Session 10: “Capitalism in Action,” taught by Dr. Jürgen Buchenau
July 28 and 30; August 4 and 6
10am – 12pm

A discussion of four important topics in the long and varied global history of capitalism. The first class examines the origins of capitalism in the early modern era (c. 1500-1800).  The second discussion will introduce students to the rise of industrial capitalism and corporations in the nineteenth century.  The third class will feature a discussion of the Great Depression as an example of boom and bust cycles in the twentieth-century capitalist economy, and the final class will present the students with an opportunity to talk about current trends, including financialization, the rise and decline of neoliberalism, and the role of new digital technologies.

In all, attendees will get a good grasp of the major conceptual tools to understand capitalist economies and how they evolved over time. The instructor will provide students with short reading assignments to help prepare them for the classes.

Meet your instructor: Jürgen Buchenau is the Dowd Term Chair of Capitalism Studies and Professor of History and Latin American Studies at UNC Charlotte. He received his Ph.D. from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1993 and has taught at UNC Charlotte since 1999, serving as the founding Director of Latin American Studies, the long-term chair of the Department of History, and the director of the Capitalism Studies program. Buchenau has authored and edited thirteen books, including Plutarco Elías Calles and the Mexican Revolution (2007), winner of the Alfred B. Thomas Book Award of the Southeastern Council of Latin American Studies, Mexico’s Once and Future Revolution: Social Upheaval and the Challenge of Rule since the Late Nineteenth Century (2013, with Gilbert M. Joseph), The Sonoran Dynasty in Mexico: Revolution, Reforms, and Repression (2023); and The United States and Mexico: Unequal Neighbors. Buchenau is the editor of the “Americas in the World” book series at the University of New Mexico Press and the editor-in-chief of The Latin Americanist.  His research has been funded by the National Endowment of the Humanities and the American Philosophical Society.