THE HISTORY OF CAPITALISM

Guillermo Pineda

Leipzig University

www.linkedin.com/in/guillermopineda

You hear all the time that “capitalism is the system that has shaped our world”. However, the fact that capitalism is a social system that has never existed in its full, perfect and unregulated form is never mentioned. As Ayn Rand clearly stated, the only time in history in which we came close to a laissez-faire capitalist society was in the 19th century. The seminar explores the history of capitalism in the last 250 years.

Guillermo Pineda is a Double Degree MA Global Studies Candidate from Leipzig University and Roskilde University. He founded the Center for the Study of Capitalism in Guatemala and has study Objectivist Philosophy for several years.

SEMINAR DESCRIPTION

3.To learn

what is the role of

capitalism in Global History

2.To demystify the historical labels given to capitalism

in global history

1.To define

Capitalism in a historical context

Seminar

GOALS

EXPLANATION OF THE TOPIC• The history of capitalism as a social, political and economic

system has long been misunderstood and confused by defenders and attackers.

• Since the 19th Century the principles of laissez-faire capitalism have been mined and destroyed by government actors and intellectuals.

• The seminar will identify the Global history around the philosophical principles behind Capitalism in the United States and the rest of the Globe. It will focus on how these principles were destroyed in the 19th and 20th Centuries.

• By giving a global perspective on the History of Capitalism, the participants of the seminar will be able to understand what is the status of Objectivism in the globe and which are our current and future challenges.

• Due to the large extent of this topic I propose to divide the talk in two or three sessions of 60 minutes each.

SESSION I (18TH AND 19TH CENTURIES)• Definition of the principles of laissez-faire capitalism

• Historical contextualization of the principles of Capitalism in the times of the Founding Fathers.

• History of Capitalism during the 19th Century.• From the Virginia Declaration of Rights and The United

States Declaration of Independence to the ideas of Karl Marx and Immanuel Kant.• The role of the principles of socialism, collectivism,

marxism and French Socialism in 19th Century history and afterwards.

• The industrialization of the Western World• The Colonization of Africa and Asia.• The Independence of Latin America.

SESSION II (20TH CENTURY)• Global history until the Depression of 1929.

• The impact of the ideas of:• Woodrow Wilson, “Liberation of a People’s Vital Energy.”

• Herbert Hoover, American Individualism.

• John Maynard Keynes, “The End of Laissez-Faire.”

• The ideas of Ludwig von Mises in “Theory and History” and “Socialism”.

• Neo-marxism and populist discourses after WW2.

• The effects of the Cold War.• Post colonialism and the emergence of the International

Monetary System.• The Developed Nations, the Developing Nations and the

Third World.• The 1989 caesura with the fall of the Wall and its effects

• The current historical status of the principles of Capitalism.

SPEAKER QUALIFICATIONS

Student of Objectivist Philosophy at the Objectivist Academic Center (2009 to date). Known advocate and leader of opinion of Objectivist Philosophy in Guatemala.

Founder and former Executive Director of the Center for the Study of Capitalism in Guatemala. Instructor of hundreds of socratic dialogues on the Principles of Objectivism and the Ideas of Liberty.

Student of a Double Degree MA in Global Studies 2013 (history of globalization), Leipzig University and Roskilde University.

MA in Social Sciences with specialization in History from Universidad Francisco Marroquin (thesis pending).

AUDIENCE Target: college and graduate students, professional and

business people interested in History. Level of knowledge of History: beginner or intermediate. Level of knowledge of Objectivism: beginner, intermediate

or advanced.

At the end of the seminar participants will be able to: Explain the history of Capitalism and of its philosophical

principles. Explain the reasons why Capitalism as a social system has

never existed. Define which mixed social, economic and political systems

have existed since the 18th Century to present days. Identify the historical global events that destroyed laissez-faire

capitalism and those that defended it.