The Regeneration of Men: U.S. Prison Reform and Progressive-Era Capitalism
Dael Norwood, University of Delaware
Role-playing as businessmen in “practical departments” was a common feature of late nineteenth-century private for-profit proprietary business colleges – themselves ubiquitous, if understudied, institutions. This chapter-in-progress will track the spread of these institutions and this pedagogy in the postbellum period. By inventorying the analytic possibilities of the materials and methods of the “practical department,” this paper will shed light on the role professional education played in forming cultures of capitalism in a modernizing, industrializing United States – and sketch its consequences for our own moment.
Respondent: Tina Groeger, Lake Forest University
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Register and Request PaperAbout the History of Capitalism Seminar Series
The History of Capitalism Seminar provides a works-in-progress forum for work from scholars at all levels. Proposals may consider a variety of subjects, including the history of race and racism, gender and feminist studies, intellectual history, political history, legal history, business history, the history of finance, labor history, cultural history, urban history, and agricultural history. Elizabeth Tandy Shermer (Loyola University Chicago) and Andrew Hartman (Illinois State University) are the co-coordinators of the seminar.