Mar 11 Watch 4:48 News Wrap: Devastating southern floods continue; UN warns of crisis in South Sudan By PBS News Hour In our news wrap Friday, residents of the flood-stricken South faced overnight downpours that brought total rainfall to two feet in some places, uprooting trees and collapsing roads--with more rain expected this weekend. Also, the UN issued a warning that… Continue watching
Feb 13 How the West got rich and modern capitalism was born By Sven Beckert "We need to qualify the fairy tale we like to tell about capitalism and free labor," argues Harvard historian Sven Beckert, author of the new book, "Empire of Cotton." In part two of his essay on Making Sen$e, he explores… Continue reading
Feb 12 America’s first big business? Not the railroads, but slavery By Sven Beckert For too long, historian Sven Beckert argues, historians have depicted slavery as a non-capitalist "Southern pathology." In his new book, "Empire of Cotton," Beckert shows how slavery was actually at the very roots of modern American capitalism. Continue reading
Feb 06 Watch 9:24 Will new manufacturing ease Mississippi’s ‘psychosis of poverty?’ By PBS News Hour In Mississippi, where the unemployment rate peaks at 15 percent in some areas, pockets of new manufacturing have ignited hopes for an economic rebirth. And while signs of growth give some people hope for a new era, how much will… Continue watching