William Milberg, Author at Public Seminar

US Tariffs and Trump’s Neopatrimonial Mercantilism

Implications for the United States, China, and the global order

May 21, 2025 • by William Milberg

I have spent decades giving boring lectures on tariffs to graduate students. Suddenly, every other newspaper article is on tariffs. We have to credit President Trump with tapping into the popular disgruntlement with globalization beginning in 2016, leading to a rethinking of the structure of global economic governance and a ...

US Tariffs and Trump’s Neopatrimonial Mercantilism

Democracy

American Democracy in Crisis: Q & A on Tocqueville, Douglass, Dewey, and Arendt

Liberal institutions, abolition democracy, and civic virtue

February 1, 2023 • by Jeffrey C. Goldfarb, Juliet Hooker, William Milberg, James Miller and Deva Woodly

If we think about the way that liberalism anchors democracy, it largely relies on rights and institutional design. Just as a descriptive matter, it’s the case that the institutions that have been designed and the regime of rights that has been conceived, including the regime of human rights that has ...

American Democracy in Crisis: Q & A on Tocqueville, Douglass, Dewey, and Arendt

Capitalism

The Return of “Capitalism”

And the limits of economics

September 20, 2019 • by William Milberg

As Democratic presidential hopefuls find themselves responding to the questions “are you a socialist?” and “are you a capitalist?,” it is useful to remember that for most of the post-War era, the word capitalism was taboo in economics, the discipline whose very role is to provide rigorous analysis of … ...

Education

Post-Election America

UTNS 2016 | UTNS 5016 Syllabus

February 14, 2017 • by William Milberg

In response to the demand from students for information, for historical context and for analysis of the election and its possible consequences, the New School is mounting a 14-week series of lectures by New School faculty called “Post-Election America.” Lectures will be led by experts in the topic area and ...

Education

NSSR Graduation Speech 2016

May 24, 2016 • by William Milberg

These remarks were given at The New School for Social Research's graduation ceremony on May 19th 2016. Good evening, and welcome to the commencement ceremony of the New School for Social Research. I am Will Milberg, Dean of the New School for Social Research, and I am honored to represent this ...

Uncategorized

Capitalism Studies: A Manifesto

April 17, 2014 • by Julia Ott and William Milberg

It seems odd now to recall that up until a few years ago, the concept of capitalism largely had fallen out of favor as a subject of academic inquiry and critique. Most scholars in the humanities and social sciences regarded the term as too broad, too vague, too encumbered by ...

Education

Introducing the 80th Anniversary of the University in Exile

March 5, 2014 • by William Milberg

This is a special event with faculty and students at a General Seminar. The General Seminar was created as part of the University in Exile in the 1930s. Today we are trying to expand it globally with the introduction of a “Public Seminar” online. I also want to welcome Paul ...

Theory & Practice

Hobsbawm’s 20th Century: Closing Comments

Plus remembrances of former New School students of Eric Hobsbawm

December 3, 2013 • by William Milberg

I am honored to have been asked to offer closing words for this memorial event celebrating the life and work of Eric Hobsbawm. This is a New School event, and not by coincidence. As Dean of The New School for Social Research, I want first to thank Ira Katznelson, for ...

Hobsbawm’s 20th Century: Closing Comments

Uncategorized

The American Dream Comes to Life in Denmark

October 22, 2013 • by Nick Haekkerup and William Milberg

The following is the prepared text of the speech given by Minister Haekkerup on September 28, 2013, at The New School, with an introduction by William Milberg.

Introduction

The word “capitalism,” describing our market-oriented economic system of wage labor, private ownership and the endless drive for wealth accumulation, was invented in the ...