Marc Palen Keynote Speaker

Dr Marc-William Palen brings a unique historical perspective to today’s controversies surrounding global trade. His talks challenge us to consider how conflicts around global trade nowadays have deep roots in the imperial past.

The University of Exeter historian is an authority on how imperialism has indelibly shaped the broader history of globalization, from the 19th century to today. Marc’s newest book, Pax Economica: Left-Wing Visions of a Free Trade World, with Princeton University Press, explores the fascinating connections between free-market advocacy and left-wing politics. His book has been named a Financial Times ‘Best Books of the Year’ and the 2024 ‘Best Books’ list by New Yorker Magazine. Marc’s first book, The ‘Conspiracy’ of Free Trade: The Anglo-American Struggle over Empire and Economic Globalisation, 1846-1896 (Cambridge University Press, 2016), recovers the Republican Party’s long forgotten history of protectionism that stretches back to the mid-19th century. It was a Financial Times 2016 Summer Reading list ‘best book’ and one of the Globalist magazine’s ‘top ten books of 2016’.

Marc explicitly connects economic history to contemporary policy, whether as director of the Global Economics and History Forum in London, as editor of The Imperial & Global Forum, or through editorials for international outlets like Le Monde, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Time, and the Australian.

Marc is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.