<p>Another week and another Angry Planet about the horrifying systems that rule our lives.</p><br><p>Is there a depressive theme running through the work right now? Possibly. I promise we’ll soon replace it with rage.</p><br><p>This week on the show we have Sven Beckert to talk about his new book <em>Capitalism: A Global History</em>. Beckert is a professor of history at Harvard and his tome is an attempt to capture the entire history of an economic system in one book. It’s a doorstop, but it’s also readable and clear-eyed. Some come with me on a journey that runs through the plantations of South Carolina to the tech markets of Shenzhen.</p><p><br></p><ul><li>Cotton as an entry point to the history of capitalism</li><li>The economic big bang</li><li>Industrial Revolution as mutation</li><li>“It’s still being born.”</li><li>Human data is oil to be fracked</li><li>The Quaker Oats metaphor</li><li>“The market is God.”</li><li>Ascribing morality to economics</li><li>When Gary Hart ushered in Neoliberalism</li><li>“Capitalism is a series of regime changes.”</li><li>Moments of great change offer opportunities</li></ul><p><br></p><p><a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/capitalism-a-global-history-sven-beckert/a8c65a49e75babdf?ean=9780735220836&amp;next=t" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Capitalism: A Global History</a></p><br><p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/04/opinion/davos-neoliberalism-trump-tariffs.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Old Order Is Dead. Do Not Resuscitate.</a></p><p>Support this show <a target="_blank" rel="payment" href="http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege">http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege</a>.</p><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>