Sven Beckert
Historian and Harvard professor
Sven Beckert is a German-American historian who teaches at Harvard University. He wrote Empire of Cotton, which won the 2015 Bancroft Prize.
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Born in Frankfurt, Germany
About Sven Beckert
Sven Beckert is the Laird Bell Professor of History at Harvard University. He teaches nineteenth-century US history and global history, with a particular focus on the history of capitalism. He earned his PhD in History at Columbia University. Empire of Cotton: A Global History received the Bancroft Prize in 2015 and was also a finalist for that year's Pulitzer Prize for History. Beckert's fellowships include support from the Guggenheim Foundation, the New York Public Library and the American Council of Learned Societies. He also co-leads Harvard's Program on the Study of Capitalism.