Fixing Capital: Drug capitalism, Latinxs, and the Ownership Crisis in Late 20th Century New York
New York’s illicit drug trade boomed as the city entered its postindustrial era. This lecture traces how its rise in the Bronx and Upper Manhattan intersected with the contradictory roles of housing as shelter and investment. It pays particular attention to the social and physical architecture that drug capitalists utilized in their search for profit, and how their endeavors collided with emerging grassroots efforts to revitalize declining neighborhoods.
About the speaker:
Pedro A. Regalado is Assistant Professor of History at Stanford University where he researches and teaches the history of race, immigration, planning, and capitalism in urban America. His first book, Nueva York: Making the Modern City, is a history of New York City’s Latinx community during the twentieth century, from the “pioneers” who arrived after World War I to the panoply of Latinx people who rebuilt the city in the wake of the 1975 fiscal crisis. Regalado’s work has been featured in The Journal of Urban History, Boston Review, The Washington Post, and The Chronicle of Higher Education. Before coming to Stanford, Regalado was a junior fellow of the Society of Fellows at Harvard University.