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Toward a History of Cultural Economy

Toward a History of Cultural Economy revi ew essay rosan n e currari no Since the late 1990s, a subtle revolution has occurred within the historiog- raphy of antebellum America. Without any apparent concert, a number of cultural historians have turned to economic history. It is no exaggeration to call this a revolution, for these historians have begun to practice what any number of commentators have been calling for since the late 1990s: a move toward reconciling cultural history’s interest in the “symbolic, lin- guistic and representational” with “a sense of social embeddedness” that does not “reduc[e] everything to its social determinants.” This shift has momentous implications for both cultural history and economic history, two fi elds that rarely play well together. Economic his- tory has largely been left to economists, who focus on empirical data and plotable trends. They excel at telling us what happened and perhaps mod- eling a suggestion of why, rarely showing much interest in what anyone at the time thought or felt or even did as a result. At the same time, cul- tural history has largely pushed the economy aside, often in the most lit- eral sense. That may seem like a peculiar assertion given the outpouring of work http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png The Journal of the Civil War Era University of North Carolina Press

Toward a History of Cultural Economy

The Journal of the Civil War Era , Volume 2 (4) – Nov 2, 2012

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Publisher
University of North Carolina Press
Copyright
Copyright @ The University of North Carolina Press
ISSN
2159-9807

Abstract

revi ew essay rosan n e currari no Since the late 1990s, a subtle revolution has occurred within the historiog- raphy of antebellum America. Without any apparent concert, a number of cultural historians have turned to economic history. It is no exaggeration to call this a revolution, for these historians have begun to practice what any number of commentators have been calling for since the late 1990s: a move toward reconciling cultural history’s interest in the “symbolic, lin- guistic and representational” with “a sense of social embeddedness” that does not “reduc[e] everything to its social determinants.” This shift has momentous implications for both cultural history and economic history, two fi elds that rarely play well together. Economic his- tory has largely been left to economists, who focus on empirical data and plotable trends. They excel at telling us what happened and perhaps mod- eling a suggestion of why, rarely showing much interest in what anyone at the time thought or felt or even did as a result. At the same time, cul- tural history has largely pushed the economy aside, often in the most lit- eral sense. That may seem like a peculiar assertion given the outpouring of work

Journal

The Journal of the Civil War EraUniversity of North Carolina Press

Published: Nov 2, 2012

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