Dael A. Norwood

Biography

Dael A. Norwood is a historian of nineteenth-century America specializing on the global dimensions of U.S. politics and economics. He has particular interest in the political economy of commerce: how the ideas and practices of international exchange have affected Americans’ relations with other powers, as well as their dealings with each other. Norwood is now finishing his first book, entitled Trading in Freedom: How Trade with China Defined Early America. Under contract with the University of Chicago Press, Trading in Freedom examines how the flourishing commerce between the United States and China intertwined with the struggles over sovereignty, citizenship and race that defined the first century of the American state. He has also written articles and essays about the role of commerce in shaping the Constitution, the historiography of political economy in the early republic, and the history of indentured servitude. His latest project investigates how “the businessman” became a potent political and cultural identity in America. Norwood teaches courses on the history of America in the world, capitalism, U.S. foreign relations, and American political economy.

Publications

Trading Freedom: How Trade with China Defined Early America ​(The University of Chicago Press, 2022)