Emma Teitelman on 'Class and State in America’s Greater Reconstruction', 3/2/20

Cambridge American History Seminar Podcast

Back to our normal format this week. Emma Teitelman, Mellon Research Fellow in American History at the University of Cambridge, talks to Lewis Defrates about her paper ‘Class and State in America’s Greater Reconstruction’ Dr Teitelman’s paper discusses the efforts of groups of north-eastern capitalists in the years following the Civil War to work with the federal government to engender new forms of social organization based around free labour capitalism in the ‘peripheries’, i.e. the American south and west. The project looks at the developing relationship between the state and private capital in transforming the United States in the decades following the rupture of the Civil War Here, Dr Teitelman talks largely about the work of two public-private groups, the Southern Famine Relief Commission and the Board of Indian Commissioners, in the years between 1865-1874. We also discuss the broader project, what these new ‘social relations’ looked like, and perhaps the most anticipated ‘favourite album’ answer yet. If you have any questions, suggestions or feedback, get in touch via @camericanist on Twitter or [e-mail]. Spread the word, and thanks for listening! (NB: there’s one moment in this interview where I ‘punch in’ a rerecording of a question I asked, as the original recording was unusable due to the flow of conversation. This might be noticeable to listeners - it certainly is to me - but the wording is almost identical to what was asked at the time, promise!)