Sven Beckert: A Global History of Capitalism

TPL and Toronto Metropolitan University present historian Sven Beckert in conversation with Sanjay Ruparelia at the Toronto Reference Library's Appel Salon.

As the Laird Bell Professor of History at Harvard University and co-chair of the university's Program on the Study of Capitalism, Sven Beckert has spent his career tracing how a single economic system came to structure nearly every aspect of modern life, how we work, how we think about ourselves and others, and how we organize our politics. 

In Capitalism: A Global History, Beckert reveals that capitalism was born global, corresponding at no point to an idealized dream of free markets; from the outset, state-backed institutions, imperial expansion, and coercion shaped its dynamics as much as innovation and exchange did. Along the way, capitalism has both expanded political voice for some and violently foreclosed it for others, entangled from its origins with slavery, colonialism, and profound inequality.

How do we distinguish between capitalism's capacity to generate genuine prosperity and its tendency to concentrate power in ways that undermine democratic institutions? What can nearly a thousand years of capitalist history teach us about the conditions under which economic systems support, rather than erode, democratic life? And as we confront what many call a crisis of late-stage capitalism, what possibilities remain for reimagining an economic order more compatible with democratic values?

Join one of the world's foremost historians of capitalism for an essential conversation about the deep entanglement of markets and democracy, and what history suggests about the road ahead.

Date: Tuesday, December 15, 2026

Time: 7:00-8:30PM

Location: Appel Salon, Toronto Public Library (789 Yonge Street)