Law and Capitalism

This guide primarily highlights sources available through BLS Library and publicly accessible sources.

• Click here to view a list of BLS Library's books (listed "newest to oldest") classified in SARA catalog by subject: Capitalism - United States - History. 

BLS Library tries to provide multiple-user access to ebooks.  For example, BLS patrons have "unlimited" digital user access to the essay collection: American Capitalism: New Histories (2018), to the history: Philip J. Stern, Empire, Incorporated: The Corporations That Built British Colonialism (2024) and to Ned Blackhawk, The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History (2023).  But sometimes vendors do not offer this purchase option or the option is expensive.  

• BLS Library previously purchased some ebooks from ProQuest Ebook Central (EBC). 
  • Tip re. EBC ebooks in BLS Library's SARA catalog: First-time use of the EBC ebook platform requires BLS students to click: Create Account.
    • Subsequent use of an EBC ebook: enter BLS username (format: firstname.lastname@brooklaw.edu) & password.

Tip: Google Books states it now provides "more than 10 million free books."  These include public-domain works, works available free at the request of the copyright owner, and U.S. government documents. 

• Click here to search Google's free books.

Tip: HathiTrust Digital Library states it provides digital material (over 18 million sources) from the collections of 60+ academic and research libraries.  All users can read public domain/open access texts and search the complete Hathi Trust Digital Library.  Among the "featured collections" is:

• Records of the American Colonies 

Tip: New York state residents can apply online for a New York Public Library (NYPL) card to access ebooks, audiobooks, and many databases.  For example, NYPL provides many circulating digital copies of Sven Beckert, Empire of Cotton: A Global History (2014), 2 digital circulating copies* of Daina Ramey Berry, The Price for Their Pound of Flesh: The Value of the Enslaved, from Womb to Grave, in the Building of a Nation (2017) and a digital + print copy of Working in the 21st Century: An Oral History of American Work in a Time of Social and Economic Transformation (2024).   NYPL has ordered Sven Beckert, Capitalism: A Global History (2025).  NYPL provides remote access to some of its databases, such as Gale database: Indigenous Peoples: North America (contains digitized archival sources).  Those who live, work or attend school in New York state can apply online for a Brooklyn Public Library card. 

Tip: To place interlibrary loan requests for books, book chapters, articles, reports and other material: Click tab: ILL in SARA catalog > enter your BLS user name (in format: firstname.lastname) & password > click: New Request.  Click: Other to  request a book chapter/section.  Please monitor both your BLS focused "In" box and "Other" folder for messages about your ILL requests.   

• Want to check the status of an ILL request?  Contact: ill@brooklaw.edu
• Copies of articles and book chapters often arrive within 1-3 business days of placing a request.  (Material arrives more quickly if a lender can fill an interlibrary loan request electronically.)  Books can take longer to receive from a lender. 

*NYPL's Libby app shows 2 digital circulating copies + 1 audiobook.

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