The Reading Group will take place every other week on Fridays from 12pm to 1:30pm EDT. The Reading Group is a New School-hosted semi-public forum for reading books together that we haven’t already read. Session leaders propose readings broadly related to Currency, Empire, Race, and Monetary Policy across disciplines and genres. The goal is to get out of our comfort zones and get talking. Usually there will be more than one reading of different lengths. Attendees are required to read something but not everything. We want everyone to be part of the conversation, and we’re excited to field proposals for new readings/sessions over the coming year.
To take part in the reading group, please submit your contact information and the readings and zoom link will be distributed via email.
Friday, September 24, 2021
Mwangi, Wambui. “Of Coins and Conquest: The East African Currency Board, the Rupee Crisis, and the Problem of Colonialism in the East African Protectorate.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 43, no. 4 (2001): 763–87.
Rockoff, Hugh. “The ‘Wizard of Oz’ as a Monetary Allegory.” Journal of Political Economy 98, no. 4 (August 1, 1990): 739–60.
Friday, October 8, 2021
Theories of Money
Brunhoff, Suzanne De. Marx on Money. London: Verso, 2015.
Friday, October 22, 2021
Thinking in Orders: Neoliberalism and Monetary (Dis)Orders
Slobodian, Quinn. Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2018. (Introduction: Thinking in World Orders, pp. 1-26; Conclusion: A World of People without a People, pp. 263-286).
Kirshner, Jonathan (Ed.). Monetary Orders: Ambiguous Economics, Ubiquitous Politics. Ithaca, London: Cornell University Press, 2003. (“The Inescapable Politics of Money”, pp. 3-24)
Secondary Readings:
Helleiner, Eric. The Making of National Money: Territorial Currencies in Historical Perspective. Ithaca, London: Cornell University Press, 2003, (Introduction pp. 1-16)
Friday, November 5, 2021
Monetary Futures – A Vernacular Archive
Jeunet, Jean-Pierre, and Marc Caro. Delicatessen. 1991, France. Film.
Johnson, B. S. Christie Malry’s Own Double-Entry. Revised ed. edition. New York: New Directions, 2009.
Robinson, Kim Stanley. The Ministry for the Future. 1st edition. New York, NY: Orbit, 2020.
McIntyre, Deborah, Mona Clee, and Maurice Hurley, writers. Star Trek the Next Generation. Season 1, Episode 26, “The Neutral Zone.” Directed by James L. Conway. Aired May 16, 1988.
Stross, Charles. Neptune’s Brood: A Space Opera. Penguin, 2014.
Secondary Readings:
Graeber, David. Debt the First 5,000 Years. New York: Melville, 2011. pp. 211-214, 361-391.
Friday, February 11, 2022
The Imperial Politics of Monetary Transition
Financial Department Proceedings (January 1860). Minute on the despatch of the Secretary of State respecting a Paper Currency by the Right Honourable James Wilson. Governor General’s Camp, Meerut, 25th December 1859. National Archives India, pp 1 – 19.
Parliament. House of Commons (May 7th, 1862). Minute on Currency and Banking by the Honourable Samuel Laing. (HC 1862 215). London: House of Commons. pp 21-26.
Secondary Readings:
Goswami, Manu. Producing India: From Colonial Economy to National Space. University of Chicago Press 2010. pp 85 – 102.
Friday, February 25, 2022
The Currency of Politics: The Political Theory of Money from Aristotle to Keynes
Stefan Eich, The Currency of Politics: The Political Theory of Money from Aristotle to Keynes. Princeton: Princeton University Press 2022.
Friday, March 11, 2022
The Bellico-monetary Pivot of History
Carr, Edward Hallett. The Twenty Years’ Crisis. 1964. pp. 120-132
Financial Times. “Financial system withstands first week of Russia sanctions.” https://www.ft.com/content/9a8625c9-ad9d-43cd-b439-9f1bf3e90bde
Meadway, James. “Central banks as weapons: how the West learned from the eurozone crisis.” https://jamesmeadway.substack.com/p/central-banks-as-weapons-how-the?s=r
Mulder, Nicholas. The Economic Weapon: The Rise of Sanctions as a Tool of Modern War. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2022. pp. 49-54, 63-65, 149-151
Wolfgang Streeck. “Fog of War.” https://newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/fog-of-war
Tooze, Adam. The Wages of Destruction. London: Viking, 2006. pp. 3-7
“What if Putin’s war regime turns to MMT?… or to wartime Keynesianism”? https://adamtooze.substack.com/p/chartbook-91-what-if-putins-war-regime?s=r
Friday, April 1, 2022
Review Session: Towards a Currency and Empire Research Agenda
Readings: Minutes from Previous Reading Group Sessions