The History Onion

In this episode, we cover the history and return of the economic ideology known as mercantilism, an ideology that is once again taking center stage in American and global politics. We begin with a discussion of the resurgence of mercantilism, embodied prominently in Donald Trump’s tariff policies. Then we look back to the origins of mercantilism in the 16th and 17th centuries, at the same time that capitalism began its rise to dominance. We trace the development of mercantilist thought following the Smithian challenge/critique and end back in the present to wrap up the episode.

Show Notes

The core book for this episode is A History of Economic Thought by Isaac Rubin.

“We Are All Mercantilists Now,” by Greg Jensen

Pre-election interview with Trump on tariffs

Eric Helleiner talk on neomercantilism

The Neomercantilists: A Global Intellectual History, by Eric Helleiner

Radical Hamilton: Economic Lessons from a Misunderstood Founder, by Christian Parenti

From Le Monde: 'Trump's return to the White House consecrates the rebirth of the original form of capitalism'

Kicking Away the Ladder: Development Strategy in Historical Perspective, by Ha-Joon Chang

Credits

Theme music by our youngest brother Tate.

Cover art by Arthur Santoro.

Editing by Martin Fischer.

Nationalism is a dirty word, but maybe it doesn’t have to be—at least, that’s what acclaimed historian Jill Lepore argues in This America (2019). In this episode, we break down Lepore’s passionate “case for the nation” and her argument that we can, in fact, create a liberal nationalism.

If you liked our discussion of Richard Rorty’s Achieving Our Country, we build on that conversation and consider which perspective holds more value for progressive activists, historians, and thinkers.

Show Notes

Read Daniel Immerwahr’s critique of Lepore in The Nation here.

Read Mary Church Terrell’s speech,“What It Means to Be Colored in the Capital of the United States,” here.

Credits

Theme music by our youngest brother Tate.

Cover art by Arthur Santoro.

Editing by Martin Fischer.

Audio production by Nate Nakshian Ward.

In this episode, we discuss the philosopher G.A. Cohen’s book Why Not Socialism?, published in 2009. We talk about his case for socialism, the arguments for and against market socialism, and what we think socialism could look like.

Credits

Theme music by our youngest brother Tate.

Cover art by Arthur Santoro.

Editing by Martin Fischer.

Audio production by Nate Nakshian Ward.

In this episode, we take a look back at the Biden administration and what its economic legacy will be. The administration got off to a remarkable and surprisingly progressive start with a nearly $2 trillion stimulus package in early 2021 that sent the US economy rocketing towards full employment and a strong recovery from the Covid downturn. It then turned its attention towards expanding social spending and tackling climate change, doing a sort of mini Green New Deal, with legislation that came to be known as Build Back Better. This was killed in late 2021 by conservative Democrat Joe Manchin.

What emerged from the ashes was a nationalistic industrial policy that has both re-shored manufacturing jobs and ratcheted up tensions with China. It promises to fight climate change through tax incentives for green industry and tariffs on Chinese goods. We have some concerns about this change in the Democrats’ policy orientation, and we dive into them on the pod.

Show Notes

Biden walking off into the Amazon rainforest

Kate Aronoff: “Why Bidenomics Failed to Win the White Working Class”

Adam Tooze: “Great Power Politics”

Andrew Elrod: “What Was Bidenomics?”

Conor’s 2023 piece for Current Affairs about the progressive side of Bidenomics

Jake Sullivan: “The New Old Democrats”

David Brooks: “Maybe Bernie Sanders Is Right”

New Yorker piece on Bidenomics: “Bidenomics Is Starting to Transform America. Why Has No One Noticed?”

Credits

The podcast’s theme music was made by our youngest brother Tate.

Cover art by Arthur Santoro.

In this episode, we discuss Susan Dunn’s book Roosevelt’s Purge: How FDR Fought to Change the Democratic Party. The book details the fascinating historical episode of the 1938 midterms, during which FDR decided to intervene directly in Democratic primaries against conservative Democrats. Roosevelt’s express goal was to tranform the Democratic Party into a solidly liberal party, leaving the Republican Party as the conservative party. In other words, he aimed for the sort of realignment and polarization that would only truly occur decades later. Through this under-reported bit of New Deal era history, we see the lengths to which Roosevelt was willing to go in his fight for liberalism, a marked contrast with the Democratic leaders of recent decades.

Show Notes

Note: This episode was recorded several months back, before Biden had dropped out of the presidential race.

From UVA’s Miller Center: “June 24, 1938: Fireside Chat 13: On Purging the Democratic Party”

Southern culture of honor paper

Clips of Bill Burr on Bill Maher’s podcast

Credits

The podcast’s theme music was made by our youngest brother Tate.

Cover art by Arthur Santoro.

Well, the election results are out. Kamala Harris has lost. Donald Trump will return to the White House as the 47th president of the United States. In this episode, we break down the results and give our initial reaction, with a focus on the strategic takeaways for Democrats.

Show Notes

NYT: Election Results

Data analysis by John Burn-Murdoch at the Financial Times:

* What is the point of polling?

* Democrats join 2024’s graveyard of incumbents

NYT:

* See the Voting Groups That Swung to the Right in the 2024 Vote

* Harris Had a Wall Street-Approved Economic Pitch. It Fell Flat.

Jacobin: If Harris Loses Today, This Is Why  

Gabriel Winant’s excellent essay: Exit Right

Matt Karp election reaction in Jacobin: It’s Happening Again

Washington Post: Voters prefer Harris’s agenda to Trump’s — they just don’t realize it. Take our quiz.

Polling showing swing state voters care above all about inflation and immigration

Class dealignment:

Voter insanity about inflation:

Detachment from reality on the right:

Autor, Dube, and McGrew on gains for low-wage workers in recent years: The Unexpected Compression: Competition at Work in the Low Wage Labor Market

Credits

The podcast’s theme music was made by our youngest brother Tate.

Cover art by Arthur Santoro.

In honor of the upcoming election on Tuesday, November 5th, we’ve decided to record an election special, breaking down the historical importance of this election, what’s at stake, and how the candidates are approaching the battle for votes. We end with a discussion of the left’s concern about Kamala Harris on the issue of Gaza.

Note: Unfortunately, my (Conor’s) microphone got disconnected about two-thirds of the way into the ep, so there’s a weird shift in the sound at that point. Doesn’t make it difficult to listen but the quality of the sound is a bit worse.

Show Notes

From the New York Times: Nate Silver: Here’s What My Gut Says About the Election, but Don’t Trust Anyone’s Gut, Even Mine

538 Election Forecast

Polymarket Presidential Election Forecast

Bloomberg with some notes of caution regarding the Polymarket forecast

From Gallup: Economy Most Important Issue to 2024 Presidential Vote

From the Financial Times: The data says the US economy is strong. Swing-state voters disagree

From FT: Donald Trump takes lead over Kamala Harris on US economy in final FT poll

Jamelle Bouie on Trump’s deportation proposal: Trump’s Taste for Tyranny Finds a Target

Information on what could happen to reproductive rights if Trump wins: How the Country’s Understanding of Abortion Could Change if Trump Wins

From the Peterson Institute for International Economics: How much would Trump's plans for deportations, tariffs, and the Fed damage the US economy?

From the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy: A Distributional Analysis of Donald Trump’s Tax Plan

Paul Krugman on Trump’s tariff proposals: How Trump’s Radical Tariff Plan Could Wreck Our Economy

From the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget: The Fiscal Impact of the Harris and Trump Campaign Plans

Paul Krugman on Trump creating economic shocks and more inflation: Why Trumponomics Could Lead to Trumpflation

The Financial Times on Harris’s shift right on economics: Who Would Run Kamala Harris’s Economy?

CNBC on Tim Walz’s success as governor of Minnesota: How Tim Walz made Minnesota a 'roadmap' for progressive economic policy

Ryan Cooper on Tim Walz’s success as governor: The New Minnesota Vikings

Tim Walz on Twitter: “Right now, Minnesota is showing the country you don't win elections to bank political capital – you win elections to burn political capital and improve lives.”

From Axios: The Harris-Walz media strategy: Hide from the press

From the Guardian: To win, Harris should talk more about working-class needs and less about Trump

From Twitter: Problem with how the Democrats view public opinion

From Haaretz: Harris Says Gaza Death Toll 'Unconscionable' as Trump Vows to 'Do a Lot for Israel'

Credits

The podcast’s theme music was made by our youngest brother Tate.

Cover art by Arthur Santoro.

In this episode, we cover the history and development of the Republican Party, drawing on the story told in the book The Republican Evolution: From Governing Party to Antigovernment Party, 1860–2020, by the political scientist Kenneth Janda. In essence, we shine light on the reverse Zuko arc of the party: from a party fighting valiantly for justice at its founding to a reactionary party trying to turn back the clock. How did this happen? Give the ep a listen.

Show Notes

Per the New York Times: “How Joe Biden Became the Democrats’ Anti-Busing Crusader”

Chart and maps from book:

Note: We mention an ep that is as of yet unpublished on the book Roosevelt’s Purge, by Susan Dunn. That episode will probably be published in late November.

Credits

The podcast’s theme music was made by our youngest brother Tate.

Cover art by Arthur Santoro.

In this episode, we talk about a recent book by Daniel Ziblatt and Steven Levitsky, both professors of political science at Harvard, titled Tyranny of the Minority. Ziblatt and Levitsky make a strong argument that the US Constitution has excessively constrained American democracy, and that its counter-majoritarian measures now make the US an outlier in how anti-democratic it is compared to other rich democracies. As they discuss, the threat posed by the Constitution has become much more evident in recent decades as Republicans have radicalized and repeatedly ridden to power as a result of a prominent counter-majoritarian aspect of the Constitution: the Electoral College. Now, they argue, the counter-majoritarianism of the Constitution has become a boon to far right extremists, helping maintain the power of an ethnonationalist Republican party even as that party fails to appeal to a majority of the US population. The time, therefore, is ripe for constitutional reform.

Show Notes

Jamelle Bouie on Trump’s tyrannical deportation proposal: “Trump’s Taste for Tyranny Finds a Target”

Charlie Kirk video: “Liberal College Student ATTEMPTS to Outsmart Charlie Kirk 👀”

Note: We mention an ep that is as of yet unpublished on the book Roosevelt’s Purge, by Susan Dunn. That episode will probably be published in late November.

Credits

The podcast’s theme music was made by our youngest brother Tate.

Cover art by Arthur Santoro.

In this episode, we cover a popular book from a few years back about the transformation of the modern Democratic Party from a party of the working class to one of the professional class. It’s called Listen, Liberal, and its author is Thomas Frank, a progressive journalist we’ve discussed previously on the podcast in our episodes on the paranoid style and the pessimistic style in American politics. Both of us (Aidan and Conor) read this book during college, and it had a significant impact on how we viewed the Democratic party. We now revisit it with fresh eyes and more knowledge.

Show Notes

CBS quoting Obama in 2013: “Income inequality ‘the defining challenge of our time’”

Death of the Liberal Class, by Chris Hedges

2019 Dissent piece on the origins of the term “professional-managerial class”

Original 1977 essay by the Ehrenreichs where they coined the term “professional-managerial class”

Wikipedia entry on the McGovern-Fraser Commission

New Republic piece “What Democrats Still Don’t Get About George McGovern”

Changing Sources of Power, by Frederick Dutton

Walter Mondale the deficit hawk

Interesting data showing significant support for progressives among tech workers

John Halle’s review of Listen, Liberal

Beverly Gage’s review of Listen, Liberal

Useful piece from the Nation: “The Past and Future of the Left in the Democratic Party”

Joe Biden calling Obama “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy”

Chris Hedges on Intercepted in 2018: “That whole ‘Law and Order’ issue was seized by Biden and Clinton as they transformed the Democratic Party into the Republican Party and pushed the Republican Party so far to the right it became insane.”

Ryan Cooper on Tim Walz’s record

Tim Walz: “Right now, Minnesota is showing the country you don't win elections to bank political capital – you win elections to burn political capital and improve lives.”

Credits

The podcast’s theme music was made by our youngest brother Tate.

Cover art by Arthur Santoro.