Overview

1492: a year that captivated the world. Columbus's ""discovery"" of a new continent is widely remembered for revealing both the wonders of the earth and the unprecedented capacity of men to free themselves from boundaries. But the invention of America was actually a story untold: the consecration of a new relationship between nature and mankind, which saw capital and race unite irrevocably. Sylvie Laurent tells the story of racial capitalism as a ""two-headed creature"" forged by figures such as Daniel Defoe in Robinson Crusoe, Voltaire, Adam Smith, and Alexis de Tocqueville. Beneath these authors' fantasies of a free-market land of endless riches is the empire of racial capitalism. However powerful, this system has been identified and resisted by a long line of anti-colonial theorists, from Rosa Luxemburg to W. E. B. Du Bois. Against the backdrop of their thinking, and at a time when it is commonplace to oppose class struggles and racial demands, Laurent illuminates the rich and little-known intellectual tradition of overcoming the divide. It's about time, she argues, that Karl Marx and Martin Luther King Jr. get to talk to one another. Capital and Race: The History of a Modern Hydra is a timely and gripping intellectual history that will be of interest to historians and general readers alike.

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9781509571901

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Reviews

""One of the most important books ever written on racial capitalism. A wonderful book. A must read."" Thomas Piketty ""Clarity and ambition rarely come together so seamlessly. Sylvia Laurent delivers a sweeping history of the last five centuries that will be compelling for both experts and newcomers."" Quinn Slobodian, Boston University

Author Information

Sylvie Laurent is a cultural historian and a lecturer in American Studies at Sciences Po, Paris. She was previously a Fulbright Fellow at Harvard University, where she was later also a fellow in the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute. Laurent's publications include Homérique Amérique (2008), Martin Luther King: Une biographie intellectuelle et politique (2015), La couleur du marché: Racisme et néolibéralisme aux États-Uni (2016), King and the Other America: The Poor People's Campaign and the Quest for Economic Equality (2019), and La Contre-révolution californienne (2025).

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