HIST 12BInequality: History of Neoliberalism

Exploration of origins, ideas, and consequences of neoliberalism—theory that society is best organized on principles of free trade, deregulation, and privatization. Combination of political, economic, and intellectual history to construct genealogy of neoliberal thinking by attending to 18th- and 19th-century liberalism, colonialism, imperialism, rise of social democracy and military Keynesianism, and Mount Pelerin Society’s Cold War resuscitation of 19th-century liberalism. Coverage of economic crisis of 1970s, restructuring of global political economy in U.S., Europe, global south—specifically debt, structural adjustment policies, environmental destruction, and military intervention. Tracing of colonial roots of global north-south divide to reveal how neoliberal policies represent longer process of accumulation by dispossession and enclosure rather than sudden radical break from Keynesian model.

P/NP or letter grading.