The coercive seizure of property has been an important phenomenon in the last two centuries of global history. From the age of colonial expansion and absolutism through the emancipations of unfree populations and the world wars and revolutions of the twentieth century, the large-scale taking and redistribution of property has driven profound political, economic and social change. Yet since the late writings of Max Weber, the role of expropriation in state formation and economic development has fallen by the wayside in political science, economics, and historical research. In this talk, historian Nicholas Mulder will explore what we can learn from taking the confiscatory dimension of state power seriously, as something more than just a dangerous force to be restrained, but also as a creative force whose power has reappeared over and over.

Bio
Nicholas Mulder is an assistant professor of modern European and international history at Cornell University. He is the author of The Economic Weapon: The Rise of Sanctions as a Tool of Modern War (Yale UP, 2022) and the forthcoming The Age of Confiscation: Making and Taking Property in the Creation of the Modern World (Allen Lane, 2026), which will appear in German with as Macht und Eigentum: Eine Weltgeschichte der Enteignung (S. Fischer, 2026).