45:19 minutes
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May 17, 2026
#40 Capitalism, Uncovered
The Hidden History of Capitalism You’ve Never Heard with Sven Beckert
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About The Speaker
Sven Beckert is Laird Bell Professor of History at Harvard University. Beckert’s research and teaching center on the history of the United States in the nineteenth century, with a particular emphasis on the history of capitalism, including its economic, social, political and global dimensions.
Beckert teaches courses on the political economy of modern capitalism, the history of American capitalism, Gilded Age America, labor history, global capitalism and the history of European capitalism. Together with a group of students he has written on the historical connections between Harvard and slavery and published Harvard and Slavery: Seeking a Forgotten History.
Currently he is at work on a history of capitalism.
Beckert is co-chair of the Program on the Study of Capitalism at Harvard University , co-chair of the Weatherhead Initiative on Global History (WIGH) and co-editor of a series of books at Princeton University Press on “America in the World.”
Beckert’s work has been supported by the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Humboldt Foundation, the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies, and the New York Public Library’s Center for Scholars and Writers, among others. He has lectured all over the world.
Episode Description
In this episode of the Business and Society Podcast, Senthil speaks with Sven Beckert about his sweeping new book, Capitalism: A Global History. Spanning nearly a millennium, the conversation challenges conventional narratives of capitalism as a purely Western or modern phenomenon. Beckert traces its origins to early global merchant networks—from the Arabian Peninsula to South Asia—and explains how capitalism was “born global,” long before the term globalization entered modern discourse. Together, they unpack how capitalism evolved from small “islands of capital” into a dominant global system, shaped not just by markets but through deep entanglements with state power, empire, and the transformation of the countryside through commodities like cotton and sugar.
The episode also confronts capitalism’s more difficult histories, including slavery and exploitation, while acknowledging its role in driving unprecedented economic growth, technological progress, and social mobility. Beckert emphasizes that capitalism is not a fixed system but an adaptive, undogmatic one—capable of both profound harm and meaningful reform. Looking ahead, the conversation turns to the future: how societies might better distribute the gains of growth, address inequality, and navigate environmental limits. Ultimately, this episode invites listeners to see capitalism not as inevitable, but as a human-made system—one whose next chapter can still be shaped through informed choices and collective action.
Additional inspirations from Sven Beckert
https://www.svenbeckert.com/
