The Ghosts of Economics Past: John Henry Days and the Production of History

Ghosts have long been residents of the postmodern. Halfway between the material and the immaterial, a ghost is present but invisible, unchanging but indefinable, both permanent and ephemeral. Often the product of violence, its presence attests to the reality of violence and death, though it is itself incapable of dying. Ghosts stand in as the literal presence of the past in the present—a testament to the reality of bygone eras. This article analyzes the role of haunting in Colson Whitehead’s John Henry Days, viewing ghosts as eruptions of a traumatic economic history into the present.