AMS100H1

Global Capitalism

This course explores global capitalism since 1945. It begins briefly with the origins of capitalism in trading cities and touches on capitalism’s golden age (1945-1973). The main focus is on global capitalism since the 1970s, and how it has restructured domestic and international politics. Topics will include destruction of unions and the American working class, the rise of financial capitalism, the relationship between post-1973 capitalism, on the one hand, and instability, war, and Islamism in the Middle East, the Iranian revolution, and America’s support for Israel, on the other. It also considers the rise of the “Asian tigers” and how global capitalism generates both great wealth and massive inequality.