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Tobias Lunde The Scottish Lowlands was one of the world’s first industrialised regions. By the early 19th century, Scotland was the global centre of several industries; Glasgow was the Second City of the Empire; and Edinburgh was a centre of the Enlightenment, home to both Adam Smith and David Hume. Several seminal innovations from the period were made by Scots, including James Watt’s critically…
Christoph Hess In 19th-century England, afternoon tea would not have been complete without a serving of Keemun – one of the Victorians’ most prized black teas. This was not for a lack of choice. A secret operation headed by the Scottish botanist Robert Fortune, who donned Chinese-style garments to travel incognito to China’s tea regions, […]
Sheilagh Ogilvie The Covid-19 pandemic rightly focused our attention on medical science. But working on economic history and historical demography, I’ve always been struck by how the outcomes of epidemics are shaped by more than microbes and medicines. Why did some societies suffer so much more than others? Why were some life-saving innovations adopted quickly in one […]
Last week we published our 60th blog post, celebrating 60 years of research at Campop. Over the last year we have covered a wide variety of topics, and we have hopefully introduced you to some things you didn’t know about demography, social structure, family, work, and the economy, from the medieval period right up to […]
Alice Reid & Romola Davenport The world’s population has exploded since the 18th century, from perhaps 1 billion in 1800 to over 8 billion today. The usual story is that this extraordinary growth was caused by dramatic falls in mortality. But research at Campop has shown that, at least in England, fertility has actually played […]
Alice Reid In 2011 David Cameron asked “Do we have the determination to confront the slow-motion moral collapse that has taken place in parts of our country these past few generations?” He went on to present a list of examples of the moral collapse he was talking about: “Irresponsibility. Selfishness. Behaving as if your choices […]
Romola Davenport ‘Malthusianism’ is widely used to describe the belief that (1) human populations grow faster than the resources on which they depend, and (2) that the main way in which population is prevented from outstripping resources is by the ‘positive check’ of mortality, resulting in the most extreme circumstances in ‘Malthusian crises’ (famine and […]
Hannaliis Jaadla, Alice Reid, Eilidh Garrett and Romola Davenport In terms of mortality, the UK currently stands out as one of the most regionally unequal countries in Europe. The divide between local authorities is stark: the gap in life expectancy at birth between the country’s wealthiest and poorest areas is around ten years. These figures […]
Kevin Schurer According to the Office of National Statistics (ONS), in 2023 – the latest year for which information has been published – the top five most popular babies’ names for boys were, in descending rank order, Muhammad, Noah, Oliver, George and Leo, and for girls, Olivia Amelia, Isla, Lily and Freya. With the exception […]
Alexander Wakelam As the Summer months finally arrive, many of us – particularly those with extended families or with a large network of friends – will be preparing for the annual cycle of weddings. For some this may have already begun in early Spring and might continue into December. Weddings taking place throughout the year is […]
