RIP to a truly unique and inspiring intellectual
27.02.2026 03:53
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RIP to a truly unique and inspiring intellectual
"We're leveling Gaza to build hotels"
"We're bombing Nigeria to please our base"
"We're invading Venezuela for oil"
Of course, these have long been unspoken factors in US wars. But Trump's honesty is no more comforting than his predecessors' lies. Waking up in this empire still sickens the stomach.
Article Announcement
Title: "“Billionaires” and Capitalist Development in World-Historical Perspective: Introducing the World-Magnates Data Set, 1450–1914"
Authors: Roberto Patricio Korzeniewicz & Corey R. Payne
Journal: Sociology of Development
Link: online.ucpress.edu/socdev/artic...
My "Making America's Wars" class today read @attackerman.bsky.social on Trump, & then examined "Salaam," a song written by a rapper named @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social. They discussed how the War on Terror certainly drove nativism, but also how it might now drive an alternative universalist politics.
"As Trump prepares an assault on a South American field of resource extraction and deploys federal forces to terrorize American cities, Cheney can eternally look up from his well-earned spot in the afterlife at the fruits of his labor." @attackerman.bsky.social www.thenation.com/article/poli...
All day, many of you have been asking for a Cheney obituary from me. Get ready:
From the Costs of War Project
Cheney lived the long and comfortable life that was stolen from his many victims. And yet the real injustice is that he didn't live long enough to see the inside of a cell in the Hague.
"When history is written as it ought to be written, it is the moderation and long patience of the masses at which men will wonder, not their ferocity." - CLR James, "The Black Jacobins"
“The Purdue student newspaper owns its own presses” is the sound of engines revving
Over 2 million people across Italy have rallied in more than 100 cities for a one-day general strike.
Timely new research from my colleague Bailey Troia on cops at Pride. Give it a read!
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
On a more granular level, the activities which propelled world-magnates to extraordinary wealth and power were often eclectic, and involved various institutional forms and labor arrangements. Contra some expectations, free wage labor was not a prerequisite of innovation or extraordinary profits.
Historically, manufacturing was a minor sector for world-magnates and, even as it boomed in the 19th century, other sectors such as extraction grew as well. Meanwhile trade and finance—capital's most flexible forms—were major areas of extraordinary accumulation across time.
The geographical distribution of world-magnates over time follows some expectations, but with some interesting new insights. For example, we find the Low Countries were far less dominant in the 17th century than we expected.
The data help us rethink key debates about capitalism's historical forms & geographies, and demonstrate that many contemporary trends have historical precedents.
For those who want the quick skim, here are a few key findings.
Long-term studies of capitalist development tend to be limited by data availability, and existing data often reproduce faulty assumptions that can cloud our analysis. As we explain in the article, this new dataset helps overcome these challenges: www.researchgate.net/publication/...
For almost a decade, we've been compiling a dataset of what we call "world-magnates"—the historical analogs of today's billionaires, who have operated in what Braudel termed the "top layer" of economic life. Studying these individuals offers many insights into capitalism's historical development.
How can billionaires help us understand global capitalism?
Since 1982, Forbes has been making a billionaires list to track capitalism's changing industries, geographies, & inequalities.
Patricio Korzeniewicz & I are releasing a new dataset that allows us to do the same back to the 15th century 👇
There's a lot more in the article, and there's a lot more that can be done with the data that we haven't got around to yet.
Check it out, explore the public version of the data, and please reach out with ideas & suggestions as we continue this work!
www.researchgate.net/publication/...
all faculty and eligible university workers should pile into AAUP
Excerpt from Rutgers University Senate resolution calling for a Mutual Academic Defense Compact. The excerpt reads: "BE IT RESOLVED THAT, the Rutgers University Senate urges the President of Rutgers University to formally propose and help establish a Mutual Academic Defense Compact (MADC) among all members of the Big Ten Academic Alliance; BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT, under this compact, all participating institutions shall commit meaningful funding to a shared or distributed defense fund. This fund shall be used to provide immediate and strategic support to any member institution under direct political or legal infringement;"
This exciting resolution from Rutgers University Senate is exactly the kind of model I think higher ed needs: a mutual defense pact of, in this case, Big 10 schools. They call for member institutions to create a joint defense fund and make resources available to any member institution under attack.
If you're a graduate student or junior scholar interested in the intersection between racial politics and political economy please consider attending the 2025 Johns Hopkins University Racial Politics Summer School (June 2-6). Applications now open! docs.google.com/document/d/1...
This is, of course, a war crime. But because it is the exact type of war crime that has been committed by admins of both parties regularly for a quarter century, it will be overlooked in favor of handwringing about "opsec."
Dean Chemerinsky and other #lawschool deans "speak as legal educators, responsible for training the next generation of lawyers, in condemning any government efforts to punish lawyers or their firms based on the identity of their clients or for their zealous lawful and ethical advocacy."
I have my social theory students make memes. They never disappoint.
(Thanks due to @stschrader1.bsky.social, from whom I stole this assignment)
BREAKING:
The AAUP & chapters @ Harvard, Rutgers, & NYU; & the Middle East Studies Association today filed a lawsuit to block the Trump admin from carrying out arrests, detentions, & deportations of students & faculty who participate in pro-Palestinian protests & protected 1st Amendment activities.
