Uploaded March 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Hannah Farber (@columbia) discusses her book and explains how the insurance business and the United States discovered that they were good for one another.
Learn more about her work
https://history.columbia.edu/person/farber-hannah/
Pick up a copy of "Underwriters of the United States"
uncpress.org/book/9781469663630/underwriters-of-the-united-states
Unassuming but formidable, American maritime insurers used their position at the pinnacle of global trade to shape the new nation. The international information they gathered and the capital they generated enabled them to play central roles in state building and economic development. During the Revolution, they helped the U.S. negotiate foreign loans, sell state debts, and establish a single national bank. Afterward, they increased their influence by lending money to the federal government and to its citizens. Even as federal and state governments began to encroach on their domain, maritime insurers adapted, preserving their autonomy and authority through extensive involvement in the formation of commercial law. Leveraging their claims to unmatched expertise, they operated free from government interference while simultaneously embedding themselves into the nation’s institutional fabric. By the early nineteenth century, insurers were no longer just risk assessors. They were nation builders and market makers.
Deeply and imaginatively researched, Underwriters of the United States uses marine insurers to reveal a startlingly original story of risk, money, and power in the founding era.
Hannah Farber (@columbia) discusses her book and explains how the insurance business and the United States discovered that they were good for one another.
Learn more about her work
https://history.columbia.edu/person/farber-hannah/
Pick up a copy of "Underwriters of the United States"
uncpress.org/book/9781469663630/underwriters-of-the-united-states
Unassuming but formidable, American maritime insurers used their position at the pinnacle of global trade to shape the new nation. The international information they gathered and the capital they generated enabled them to play central roles in state building and economic development. During the Revolution, they helped the U.S. negotiate foreign loans, sell state debts, and establish a single national bank. Afterward, they increased their influence by lending money to the federal government and to its citizens. Even as federal and state governments began to encroach on their domain, maritime insurers adapted, preserving their autonomy and authority through extensive involvement in the formation of commercial law. Leveraging their claims to unmatched expertise, they operated free from government interference while simultaneously embedding themselves into the nation’s institutional fabric. By the early nineteenth century, insurers were no longer just risk assessors. They were nation builders and market makers.
Deeply and imaginatively researched, Underwriters of the United States uses marine insurers to reveal a startlingly original story of risk, money, and power in the founding era.
![The China Miracle? [Yuen Yuen Ang]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/uU0djl6BMP8/mqdefault.jpg "The China Miracle? [Yuen Yuen Ang]
If we are to work toward a better future, we must look beyond the surface, and understand the multifaceted reality of Chinas ascent in the global arena.
Drawing parallels to Americas Gilded Age, Yuen Yuen Ang emphasizes that modernization comes with both progress and disruption. Ang (Alfred Chandler Chair Professor of Political Economy at @JohnsHopkins) provides a small window into her research, juxtaposing Chinas impressive economic achievements with the accompanying challenges of corruption, inequality, and environmental degradation.
Learn more about her work at https://sites.google.com/view/yuenyuenang
Produced by Matthew Kulvicki & Nick Alpha")
