How Britain Invented the Concept of the “Gentleman”
And why America’s WASP upper class copied it
From Poverty to Progress
Promoting an awareness and understanding of human material progress. How we got it, and how we can keep it going.
Live Last read · last published · next check
Latest posts
Let’s Just Stop Using the Term “Populism”
At this point, the term has lost almost all meaning, except as a pejorative.
How distinctive were Commercial societies in Pre-industrial Europe?
Using ChatGPT estimates to give quantitative evidence.
Coal and its influence on human history
A Table of Contents with links to articles on this topic.
Why Ideologues Get History Backwards
We should learn from the results of history, instead of rewriting the past to justify our preconceived biases
How Germany Repeatedly Sabotaged Its Own Success
Why Germany’s pursuit of territory and military power, 1895-1945, led to two catastrophic wars and undermined decades of economic progress
How Technology Made Summer Bearable
From Natural Cooling and Harvested Ice to Industrial Refrigeration, Household Refrigerators, and Air Conditioning
How British Coal Powered Europe's 19th-Century Economy
How Imported British Coal Fueled Agriculture, Cities, and Industry Across Europe
Why Northern Italy Lost Its Economic Leadership
How foreign conquest and political centralization ended the world's first Commercial society.
The Forgotten Economic Boom of Republican China (1928-37)
The part of history that the Chinese Communist party does not want you to know about.
Did Useful Knowledge Cause Modern Prosperity?
Why some societies generated useful knowledge while others did not.
How Flanders copied the Northern Italian city-states
How Copying Turned Flanders into Europe's Leading Commercial Society
How Silkworms Helped Industrialize Japan
The unlikely story of how a humble export transformed a nation.
Did Unequal Treaties Imposed by European Empires Prevent Asia from Industrializing?
China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Persia, and the Ottoman Empire Compared