From the Gelber Prize Jury Sven Beckert paints a sweeping picture of global capitalism which, he argues, begins much earlier than is conventionally assumed. Capitalism, from its earliest origins, he argues, was global in its origins and its structures. Beckert traces its path through history as it evolves and transforms its processes to the present…
DetailsFrom the Gelber Prize Jury The House of Huawei is a history of a company, at times a biography of its founder, Ren Zhengfei, and, at the same time, the story of contemporary China. Eva Dou deftly weaves together the history of telecommunications technology with domestic and global politics, taking readers inside decision-making in Beijing,…
DetailsFrom the Gelber Prize Jury In a grand sweep of history, Carl Benedikt Frey explores both the rise and fall of innovation and progress over the last 1000 years. Frey focuses on how rapid growth and innovation frequently stall when societies fail to adapt to technological change. He identifies the key tension between the freedom…
DetailsFrom the Gelber Prize Jury The attack by the United States and Israel on Iran and the assassination of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei are rooted in the failure to predict and understand the revolution of 1979. Scott Anderson tells a gripping story of how leaders in Washington and Tehran misunderstood, misjudged, and failed to communicate with…
DetailsBeginning in the 1960s, the Soviet Union was unexpectedly confronted by a dissident movement that captured the world’s imagination. Demanding that the Kremlin obey its own laws, an improbable band of Soviet citizens held unauthorized public gatherings, petitioned in support of arrested intellectuals, and circulated banned samizdat texts. Soviet authorities arrested dissidents, subjected them to…
DetailsWhen the Second World War broke out in 1939, it set in motion a deadly struggle between the Axis powers and the Allies, but also fraught negotiations between and among the Allies. On questions of diplomacy, economic policy, industrial might, military capabilities, and even national sovereignty, thousands of lives and the fate of the free…
DetailsWhen the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, its message was clear: Iraq, under the control of strongman Saddam Hussein, possessed weapons of mass destruction that, if left unchecked, posed grave danger to the world. But when no WMDs were found, the United States and its allies were forced to examine the political and intelligence…
DetailsThe dominance of US multinational businesses today can seem at first like an inevitable byproduct of the nation’s superpower status. In Dollars and Dominion, Mary Bridges tells a different origin story. She explores the ramshackle beginnings of US financial power overseas, showing that US bankers in the early twentieth century depended on the US government, European…
DetailsA deeply researched investigation that reveals how the United States is like a spider at the heart of an international web of surveillance and control, which it weaves in the form of globe-spanning networks such as fiber optic cables and obscure payment systems. America’s security state first started to weaponize these channels after 9/11, when…
DetailsA thousand years of history and contemporary evidence make one thing clear: progress depends on the choices we make about technology. New ways of organizing production and communication can either serve the narrow interests of an elite or become the foundation for widespread prosperity. The wealth generated by technological improvements in agriculture during the European…
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