Hagley History Hangout

Pentagon Capitalism: How the Cold War US Military Modeled Itself on Private Business (Harvard University Press, 2026) is a pioneering study of the Cold War military-industrial complex shows how defense leaders reorganized the US armed forces in the image of commercial enterprise. In an interview conducted by Roger Horowitz (Hagley Center Director), Muphy explains how leaders of the defense bureauc...

Historians of interior design are only just beginning to study the design of rooms that are not in buildings, but rather in machines: trains cars, elevators, jet planes, and many others. In his latest book project, Dr. Ronn Daniel, associate professor at Kent State University, explores the interior design of automobiles. Tracing changes in technology, marketing, and aesthetics, Daniel finds that t...

The United States empire is unlike any other in history. Among its unique attributes is the ability of Americans to project power, extract resources, and exercise hegemony without direct control and ownership of territory. In his dissertation research, Henry Jacob, PhD candidate at Yale University, compares the American imperial projects in the Caribbean and Arctic regions to assess their similari...

Women own over 40% of businesses in the United States and are responsible for a large majority of new business startups. How did this come to be? Dr. Debra Michals, associate professor and chair of the humanities department at Merrimack College, answers this question in her book She’s the Boss: The Rise of Women’s Entrepreneurship Since World War II (Rutgers University Press, 2025). Contrary to po...

Solar Challenger: Energy, Environment, and the Spectacle of Solar Aviation, 1976-1981 Ben Spohn interviews Karlyn Allenbrand about her ongoing dissertation research on the Solar Challenger, the world's first solar-powered airplane built by Dr. Paul MacCready's company AeroVironment. Allenbrand argues that from the start MacCready recognized that the Solar Challenger was a promotional project meant...

Let’s say that poison gas leaks from a manufacturing plant, sickening workers and local residents. Should OSHA investigate, or the EPA? Who is responsible when both agencies have a claim to jurisdiction? The American federal government regulates the workplace and the non-workplace environments separately, despite their material inseparability; the workplace is part of the environment and vice vers...

Twentieth-century Chile relied heavily on its copper mining industry, which was vulnerable to disruption due to its dependance on foreign supplies of blasting powder. It was to address this strategic weakness that Chilean leaders formulated a plan to lure a powder manufacturer from the Global North to open a plant in Chile. In her latest research, Dr. Ángela Vergara, professor at California State...

From the 1750s to the present day, Salem Township in northeastern Pennsylvania has been a site of financial speculation and the social changes it sets in motion. In her latest book project, Dr. Nancy Campbell, professor of Science and Technology Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, uncovers the many superimposed layers of speculation and extraction that have left Salem Township with a comp...

In this episode of the Hagley History Hangout, Roger Horowitz interviews Rebecca Kobrin about her new book, Credit to the Nation: Eastern European Jewish Immigrant Bankers and American Finance 1873-1930. From the publisher: "What are immigrants to do when business opportunities abound in their new home, but banks refuse essential financial support? How could they make the journey in the first plac...

Images of bathers have recurred in art through the ages, and their depictions tell us something about attitudes toward human bodies, sex, gender, cleanliness, and much more. In his dissertation research, art historian Jay Buchanan, PhD candidate at Washington University in St. Louis, analyses images of bathers in bathtubs, swimming pools, beaches, and bathhouses to understand the changing cultural...

Does a strong economy serve the interests of the few or the many? The policy pendulum has swung in either direction over the long term. In his new book, The Menace of Prosperity: New York City and the Struggle for Economic Development, 1865-1981, Dr. Daniel Wortel-London, visiting assistant professor at Bard College, explores the debates over economic development strategies that raged in New York...

Geophysics, or the study of Earth using the tools and methods of physics, is often understood to have begun in the post-WWII period. However, the period between the world wars saw ferment and innovation in the field, and the emergence of the term geophysics itself. In his latest research, Dr. Erik Isberg, postdoctoral researcher at the KTH Institute of Technology and the University of Copenhagen,...

What happens when industrial towns lose their defining industries? How do the remaining communities and infrastructures find meaning and a future among the postindustrial remains. The key often lies in heritagization, the process by which certain aspects of the past are identified, preserved, and presented as heritage. In her dissertation research, Julia Silva de Medeiros, associate researcher at...

Iowa State University historian Simon Cordery talks about his recently published biography of Albert Pullman with Hagley’s Ben Spohn. From the publisher: “Simon Cordery's Gilded Age Entrepreneur illuminates the fascinating and chaotic business world of Albert Pullman. The influential but little-known older brother of George Pullman and the craftsman of the family, Albert designed the first luxurio...

The overtly intimate relationship between tech industry leaders and politicians is on frequent display in newspapers and on screens today. In an international context, this builds on a long history of corporate involvement in shaping favorable policy. In his latest research, André Dao, postdoctoral fellow at the University of Melbourne, traces the long history of IBM and its predecessor the Tabula...

The mid-twentieth century emergence of the black middle class in the United States reshaped American society, consumer markets, and even the bodies of African Americans. In her dissertation project, Melina Haberl, PhD candidate at Florida International University, is researching the health and diet culture of African American women in the 1970s and ‘80s. Using several Hagley Library collections, i...

In her new book, Black Power Inc.: Corporate America and the Rise of Multinational Empowerment Politics Jessica Ann Levy traces Black empowerment’s rise in 20th century American politics and its contradictions as a form of African American political activity. By closely following minister Leon Sullivan in his influential and varied career, Levi shows how white and Black businesspeople and governme...

Americans had established schools, hospitals, and businesses in China prior to the 1949 triumph of the Communists under Mao. What would be the fate of these institutions and their staff under the new dispensation? In his latest research, Dr. Sanjiao Tang, fellow at the National Library of Australia, explores the actions and reactions of Americans facing the advent of the People’s Republic of China...

New York City was the focus of the early American television industry. In TV’s early years NYC had the highest concentration of television sets, viewers, broadcasters, and infrastructure. In NYC many Americans had their first encounter with TV. In his latest book project, Dr. Richard Popp, associate professor at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, tunes into the tangled relationship between...

Film has played a role in America’s world’s fairs since the 1893 Chicago exhibition where a horse galloping was the big cinematic draw. In her latest book project, Dr. Dominique Bregent-Heald, professor at the Memorial University of Newfoundland, explores the history of film at American world’s fairs, such as the educational and industrial films shown by corporate sponsors. These spectacles were c...

Infrastructure projects have frequently generated controversies in American history, and railroads in particular have been the cause of many a political fracas. In her latest project, journalist and independent scholar Elizabeth Moore is uncovering the history of controversies over the Long Island Railroad. The politics are complex and multi-layered. From hyper-local concerns about noise, safety,...

Nitrogen feeds both war and peace, represents both fecundity and strength, and accordingly, nitrogen capture technology gained a symbolic potency in the ideologically charged atmosphere of fascist Italy. In her latest research, Dr. Rebecca Falkoff, assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin, is uncovering the story of nitrogen capture in fascist Italy and considering what it can tell...

In this episode we interview Mark Aldrich about his new book, The Rise and Fall of King Coal: American Energy Transitions in an Age of Markets, 1800-1940. From the publisher: “A history of the dynamic role of coal in the energy landscape of the United States during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In The Rise and Fall of King Coal, Mark Aldrich explores the pivotal role of coal in the histo...

Ginseng is the “emperor of plants,” celebrated in traditional Chinese medicine as a sovereign remedy for diverse ailments and promoter of longevity. The introduction of American ginseng to the Chinese market in the late-eighteenth century found a vast market of eager consumers. In her dissertation project, Audrey Ke Zhao, PhD candidate at the University of California – Santa Cruz, is exploring the...

From the eighteenth-century Moravians singing hymns on communal farms, to twentieth-century steelworkers laboring in blazing furnaces, to twenty-first century healthcare and warehouse workers cutting loose at Musikfest, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania has moved to many beats. In her latest project, Dr. Kimberly Andrews, associate professor at the University of Ottawa, investigates the history of Bethlehem...