Global Activism and Capital’s New Regime

Dear History and Political Economy Project network,

This month we write to recap our third webinar, to highlight two recent features on the HPE Blog, and to announce new work published by members of our network.

The third webinar of our Histories and Futures of Global Governance initiative brought together Walden Bello, Bhumika Muchhala, HPE advisory board member Paul Adlerstein, and our co-director Christy Thornton to discuss lessons learned from the histories of grassroots activism and policy advocacy targeting global governance institutions.

Panelists discussed the successes of anti-globalization and anti-war movements, the role of diverse coalitions in achieving policy change, and prospects for an internationalist left revival. If you missed the discussion, our co-hosts at Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center have archived the video on their YouTube page, and you can read more about the speakers on our website.

Keep an eye out for reports of all three webinars, coming soon!

We are pleased to highlight two recent features posted over at our blog:

“Unearthing Production,” a roundtable conversation with HPE grantees Chris Abdul Hakim Martinez (‘23), Perdana “Pepe” Roswaldy (‘23), and Peter Vale (‘24), focusing on resource extraction and commodity production in diverse corners of the world market, with a special eye toward issues facing Global South governments and green transition economies. [Photo by Pepe Roswaldy.]

“Capital’s Regime Change and the Neoliberal Monetary Debate,”an interview with Matthias Schmelzer and Joshua Rahtz on the publication of Freedom for Capital, Not People: The Mont Pèlerin Society and the Origins of the Neoliberal Monetary Order. HPE was proud to support Rahtz’s translation, out this month from Verso Books, of Schmelzer’s classic work. [You can also read the interview over at the Verso blog.]

We are also thrilled to share these recent publications by an HPE advisory board member, past grantees, and our co-directors:

Benanav, Aaron. “Is the AI Bubble about to Burst?” The Verso Books Blog, June 9, 2025.

Castillo-García, César. “Waves of Neoliberalism: Revisiting Authoritarian Patterns of Capitalism in South America (1930–1960).” History of Political Economy 57, no. 5 (2025).

Gómez-Delgado, Julián. “Edificio de la SEPAL.” Modernismo Latinoamericano, 2025.

[The CEPAL Building, inaugurated in 1966 in Santiago de Chile, is a landmark of modernist architecture in the region. Its avant-garde design and CEPAL's ideas of internationalist economic modernization led it to be described as the “laboratory for the new Latin America.”This is part of a digital museum called "Modernismo Latinomericano," which gathers radical testimonies about the progressive dimension of modernism in Latin America. See the initiative’s Manifesto and other artifacts on their website.]

Slobodian, Quinn. “The Politics of Metaphor.” The Ideas Letter 41 (May 2025).

Slobodian, Quinn. “The Rise and Fall of Economic Miracles.” Radical History Review 151 (2025): 13–25.

Thornton, Christy. “State Violence and the Bitter Ends of the Milagro Mexicano.“ Radical History Review 151 (2025): 35–50.

Thornton, Christy. “Won’t You Be My Neighbor? A Conversation with Greg Grandin.” The Baffler, May 30, 2025.

Thanks for reading! More soon…

History and Political Economy Project
hpeproject.org | info@hpeproject.org