The Nationalist Dilemma: A Global History of Economic Nationalism, 1776–Present

Nationalism is often deemed a purely political or cultural ideology whose proponents are uninterested in the minutiae of economic policy. Marvin Suesse shows that nationalists do in fact think about the economy, and that this thinking matters once they hold power. Drawing on case studies from the American Revolution to the rise of China, he explains the varieties of economic nationalism, elucidates their origins, and analyses their effect on the development of the global economy.

Marvin Suesse is Assistant Professor in Economics at Trinity College Dublin and an expert in economic history and international political economy. He is the author of The Nationalist Dilemma: A Global History of Economic Nationalism, 1776-Present, published with Cambridge University Press (2023). He has previously published on the relationship between globalization and state formation in twentieth-century Africa (2023), market integration and financialization in Imperial Germany (2020) and regional integration in the former Soviet Union (2018).

The Washington History Seminar is co-chaired by Eric Arnesen (George Washington University) and Christian Ostermann (Woodrow Wilson Center) and is organized jointly by the American Historical Association and the Woodrow Wilson Center's History and Public Policy Program. It meets weekly during the academic year. The seminar thanks its anonymous individual donors and institutional partner (the George Washington University History Department) for their continued support.