Histories of Racial Capitalism, Destin Jenkins
Histories of Racial Capitalism, Destin Jenkins
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Histories of Racial Capitalism

Author: Destin Jenkins, Justin Leroy

Narrator: Janina Edwards, Jaime Lincoln Smith

Unabridged: 9 hr 4 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/18/2023


Synopsis

The relationship between race and capitalism is one of the most enduring and controversial historical debates. The concept of racial capitalism offers a way out of this impasse. Racial capitalism is not simply a permutation, phase, or stage in the larger history of capitalism—since the beginning of the Atlantic slave trade and the colonization of the Americas, capitalism, in both material and ideological senses, has been racial, deriving social and economic value from racial classification and stratification. Although Cedric J. Robinson popularized the term, racial capitalism has remained undertheorized for nearly four decades. Histories of Racial Capitalism brings together for the first time distinguished and rising scholars to consider the utility of the concept across historical settings. These scholars offer dynamic accounts of the relationship between social relations of exploitation and the racial terms through which they were organized, justified, and contested. Throughout, the contributors consider and challenge how some claims about the history and nature of capitalism are universalized while others remain marginalized. By theorizing and testing the concept of racial capitalism in different historical circumstances, this book shows its analytical and political power for today's scholars and activists.

Author Bio

Destin Jenkins is the Neubauer Family Assistant Professor of history at the University of Chicago. He is the author of The Bonds of Inequality: Debt and the Making of the American City (2021).

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