How Capitalism Got Its Name 
It was not until the late nineteenth century that the word “capitalism” acquired the meaning it has for us today.
Winter 2026
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How Capitalism Got Its Name
Between Israel and Social Democracy: Tony Judt’s Jewishness
Beyond Zionism and its discontents, Tony Judt’s Jewishness was a vibrant companion of the historian’s aspiring cosmopolitanism.
Our Declaration
Contemporary American leftists do not, as a rule, think kindly about the history of the nation they inhabit. Centuries of slavery, the bloody conquest of Indian and Mexican lands, and two long imperial wars in East Asia sullied, if not …
The Microhistorian
The Mansion of Happiness: A History of Life and Death by Jill Lepore Knopf, 2012, 304 pp. The Story of America: Essays on Origins by Jill Lepore Princeton University Press, 2012, 420 pp. In high school, Jill Lepore—now an Americanist …
50 Years After Hiroshima
Though I have argued for many years that the American use of atomic bombs against Japanese cities was wrong, I do not find myself much engaged by one of the questions it raises: should U.S. leaders apologize now to the …
50 Years After Hiroshima
“I would have dropped the bomb to save even one American life,” a fellow scholar argued at a conference. The comment stunned me into silence. In fact, I did not fully comprehend it until I returned to my hotel. Was …
