Please join the German Studies Lecture Series talk entitled, "The Blurred Line: Speculation and Gambling in Germany and Britain around 1900" by Cornelius Torp (Gerda Henkel Visiting Professor).

Abstract:
Since the 2008 financial crisis, speculation has often been equated with gambling—an accusation echoed by economists, politicians, and NGOs who condemned “casino capitalism” for its destructive effects. Yet the link between speculation and gambling has much deeper roots. This talk places the recent debate in historical perspective by revisiting the controversies surrounding speculation in Imperial Germany and Victorian Britain around 1900, when questions about its legitimacy reached a peak. By comparing these two advanced industrial societies, the presentation examines why similar moral and political anxieties about speculation and gambling produced strikingly different outcomes—and what this divergence reveals about their distinct financial and cultural traditions.

RSVP for the talk by Cornelius Torp  

The German Studies Lecture Series is hosted by the Department of German Studies, Stanford University.