A historian is writing a book about how Latin American governments tried to control prices and tame markets during the 1970s and 1980s, even as the global push for free markets and neoliberal policies swept the region. This matters because the existing literature on neoliberalism focuses almost entirely on how and why markets were freed. This project flips that question to examine the politics of *taming* markets—the state-led mechanisms such as commodity agreements, cartels, and price controls that competed with new financial instruments like futures markets. It opens the black box of economic policymaking under military regimes, moving beyond simplistic myths of "economic miracle" or "pauperization." It also fills a gap in the history of global finance by examining how trade institutions and financial instruments were used in the developing world. If successful, the book will not change a manufacturing process or a supply chain. Its impact is scholarly and societal: it will increase financial and economic literacy in the humanities, offering a more nuanced understanding of how economic power actually operated during a turbulent period. This is fundamental historical research that could reshape how policymakers and the public think about the relationship between states and markets.
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The fellowship will support training, research, and writing. of the book project tentatively titled Taming Markets: Latin America in the Global Neoliberal Order. In what became a moment of policy experimentation in the 1970s and 1980s, market-driven, financial institutions and strategies such as commodity exchanges and futures markets began to compete with the existing but renewed arsenal of state-led mechanisms such as commodity agreements, cartels, and price controls in an effort to tame markets in period of economic distress at the global level and political repression in the region. The book project will investigate the emergence, transformation, and impact of those institutions, policies, and everyday practices aiming at taming and markets and controlling prices in a context of a sweeping neoliberal turn that promised to freed markets once and for all. The book expects to make several scholarly and societal contributions. Instead of asking about the origins and politics of freeing markets like the existing multidisciplinary literature on neoliberalism, this book aims to flip the question and examine the politics of taming of markets. With regards to Latin American history, this book project opens the black box of economic policymaking during military regimes while exploring economic life beyond the well-trodden myths of "economic miracle" or "pauperization" that surround them. Finally, the book fills this book fills an overwhelming gap on the history of global finance by examining the rise and use of trade institutions and finance instruments in the developing world. Beyond scholarly goals, the book is part of a broader project of increasing financial and economic literacy in the humanities.
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