Richard R. John

Richard R. John @rrjohnr.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 04, 2024 at 22:01 UTC

Annals of anti-monopoly: I join Kathryn Brownell and Jeannette Estruth in Washington, D.C., on 6 June for a congressional briefing on federal media policy. My topic is federal regulation of the mail, the telegraph, telephone, and radio. Details below.

www.historians.org/news-and-adv...

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Richard R. John @rrjohnr.bsky.social [ View ] Apr 22, 2024 at 14:20 UTC

Anti-Monopoly Roundtable Today— featuring Tim Wu, Bill Novak, Kate Andrias, Suresh Naidu, and…myself. Click below for the registration information — with the Zoom link. We will be discussing Crane and Novak, ed., _Antimonopoly and American Democracy_. events.columbia.edu/cal/event/even…

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Richard R. John @rrjohnr.bsky.social [ View ] Feb 09, 2024 at 19:58 UTC

Agreed

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Richard R. John @rrjohnr.bsky.social [ View ] Jan 13, 2024 at 18:18 UTC

Annals of anti-monopoly: “[Brandeis] wanted government action not only to destroy bigness but affirmatively to protect smallness—even, if necessary, at expense of competition.” Schlesinger, _Politics of Upheaval_p. 388.

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Richard R. John @rrjohnr.bsky.social [ View ] Jan 07, 2024 at 11:43 UTC

David Donald developed his thesis in _Liberty and Union_, a stimulating, if neglected, survey of 19th c US public life that revealed the strengths AND the weaknesses of the justly criticized “party period” model, a legacy of Cold War-era assumptions about the essential coherence of US public life.

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Richard R. John @rrjohnr.bsky.social [ View ] Jan 07, 2024 at 11:26 UTC

Rachel Sheldon’s fine new coauthored essay in the _JAH_ is helping 19th c. US historians to move beyond the “party period” synthesis (championed among others by my mentor David Donald). Party competition for Donald helped to promote unity (along with faith in the Constitution and popular oratory).

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Richard R. John @rrjohnr.bsky.social [ View ] Dec 30, 2023 at 16:05 UTC

Very sad — a wonderful colleague and a nice guy

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Richard R. John @rrjohnr.bsky.social [ View ] Dec 13, 2023 at 18:38 UTC

Ben: 8-10 is pretty normal for me. But I straddle two Ph.D. granting programs — so that might be a bit on the high end.

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Richard R. John @rrjohnr.bsky.social [ View ] Nov 27, 2023 at 15:38 UTC

Annals of anti-monopoly: can the history of the remarkably successful regulation (municipal, state, and federal) of the Bell System provide insight into the Graham-Warren proposal for the regulation of Big Tech? Hint: yes. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

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Richard R. John @rrjohnr.bsky.social [ View ] Nov 22, 2023 at 05:32 UTC

Noble’s _Religion of Technology_ is eminently teachable — but I agree — there is much more to be done.

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Richard R. John @rrjohnr.bsky.social [ View ] Nov 15, 2023 at 19:13 UTC

Carrier pigeons as a motive power for long distance communications…today!

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Richard R. John @rrjohnr.bsky.social [ View ] Oct 30, 2023 at 12:45 UTC

Annals of anti-monopoly: Now in print. How we might reframe the monopoly question — anti-monopoly as a mode on inquiry (like liberalism, socialism, or republicanism) rather than a reflexive grievance: academiccommons.columbia.edu/doi/10.7916/...

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Richard R. John @rrjohnr.bsky.social [ View ] Oct 27, 2023 at 02:21 UTC

Susie Pak had written on Morgan’s financial network; Jean Strouse is the go-to author for his cultural milieu; don’t overlook Vincent Carosso on his business activities

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Richard R. John @rrjohnr.bsky.social [ View ] Oct 25, 2023 at 13:04 UTC

Now in print _Antimonopoly and American Democracy_, with essays by Richard White, Naomi Lamoreaux, Daniel Crane, Bill Novak, myself, and others. It high time we “reframed” the monopoly question to decenter consumer welfare and turn attention to democracy, freedom, and justice.

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Richard R. John @rrjohnr.bsky.social [ View ] Oct 19, 2023 at 03:42 UTC

Annals of anti-monopoly: Horace Greeley, 1851: “Secure to each man so much land as one may use, and preserve the residue for the use and benefit of all….Savage improvidence and want of forecast are hardly more pernicious than civilized monopoly and exclusion; a wise policy would shun them both.”

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Richard R. John @rrjohnr.bsky.social [ View ] Oct 18, 2023 at 08:11 UTC

Seth: good question. Answer: yes. I recommend that prospective Ph.D. students consult with prospective mentors via email, or (if they can visit in person) by setting up a meeting in office hours, and that they also reach out to current Ph.D. students who are in the same program, including mentees. .

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Richard R. John @rrjohnr.bsky.social [ View ] Oct 16, 2023 at 02:26 UTC

Eric: can you explain? What is “What’s History.” Can I join?

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Richard R. John @rrjohnr.bsky.social [ View ] Oct 13, 2023 at 17:03 UTC

Lee: agreed. Much rests on the context in which we evaluate concepts (or, if you will, keywords) like “regulatory capture.” I object to this framing: no regulation of US business before…1887? 1911? Some other date. Recent historical writing in “open access” orders reinforces this convention.

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Richard R. John @rrjohnr.bsky.social [ View ] Oct 13, 2023 at 16:00 UTC

Lee: I agree that concepts and contexts change. But I am skeptical of the presumption by economists, widely echoed by others, that regulatory capture began at one relatively recent point in time. This presumes that the US “heritage” is pre-regulatory, which is misleading, reactionary, and false.

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Richard R. John @rrjohnr.bsky.social [ View ] Oct 11, 2023 at 17:51 UTC

Thanks for this Ben — it is my impression the concept is often invoked to critique public policy — on the assumption that lawmakers are somehow impeding laudable (“natural”) economic processes. This is a very old idea. Not sure what is gained by focusing so narrowly on the very recent past?

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Richard R. John @rrjohnr.bsky.social [ View ] Oct 11, 2023 at 14:49 UTC

Re DMs? No DMs on principle — interesting

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Richard R. John @rrjohnr.bsky.social [ View ] Oct 11, 2023 at 14:46 UTC

Don’t forget the third volume in the (late) Judith Stein corpus — Lichtenstein and Stein, _Fabulous Failure_.

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Richard R. John @rrjohnr.bsky.social [ View ] Oct 11, 2023 at 14:43 UTC

Ben: someone should do a keyword search. I may try myself. Part of the problem is the overemphasis in the secondary literature on the ICC. The story does not begin in 1887.

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Richard R. John @rrjohnr.bsky.social [ View ] Oct 11, 2023 at 13:54 UTC

Can we send DMs on Bluesky?

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Richard R. John @rrjohnr.bsky.social [ View ] Oct 11, 2023 at 13:54 UTC

Huntington merely echoes conventional wisdom. Novak (whose essay is useful) is oddly inattentive to 19th century municipal regulation, and like Kolko is too ICC-centric. Richard White is superb on the political legacy of railroad land grants — a key anti-monopoly concern. Back to the sources!

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Richard R. John @rrjohnr.bsky.social [ View ] Oct 11, 2023 at 13:41 UTC

Beth: regulatory capture is as old as the republic. The idea that big business was UN-regulated before the ICC is fatuous—though popularized by many, including my advisors Al Chandler and McCraw. Letting economists write the narrative is a mistake: they intentionally distort to boost each other.

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Richard R. John @rrjohnr.bsky.social [ View ] Oct 11, 2023 at 13:37 UTC

Thanks Lee! Eager to learn more about this app

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Richard R. John @rrjohnr.bsky.social [ View ] Oct 11, 2023 at 13:35 UTC

The idea of regulatory capture is old as the republic. Anti-monopoly (eg general incorporation) was hailed as a remedy. The “octopus” cartoons began (in the 1870s) as a critique of legislative money grand (public lands for stock). What we would call capture and NOT bigness was the main concern.

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Richard R. John @rrjohnr.bsky.social [ View ] Oct 11, 2023 at 03:44 UTC

Annals of anti-monopoly (continued): abolitionist Lydia M. Child, 1870: “I dislike all monopolies; and a monopoly of labor seems to me as wrong, in spirit and principle, as a monopoly of grain or fruit. For men to combine together to fix…the price of the article in which they deal, is monopoly…”

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