September 23-24, 2023: AmericanStudying the Panic of 1873: 2023 Connections

[On September20th, 1873, the New York Stock Exchange closed for tendays, a key moment in the developing economic crisis that came to be known as the Panicof 1873. So for the 150th anniversary of that moment this weekI’ve AmericanStudied a handful of Panic contexts, leading up to this weekendpost on 2023 echoes of those histories!]

On one overtand two subtle (but perhaps even more important) echoes of the 1870s.

1)     Downturn: As I’ve traced throughout the week’sposts, the Panic and subsequent crash of 1873 spawned many years of intenseeconomic downturn and depression. That era came to be known as the LongDepression, but we’ve had plenty longer since, including the recession thatfollowed the 2008 crash. There’s a lot about 2008 that feels eerily similar to1873, including the central role of speculation in creating the circumstancesfor both crashes. And just as (it seems to me) we’ve downplayed the 1870sdepression in our collective memories, making it harder to engage with thevarious contexts I’ve highlighted across this series, I’d argue that we haven’tyet fully grappled with how significant and lasting (perhaps even into our ownmoment, despite narrativesthat it ended in 2009) the post-2008 downturn has been. Neither was quitethe Great Depression, but that doesn’t mean these weren’t defining downturns intheir own right.

2)     Prejudice: One of the most fraught debates ofthe last decade in American politics and society has been whether “economicanxiety” or white supremacy lies at the root of Donald Trump’s 2016electoral victory and the broader Trump/MAGA movement. But I would argue that the1870s reveal quite strikingly that this is a false choice: that in times ofeconomic downturn, white supremacist prejudice and hate toward Americans ofcolor and other minorities simply gain significantly greater purchase over fartoo many Americans (not that it’s ever far from us, but nonetheless that itbecomes even more dominant in these moments). The anti-Chinese Americanmovement had been present before the Panic of 1873 (see the 1871Los Angeles Chinatown Massacre for one telling piece of evidence), but I honestlydon’t know if it would have reached the level of national prominence requiredto produce the Chinese Exclusion Act without the decade’s economic crisis.

3)     Labor: As I wrote in Thursday’s post, I don’tbelieve there’s nearly enough connection drawn (including by me until I wasresearching this week’s series) between the first genuinely national laboraction, the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, and the Panic of 1873 and itsaftermaths. There would be various important effects of thinking through thoseinterconnected histories, but an important one would be to recognize the influentialand inspiring role that organized labor can play in responding to economiccrises and offering workers and all Americans an alternative vision ofsolidarity and community. Which makes it anything but a coincidence that we’rein the midst of the most significantseries of labor actions that the nation has seen in a long time, if notindeed since the late 19th century. Given the hugely meaningful successesand progress which that late 19th century labor movement achieved,it’s fair to say that this 2023 echo offers some real hope amidst so many morepainful such parallels.

Nextseries starts Monday,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think?