Path-Dependent vs. Ergodic Systems
Consider a metal arm fixed by a pin. If it is hung vertically then the arm, no matter where it starts, will always end up in the same position. However, if you fix the arm (perfectly) horizontally it...
View ArticleOverlord: D-Day and the Battle for Normandy 1944 by Max Hastings
7.5/10. Finished a few weeks ago this is another (rather earlier) example of Hastings’ skill in writing penetrating and engaging military history, as well as his willingness to be critical of existing...
View ArticleIs Game Theory of Any Value for the Historical Analysis of Institutions?
I was much much struck by generally pessimistic tone of Gregory Clark’s lengthy review in the JEL’s September issue of Avner Greif’s Institutions and the Path to the Modern Economy. These comments have...
View ArticleCannibalism and the Common Law by A Simpson
7/10. Cannibalism and the Common Law: The Story of the Tragic Last Voyage of the Mignonette and the Strange Legal Proceedings to Which It Gave Rise by A Simpson, University of Chicago Press, 1984. More...
View ArticleDeath in Hamburg: Society and Politics in the Cholera Years, 1830-1910 by...
6/10. Death in Hamburg: Society and Politics in the Cholera Years, 1830-1910 by Richard Evans This book promises much but ultimately rather disappoints, largely because of its tendency to lose focus,...
View ArticleTo Lose a Battle: France 1940 by Alistair Horne
7/10. Well written and fascinating, particularly in its clear demonstration of the way the French just ‘gave up’ (both generally in the inter-war period and in 1940 itself). I would have preferred more...
View ArticleA History in Bits of Bits in History
I’ve started work on a book on the “Information Age”. Still at a very early stage and largely outlines but I do have a first draft of the introduction which is available below. I also have a tentative...
View ArticleTalk by Frederick Scherer: Deregulatory Roots of the Current Financial Crisis
Last Thursday I attended a talk by Frederick Scherer at the [Judge] entitled: “Deregulatory Roots of the Current Financial Crisis”. Below are some sketchy notes. Notes Macro story: Huge current account...
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Estimating Information Production and the Size of the Public Domain
Here we’re going to look at using library catalogue data as a source for estimating information production (over time) and the size of the public domain. Library Catalogues Cultural institutions,...
View ArticleThe Elusive Disappearance of Community
From Laslett ‘Phillipe Ariès and “La Famille”‘ p.83 (quoted in Eisenstein, p.131): The actual reality, the tangible quality of community life in earlier towns or villages … is puzzling … and only too...
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