Ellen Hartigan-O’Connor is a historian whose new book Under the Hammer is the first to document how auctions in early America, for everything from sacks of sugar to enslaved people and Indigenous land, shaped the way we buy and sell everything today.

On this week's episode of Minds Over Matters, Hartigan-O’Connor talks about how auctions came to define how we buy and sell goods. She explains how auctions were as much a social as an economic activity, where people could buy and be seen buying goods. The echoes of this American adoption of auctions continue to resonate today.

Read more about her work:

• UC Davis: How Auctions Shaped Buying, Value and What Can Be Owned in Early America