Julia Ott

Associate Professor and Chair of History

Email:

ottj@newschool.edu

Office Location:

80 Fifth Avenue

Profile:

During my lifetime, American political culture has been distinguished by a pervasive belief that individual freedom is best guaranteed by freedom of the market. Over the course of the last forty years, the collective solutions that once nurtured the American middle class – including labor unions along with government and corporate-sponsored social provisions – drew increasing criticism for allegedly impeding the dynamic individualism of American capitalism. Government withdrew from social protection and provision. De-regulation and privatization swept across the domestic policy landscape. As a result, inequality increased.  And the well-being of American households was yoked ever more tightly to increasingly unregulated financial markets. These ideas, policies, and outcomes -- often labeled “neoliberalism” by scholars -- account, in part, for both the insurgency of Bernie Sanders and the shocking victory of Donald Trump. 

The past offers tools for understanding our present circumstances. And, I believe, history can guide us in navigating the future, for making the choices that are necessary to create a fair and sustainable economy for all.

As a scholar, teacher, editor, and public intellectual, I aim to advance critical histories of capitalism. At The New School, I serve the Co-Director of the Robert L. Heilbroner Center for Capitalism Studies. I engage non-academic audiences as a member of Scholar’s Committee for the New York at its Core exhibit at the City Museum of New York, a Distinguished Lecturer for the Organization of American Historians, a consultant to documentary films, and by writing for outlets like Public Books, The Nation, Dissent, and Public Seminar. My media appearances include BBC, NPR, and C-SPAN, while my work has been featured in The New York Times, Chinese National Television, Radio OpenSource, Majority Report with Sam Seder, and Who Makes the Cents?

One of my favorite aspects of academic life is lending my support to other scholars and writers. I am fortunate to do as a Senior Editor of Public Seminar and as a Co-Editor of the book series Studies in the History of U.S. Capitalism published by Columbia University Press.

Degrees Held:

PhD 2007, Yale University

Recent Publications:

“Occupied Wall Street Journal,” Museum of the City of New York, November 2016

"Curious Beginnings of the Capital Gains Tax Preference” Fordham Law Review vol. 84 (2016), p.101-120, co-authored with Ajay Mehrotra

“Capitalism Studies: A Manifesto,” Public Seminar, April 17, 2014

“Slaves: The Capital That Made Capital,” Public Seminar, April 9, 2014

"Solving the ‘Debt Question’,” New Labor Forum vol. 22 no. 1 (Spring 2013), co-authored with Louis Hyman

“‘The Free and Open People’s Market’: Political Ideology and Retail Brokerage at the New York Stock Exchange, 1913-1933,” Journal of American History vol. 96 no. 1 (June 2009): 44-71.

“When Wall Street Met Main Street: The Quest for an Investors’ Democracy and the Emergence of the Retail Investor in the United States, 1890-1930,” Enterprise and Society vol. 9 no. 4 (December 2008): 619-630.

Research Interests:

History of capitalism, 20th century American history, financial history, labor history, political conservatism, consumer culture, women's and gender history

Awards And Honors: