitalism in US history departments. (The New York Times recently did a piece on the New Business History).  Judging from the program of this year’s Canadian Historical Association conference, it appears that something similar may be going on in Canadian universities.

There is a panel on Histories of Capitalism / Histoires du capitalisme

Facilitator/ Animateur : J. Andrew Ross (Guelph)

Don Nerbas (Cape Breton): Politics from Above: Big Business, the State, and Canadian Democracy

Kurt Korneski (Memorial): Development and Diplomacy: The Lobster Controversy on  Newfoundland’s French Shore, 1890-1904.

Daniel Simeone (McGill): Acts of Bankruptcy: The Bankrupt Trader of mid-19th century Montreal

Moreover, there are some papers in other sessions that deal with the history of capitalism. They include:

Derek Murray (UVic): “Envisioning a Rural Landscape: Settlers, Bureaucrats, and Land in Nineteenth-Century Ontario”

Marc-André Gagnon (Guelph): “Harmoniser le Travail et le Capital: retour sur  l’expérience des Chevaliers du travail montréalais en politique fédérale, 1885-1896”

Gene Allen (Ryerson): “An “unyielding, uncompromising attitude”: Breaking the Guild at  Canadian Press, 1950-53”

James Opp (Carleton): “History as Image: The Hudson’s Bay Company, Modern Marketing, and the Visual Past”

Unfortunately, I’m not going to be able to attend the CHA this year.  However, I hope to read these papers when they are published.