Race and Historical Political Economy

Abstract

Abstract This chapter examines the study of race in historical political economy (HPE) research on the United States. Scholarship in race and HPE is wide-ranging, spanning the fields of political science, economics, history, and sociology, and featuring a diversity of theoretical and empirical methods. The chapter highlights key questions in the race and HPE literature, including democratization, the effects of slavery and segregation (both de jure and de facto), racial exclusion in the welfare state, and coercive state development. The chapter then circumscribes time periods under study: the antebellum, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, New Deal, civil rights, and post-civil rights periods. Finally, the article discusses limitations in the race and HPE literature and lessons that can be drawn from research in American political development and racial capitalism.