Exchanges: A Cambridge UP Podcast · New Books Network

Geoffrey Jones and Sabine Pitteloud eds., "The Cambridge Companion to the History of Multinationals and Society" (Cambridge UP, 2026)

·36 min·3 clips

Geoffrey Jones reveals why 50 years after Mira Wilkins' work, the world of multinationals demands a radical new historical reassessment.

The frame is civic, not just corporate. The guest argues that some multinationals have sometimes mattered more than governments, so their history belongs in public literacy, not only in business schools. Power is the problem running underneath the whole episode. Instead of treating global brands as familiar consumer scenery, the discussion asks what corporate reach does to national economies, culture, politics, and policy choices. History gives the episode its method. The guest brings in Norman Cousins's line about history as an early warning system to explain why old corporate behavior still matters. The point is not memorizing dates. It is noticing patterns in crises, environmental harm, labor conflicts, and institutional responses before they return in a new form. The host pushes the conversation past the obvious global brands toward the structures that let multinational power move across borders. Trade rules are part of that story. The guest says the so-called rule-based international order was less about fairness or morality than predictability for companies and governments. That gives the exchange some bite. Multinationals come across not only as firms working inside rules, but as actors whose needs helped shape the rules. The book's collective format also matters. The guest uses the volume's range to connect trade agreements, international law, institutions, and corporate behavior. China closes the discussion. The guest questions the familiar language of institutional voids and points instead to institutional advantages behind recent corporate growth. Paula de la Cruz Fernandez keeps the ending grounded in scholarly method and the work behind a large edited volume.

As heard by us

A careful case for treating multinational history as public history.

Paula de la Cruz Fernandez keeps the discussion focused and readable, and Geoffrey Jones and Sabine Pitteloud make a plain case for why multinationals belong in public history, not just business history.

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Why you'd press play

Press play for the history of multinationals and the ways they shaped politics, labor, and everyday life.

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