Skip to main content
Access provided by

Jonathan Ira Levy

Jonathan Ira Levy

4 commentaries

Jonathan Ira Levy, a professor in the Department of History and the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago, is the author of Ages of American Capitalism: A History of the United States (Random House, 2021).

Sort by: Show:
  1. The Evolution of Modern Political Power
    op_jilevy3_ Dirck HalsteadGetty Images_clinton1 Dirck Halstead/Getty Images

    The Evolution of Modern Political Power

    Oct 27, 2023 Jonathan Ira Levy traces the complicated interplay between states, global capital, and civil society over the past century.

  2. The Pitfalls of Dollar Hegemony
    op_jlevy2_Maryna TerletskaGetty Images_dollars Maryna Terletska/Getty Images

    The Pitfalls of Dollar Hegemony

    Apr 14, 2023 Jonathan Ira Levy shows why no modern national economy, least of all the United States, can be understood in isolation.

  3. Big Tech Gets Derailed
    jlevy2_Geo. P. Hall & SonThe New York Historical SocietyGetty Images_railroad Geo. P. Hall & Son/The New York Historical Society/Getty Images

    Big Tech Gets Derailed

    Nov 24, 2022 Jonathan Ira Levy traces the origins of the sector's recent turmoil to the nineteenth-century rise of the corporation.

  4. The Adventures of Money
    op_jlevy1_JOHANNES EISELEAFP via Getty Images_chinacoins Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images

    The Adventures of Money

    Jul 15, 2022 Jonathan Ira Levy reviews two recent books on the “deep past” of one of humanity’s most important institutions.

  1. carstens5_Getty Images_finternet Getty Images
    0

    The Rise of the Finternet

    Agustín Carstens & Nandan Nilekani foresee a world in which cheap, secure, and near-instantaneous financial transactions are available to all.
  2. rodrik222_Kevin FrayerGetty Images_china solar panel Kevin Frayer/Getty Images
    0

    Don’t Fret About Green Subsidies

    Dani Rodrik sees no good argument against industrial policies that accelerate growth in decarbonization industries.
  3. gros186_Sean GallupGetty Images_euro Sean Gallup/Getty Images
    0

    Europe’s Geoeconomic Competitiveness Challenge

    Daniel Gros highlights the security risks raised by the prolonged decline of the EU’s relative economic power.
  4. op_ang1_retrorocketGetty Images_corruption retrorocket/Getty Images
    0

    How Exceptional Is China’s Crony-Capitalist Boom?

    Yuen Yuen Ang

    While both the American and Chinese Gilded Ages raised material standards of living for hundreds of millions of people, their endemic corruption produced radically unequal and unsustainable growth. Ultimately, both periods offer cautionary tales about unbridled crony capitalism, not models for blind emulation.

     explains how corruption both drove the country's GDP growth and sowed the seeds for its current economic problems.
  5. bp india election Photo by SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP via Getty Images
    0

    Will India’s Election Destroy Its Democracy?

    Since taking power in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party have stoked Hindu nationalism, hollowed out India’s democracy, and overseen an economy that is probably performing far worse than official figures suggest. And yet Modi and the BJP are genuinely popular, making them likely – though not certain – to emerge victorious when the ongoing parliamentary election concludes in June.

  6. benami213_YEHUDA RAIZNERAFP via Getty Images_israelflag Yehuda Raizner/AFP via Getty Images
    0

    The Unbearable Lightness of Anti-Zionism

    Shlomo Ben-Ami warns that demonizing all Israelis will only make peace less likely – though that may be the point.
  7. alfredsdottir1_Getty Images_pay gap Getty Images
    0

    How to Close the Gender Wage Gap

    Lilja Dögg Alfreðsdóttir argues that Iceland’s experience lends further support to Nobel laureate economist Claudia Goldin’s research.
  8. brown107_Jeff J Mitchell - Pool Getty Images_covidvaccine Jeff J. Mitchell/Pool/Getty Images
    0

    Getting the Pandemic Treaty Across the Finish Line

    Gordon Brown hopes negotiations will conclude this month, and pushes back on a last-minute wave of misinformation.
  9. singer231_Michael M. SantiagoGetty Images_college protests Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
    1

    When Is Criticism of Israel Anti-Semitic?

    Peter Singer rejects comparisons of the recent US campus protests to the actions of Nazi student groups in the 1930s.

Edit Newsletter Preferences

Set up Notification

To receive email updates regarding this {entity_type}, please enter your email below.

If you are not already registered, this will create a PS account for you. You should receive an activation email shortly.