Glen Foerd-Holy Family University Speaker Series with Brent Cebul

Dr. Brent Cebul, a professor of American History at the University of Pennsylvania, will speak on Liberals and Business: A Forgotten Story of Love Found and Love Lost in the 20th Century U.S, as part of the Glen Foerd-Holy Family University Speaker Series.

From the vantage point of the 21st century, the interests of capital seem almost permanently entwined with the modern Republican Party. But in the 20th century, and beginning in the New Deal, a very different relationship played out between businesspeople and the Democratic Party, a relationship that has been buried beneath current Republican calls for limited taxation, austerity, and free markets. From Franklin Roosevelt’s administration to Bill Clinton’s generation of New Democrats, Democratic liberals emphasized private sector economic growth as the key to social progress.

Brent Cebul is a scholar of U.S. political history, urban history, and the histories of capitalism, inequality, and political economy. His current book project is tentatively titled Illusions of Progress: Business, Poverty, and Liberalism in the American Century (under contract with the University of Pennsylvania Press).

The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required.