The past several decades have been turbulent ones for the world system: the financial crisis, the rise of new middle powers in the Global South, and the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, to name a few, have placed greater strain on the postwar order than at any other time in its history. Yet despite growing apprehension that said order may be on the verge of collapse, its economic foundation — namely, capitalism — remains remarkably sound. For the first time in human history, a single mode of production dominates the world almost without exception. No political force, not even the remaining party-states that embrace the “communist” label, offers a plausible alternative to market-based economics.

But how did capitalism come into being, and what makes it such a uniquely dynamic — and thus tenacious — form of social and economic organization? This question has occupied scholars for two centuries, beginning with thinkers like Adam Smith and Karl Marx. Some, such as the American Marxist historian Robert Brenner, point to the transformation of property relations in England in the middle of the last millennium, while others like Jairus Banaji see the beginning of capitalism much earlier in human history — namely, with the emergence of commercial trade networks hundreds of years prior.

Historian and Harvard University professor Sven Beckert recently published his own contribution to the debate, Capitalism: A Global History, in which he weaves together various strands of historical scholarship across more than 1,200 pages to craft a comprehensive and sweeping yet detailed narrative of capitalism’s rise to global dominance over the past thousand years. He spoke with Jacobin about his intellectual formation, how his own work fits into debates on the history of capitalism, and how — if at all — this notorious mode of production might one day disappear from the stage of history.