On history, economics, philosophy & the written word
History is the only place we can observe how human societies actually behave — not in theory, but across centuries of consequence.
Around 1200 BCE, almost every major civilization in the Eastern Mediterranean disintegrated within a few decades. Palatial economies vanished. Writing systems were forgotten. What happened — and what it might tell us about our own moment — remains one of history's most compelling open questions.
Continue readingGutenberg did not intend to fracture Christendom. He intended to sell Bibles. The story of how a commercial technology accidentally produced a century of religious war is one of history's great lessons in unintended consequences.
Continue readingEdward Gibbon blamed Christianity. Modern historians blame lead pipes, climate, or fiscal crisis. The real answer is probably all of the above — and that complexity is precisely the point. Monocausal explanations of the fall of Rome reveal more about the explainer than the thing explained.
Continue readingThe plague killed a third of Europe — and inadvertently ended serfdom. When labour became scarce, peasants could finally bargain. The catastrophe that the medieval world experienced as divine punishment turned out to be, in economic terms, an enormous transfer of power from landlords to workers.
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