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McVeigh and Rolston's Ireland, Colonialism and the Unfinished Revolution puts colonialism at the heart of Ireland's social and economic history, but also as essential to understanding modern Irish politics. The subjugation of Catholics in Northern Ireland was a consequence of the failure to end British control over the island and a perpetuation of ethnic rule characteristic of other white dominions. The incomplete reckoning with colonialism has shaped the Irish engagement with global capitalism including its abandonment of its anticolonial allies with its embrace of the European Union. These historical and political issues are debated in this roundtable in which one of the co-authors of the book responds to interventions probing the work's treatment of capitalism, empire, gender, and anticolonial solidarities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we develop and analyse novel datasets to retrace the persistence and scale of underground market activity in Maoist China. We show that, contrary to received wisdom, Chinese citizens continued to engage in market-based transactions long after "socialist transformation" was ostensibly complete, and that this activity constituted a substantial proportion of local economic output throughout the Maoist era. This helps to explain, in part, why, when markets were officially reopened in China, private economic activity took off. We arrive at these findings through the development and analysis of novel datasets based on unconventional historical sources – namely, a collection of 2,690 cases of "speculation and profiteering" that were recovered from flea markets in eastern China. We show how these grassroots sources can be systematically analysed and used, in lieu of official statistical aggregates, to develop new insights into the macro workings of the Maoist economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The essay examines the history of interactions between academic thinkers and the application of their ideas to airline management and policy. Many studies of the history of transport focus on developments in engineering hardware and business models underlying its use, together with historical biographies of the key individuals involved. Here I deviate from this to look at how, over the past half-century or so, ideas emanating from the new behavioural economics have permeated the way air transport markets, and their regulation, have developed. I consider the outcomes on air carriers and their markets of efforts at combining psychology and economics into matters concerning airline management and policy formulation. It looks at the ways in which the traditional economic framework that dominated much of the thinking about commercial air transport from the 1920s has been challenged over the past 50 years and the implications of this for carriers and passengers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document contains abstracts of papers presented at an academic conference. The papers cover a wide range of topics related to economics, history, and social development. Each paper presents empirical evidence and analysis to shed light on specific phenomena or historical events. The research is conducted using different methodologies and data sources, providing valuable insights into these complex subjects. The summaries provide a brief overview of each paper's main findings and contribute to the understanding of various social and economic phenomena. [Extracted from the article]

This document is a program for the 2023 Economic History Association meetings, which acknowledges the individuals and organizations involved in the event's success. It also provides information about the upcoming 2024 meeting, which will focus on the theme of "Globalization: Perspectives from the Past." The document includes a list of research papers that will be presented in various sessions, covering a wide range of topics such as trade costs, institutions and labor markets, state building and reform, race in the U.S., science and knowledge diffusion, and more. These papers offer valuable insights into different aspects of history and social movements, making them relevant for library patrons conducting research on these specific topics. [Extracted from the article]

Economists ignore caring labor since most is provided unpaid. Disregard is unjust, theoretically indefensible, and probably misleading. Valuation requires estimates of time spent and the replacement or opportunity costs of that time. I use the maintenance costs of British workers, costs which cover both the material inputs into upkeep and the domestic services needed to turn commodities into livings, to isolate the costs of paid domestic labor. I then impute the value of unpaid domestic labor from these market equivalents, and aggregate across households without domestic servants. Historically, unpaid domestic labor represented c. 20 percent of total income, a contribution that suggests the need to revise some standard narratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document provides summaries of several doctoral dissertations in the field of economic history. The first dissertation focuses on Chinese immigration and exclusion in the United States, challenging previous assumptions and highlighting the impact of anti-Chinese laws. The second dissertation explores expanding financial participation in the early 20th century, examining employee stock ownership programs and the impact of the Liberty Loan Program during World War I. The third dissertation examines disparities in access to opportunity in the United States, particularly focusing on the intergenerational effects of anti-Black institutions. These dissertations contribute valuable data, methods, and findings to their respective fields of study. Another dissertation explores various aspects of inequality in America, focusing on racial and gender disparities in access to opportunity. Lastly, a dissertation focuses on the drivers of labor market inequalities throughout economic history, examining intergenerational mobility and the impact of the feudal system. [Extracted from the article]

Economic history is mobilized by neo-institutionalists to explain the different paths to development observed in post-colonial countries. Acemoglu and Robinson have considered Haiti as an archetype of colonial institutional legacy to describe why Nations fail. Is this deterministic lecture sufficient to understand the troubled development journey of the first free Black Country? In this research, we show, with empirical and historical evidence, that institutional path-dependence theory is not the best analytical framework for the case of Haiti. Critical juncture theory appears to be more appropriate to capture what is really going on in neocolonial Haiti. We also contribute to the critical juncture theory with long-term historical evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Until the 17th century, the Dutch coastal region of Zeeland ranked among Europe's most urbanized areas, driven by thriving international trade networks. People living in this time of flourishing economy benefitted enormously from it in terms of employment opportunities and working conditions, which were reportedly better than in the rest of the Low Countries. However, the rapid growth of Zeeland's urban centers likely presented increasing challenges for the population in terms of accessing essential resources, including food, clean water, and housing. In the 19th century, Zeeland's economy ultimately faced a significant downturn due to the decline in the maritime trade, leading to a substantial reduction in its urban population. Examining patterns of urbanization and economic histories that differ from the commonly studied thriving industrial contexts in bioarcheological research, as exemplified by Zeeland, is a crucial yet relatively underexplored facet in our efforts to understanding the human past. To address this gap, this study investigates the impact of urbanization on the health of Zeeland's inhabitants over time by analyzing nonspecific stress markers (i.e., cribra orbitalia, porotic hyperostosis, and linear enamel hypoplasia) and chronic maxillary sinusitis in a sample of 246 individuals from three urban sites dating from 1030 to 1800 CE. Our analysis of skeletal remains reveals significant differences in the prevalence of porotic hyperostosis, linear enamel hypoplasia, and sinusitis between the medieval and post‐medieval periods. These findings suggest that de‐urbanization and economic decline adversely affected the health and well‐being of the populations under study, influenced by factors such as working conditions and food availability. This study provides a new perspective on bioarcheological approaches to urbanization, shedding light on the intricate realities of urbanization in Zeeland and offering important insights into its complexities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article applies a (micro)biographical approach to the life stories of two Ottoman orphans sent to Germany to receive vocational training during World War I, Ali and İsmail Dağlı. Coupling family archives, oral and visual sources with state documentation, I elaborate on the post-Ottoman afterlives of German know-how, education, and capital in the social and economic history of Turkey. Biographies of Dağlı brothers show that the successors of both empires restored former channels of circulation of expertise, technology, and labor. Especially seen in the context of Jewish emigration, the life and work history of the brothers elucidate the positive reception of their German education, the importance of their position as "cultural intermediaries," and the extent of Turkish-German business entanglements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the shift of power that occurred in Ottoman Damascus as a result of the establishment of its electricity and tramway network that started operating in 1907. The company, which ought to have been public, in the ownership of Ottoman-Syrian investors, ended up being owned by a Belgian consortium. The central argument in the article is that the Damascene elite families rationally refrained from the risk of establishing the Electricity Company but paid the price of losing control over power and light in the city. An informal network of Ottoman officials and Belgian businessmen, led by the second secretary of Sultan Abdülhamid II, the Damascene İzzet Pasha, orchestrated the buyout. Therefore, Damascus's encounter with its first electric grid, which was naturally complex in the first place, was also subjected to the tensions of outsourcing a local-municipal power to an external network that the Central Ottoman Government imposed. This article is an outcome of research on the electrification of Damascus, based on the papers of the Ottoman Ministry of Public Works from the Ottoman Archive and the company's records from Belgium's National Archive, the Ottoman-Syrian press, and the British and American consulates' archives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 1832 Reform Act and the 1835 Municipal Corporations Act reconfigured political representation in English towns from a 'franchise' system (based on rights of corporate freedom) to a property-based ratepaying electorate. This shift also undermined the rights of freemen to urban common lands and resources, which were linked to pre-existing forms of representation. This issue links directly to debates in economic history about use-rights and the preservation of common-pool resources (CPRs). Supporters of Nobel laureate Elinor Ostrom argue that such common resources could be preserved because this was the most rational economic choice facing their users. Critics have asserted that the fate of such economic resources was dictated by the historically contingent social, economic and political forces within them, not abstract economic rationality. This article assesses these arguments through a micro-study of the commons in the Yorkshire borough of Beverley between 1835 and 1870. New legislation ensured that these lands were managed in line with Ostrom's principles of transparency and accountability. Despite this, they became entangled in wholesale, organised political corruption, exposed by a detailed Parliamentary enquiry in 1868. The article investigates this contradiction to explore how far 'institutions' could remain autonomous within a highly contested political 'space'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines utopian elements in Thomas Stuber's 2018 film In den Gängen. Despite the neoliberal forces that constrain a group of supermarket shelf stackers in the former East Germany, the film's characters exhibit congenial bonds in the face of alienated work. Strikingly, their encounters with machines also convey an other-directedness and improvised conviviality, or energy that enables them to devise bonds in fleeting moments. As much as the film presumes a foreclosed-on socialist utopia, it also depicts a range of contemporary challenges to neoliberalism, including practices of commoning, non-normative forms of relationality, and human-machine interactions that gesture towards a posthumanist selfhood. At the same time, the three main characters' personal circumstances and histories necessarily impact their ability to benefit from these elements. Both age and gender play crucial roles in their individual fates, and not all of them thrive within their caring, other-directed community. Ultimately, In den Gängen suggests the possibility of mundane existences gesturing towards superlative futures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The identities and roles of women known as beguines in late medieval Europe have long been the subject of scholarly debate. Classic studies argued that beguines troubled a binary of heretical and orthodox movements, and that they were the object of clerical and lay suspicion. Recent work on medieval religious women has done much to enrich understandings of how diverse their roles could be. The records for the beguines of the central Rhineland, however, have not been the focus of examination in some decades. This paper draws on unpublished and understudied documents to examine how beguines were agents and catalysts of regional movement, and how their symbolic and physical emplacement in urban environments was understood. In doing so, it employs mobility theory, a lens heretofore little used by premodernists. This paper argues that the beguines of Mainz were neither exceptional nor marginal. Rather, they cultivated a distinctive identity while remaining integrated in local social and religious networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An academic journal article on the technicalities of tax data is not usually cause for much excitement. Yet at the end of last year, one such publication in the Journal of Political Economy set #Econtwitter afire with debate, and prompted a full column in the Economist. The paper, by Gerald Auten and David Splinter, took aim at the famous studies on rising inequality conducted by Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez, and Gabriel Zucman. If one employs different assumptions, Auten and Splinter argued, post-tax income inequality in the United States appears not to have risen much since the 1960s. While Piketty and his collaborators systematically challenged the findings, their detractors were quick to the draw. "The Piketty and Saez work is careless and politically motivated," sniped James Heckman, a Nobel-winning Chicago School econometrician. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the discrepancy between official Soviet ideology regarding state property ownership and the actual practices revealed in studies of the Soviet economy. Topics include the hierarchy of state property ownership during Stalinism, with the dictator at the top, followed by managers and officials, shedding light on power dynamics and economic decision-making in the late Soviet and post-Soviet periods.

The article focuses on the significant impact of Robert W. Fogel and Stanley Engerman's "Time on the Cross: The Economics of American Negro Slavery," which gained attention both academically and in the popular media upon its publication in 1974, coinciding with heightened public interest in racial issues following key civil rights events.

This article explores the significance of economic history in understanding ancient Mesopotamia. It points out the imbalance in research focus, with more attention given to literary and religious genres rather than economic models and theories. The article reviews a recent volume on the Mesopotamian economy, which examines the concept of "household" and analyzes economic functions and resource management over time and space. It suggests the use of new economic theories and approaches, such as those proposed by Keynes, North, and Ostrom, to gain fresh insights into the early Mesopotamian state's economy and its impact on society. The article emphasizes the importance of considering the role of individuals and households in economic activities and calls for clearer definitions and more accurate descriptions of economic terms. It encourages researchers to explore new paths and directions in writing economic history. [Extracted from the article]

How do national political parties vary in their views on Social Europe? I focus on an aspect that has received less attention despite its growing prevalence—EU regulations with ambitions to diminish social inequality to encourage social convergence among Member States. Since the Juncker Commission, the European Commission has become increasingly active in pursuing this aspect of Social Europe. Thus, understanding parties' positions on this aspect of Social Europe has become more important. However, current literature lacks measures of national party stances towards Social Europe, and explanations for these stances. Here, I use data from the Chapel Hill Expert Survey (2006, 2009, 2014 and 2019) to develop an indirect measure of party positions on Social Europe. Leveraging studies in party politics and EU politics, I propose that party families and national economic conditions may affect parties' positions on Social Europe. The analyses suggest substantial variation in parties' positions on Social Europe both within and across party families. The analyses also demonstrate that socialist and green parties support Social Europe most, whereas radical right parties support it least. Lastly, I do not find systematic evidence that national economic conditions influence parties' support for this aspect of Social Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indian politics tried to benefit from the competition between the two Cold War Blocs by gaining beneficial terms for economic cooperation and assistance. At times, Soviet and Central and Eastern European designs could prove more successful on the ground than their direct competitors from the West. This paper analyses cooperation schemes in the steel sector and scrutinises the reasons why this was the case. Economic cooperation between East and South was vibrant and could be mutually beneficial during the whole period of the Cold War, thereby calling into question a narrative of steady decline inherent in state socialism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the "Challenging Labour" / «Le défi du travail» conference held at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta, in October 2022, two plenary sessions invited scholars to engage in a dialogue on important historical and theoretical issues in the field of labour and working-class history/studies. One of these, on the entanglement of capitalism and colonialism, featured a paper delivered by Bryan D. Palmer and a response from hagwil hayetsk (Charles Menzies). These presentations are revised for publication here along with a rejoinder from Palmer in what is Labour/Le Travail's first "Forum" section. The aim of this section is to foster conversation, with scholars meaningfully engaging with each other's work across disciplinary, methodological, theoretical, or other kinds of differences in approach and understanding. The merit of this kind of dialogue is well demonstrated here by Palmer and hayetsk, and the editors would invite more such conversations for publication in this section in future issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows how to remove attenuation bias in regression analyses due to measurement error in historical data for a given variable of interest by using a secondary measure that can be easily generated from digitized newspapers. We provide three methods for using this secondary variable to deal with non-classical measurement error in a binary treatment: set identification, bias reduction via sample restriction, and a parametric bias correction. We demonstrate the usefulness of our methods by replicating four recent economic history papers. Relative to the initial analyses, our results yield markedly larger coefficient estimates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is a review of the book "Can heterodox economics make a difference? Conversations with key thinkers" by Phil Armstrong. The book consists of interviews with economists who have important contributions to make about heterodox economics, even if they do not necessarily identify themselves as heterodox. The interviews shed light on the relationship between heterodoxy and methodology, how heterodoxy is seen by mainstream economists, and the possibility of heterodoxy becoming widely accepted in social debates and policymaking. The book also explores the role of mathematics in heterodox economics and discusses the potential social impact of heterodox approaches. [Extracted from the article]

In the opening decades of the twenty‐first century certain cities around the world emerged as hubs of entrepreneurial innovation. This paper explores this urban economic change phenomenon through in‐depth and comparative qualitative analysis. It focuses on the recent contemporary history of New York, Los Angeles, London, Berlin, Tokyo and Shanghai prior to the global COVID pandemic. Based on an analysis of the drivers, mechanisms and processes of change, it is found that these cities acted as places of possibility for many individuals who previously may have been unlikely to engage in entrepreneurship. The cities were found to have established new development paths through entrepreneurial innovation stemming from co‐creation network dynamics, with key human agents playing pivotal roles. Common elements include the rise of venture capital, the growth of entrepreneurial cultures, and institutional policy changes. Notably, entrepreneurial innovation was found to be closely tied to changes in large corporates. This innovation evolved through the proliferation of new infrastructure such as co‐working spaces and innovation incubators, with each city being utilised as a test‐bed for new ideas. Finally, the emergence of a darker side to entrepreneurial innovation is found in terms of growing urban inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a history of the 'Kaldor-Hicks' concept of economic efficiency from its European birth in the 1930s to its American resurgence in the 1970s to its widespread implementation in the Global South by the early twenty-first century. While philosophers, economists and legal theorists have written widely about Kaldor-Hicks – global-minded intellectual historians have not. As a result, scholars have yet to place its creation, dissemination and ascendency into a broader historical context or examine the reasons behind its global spread. As this paper will demonstrate through the rise of cost–benefit analyses based on 'willingness to pay' metrics, while Kaldor-Hicks efficiency was invented by neoclassical economists in the late 1930s, its ascent to policy dominance is part-and-parcel of the neoliberal revolution of the past half century. Linking the history of economic thought with the rise of global neoliberalism, this paper demonstrates how Kaldor-Hicks efficiency emerged as a central pillar of a new, interventionist, wealth-maximizing and market-based form of depoliticized technocratic governance that not only marginalizes distributive concerns but actively exacerbates the problem of global inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Francis Ysidro Edgeworth's unduly neglected monograph New and Old Methods of Ethics (1877) advances a highly sophisticated and mathematized account of social well-being in the utilitarian tradition of his 19th-century contemporaries. This article illustrates how his usage of the 'calculus of variations' was combined with findings from empirical psychology and economic theory to construct a consequentialist axiological framework. A conclusion is drawn that Edgeworth is a methodological predecessor to several important methods, ideas, and issues that continue to be discussed in contemporary social well-being studies. • Provides an account of Francis Ysidro Edgeworth's psychological and economic views, and how his interlocutors influenced him. • Discusses his methodology in the monograph New and Old Methods of Ethics. • Illustrates his usage of mathematical methods in physics for the application of social well-being research. • Contributes to the history of well-being research by way of 1870's economic thinking. • Present methods and issues in social well-being methodology have precedent in the 1870's. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spatial income disparities have increased in the US since 1980, a pattern linked to major social, economic, and political challenges. Yet, today's spatial inequality, and how it relates to the past, remains insufficiently well understood. The primary contribution of this article is to demonstrate a deep polarization in the American spatial system—yet one whose character differs from that commonly reported on in the literature. The increase in spatial inequality since 1980 is almost entirely driven by a small number of populous, economically important, and resiliently high-income superstar city-regions. But we also show that the rest of the system exhibits a long-run pattern of income convergence over the study period. A secondary contribution is historical: today's superstars have sat durably atop the urban hierarchy since at least 1940. Third, we describe six distinctive pathways of development that regions follow between 1940 and 2019, with certain locations catching up, falling behind, and surging ahead. We explore the role played by initial endowments in driving locations down these pathways, finding population, education, industrial structure, and immigrant attraction to be key distinguishing features. These insights are enabled by a fourth contribution: methodologically, we use group-based trajectory modeling—an approach new to the field that integrates top-down and bottom-up views of the evolving national spatial system. We conclude by exploring implications for the mid-twenty-first century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article builds upon recent scholarship emphasizing the importance of Gregory the Great's Register as a key text of the Carolingian and post‐Carolingian library, exploring by contrast its peculiarly limited reception in England. It first surveys what little evidence we have for its citation by English ecclesiastics (post‐c.1000, mostly via Wulfstan); it then examines the single text in a pre‐Conquest manuscript usually catalogued as a letter from the Register, showing that this has been reworked as an anonymous admonitio to judges (probably bishops). It concludes by reflecting on the implications of this limited reception for our understanding of the later Anglo‐Saxon church – a community otherwise well‐invested in Gregory's memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The word cocio (i.e. petty merchant or broker in classical Latin) was a rare term that after a long absence in written Latin reappeared in several Carolingian texts. Scholars have posited a medieval semantic shift from 'merchant' to 'vagabond'. But this article argues that this consensus is erroneous. The Carolingian cocio continued to refer to petty commercial agents, that is, to small merchants. Furthermore, the term's appearance in capitularies and its subsequent medieval vernacular afterlife together suggest that the term was borrowed from (unattested) proto‐Romance usage. A corrected history of the early medieval use of cocio illuminates the relationship between spoken and written Latin as well as aspects of social, religious, and economic history in the Carolingian period, and speaks to the promise of language to shed light on economic realities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout history, schools of economic thought have defined political economy—or economics—and its object of study in multiple ways. This paper reflects on the definitions of economics by schools of economic thought and also proposes the concepts of value and scarcity as key concepts to explain the differences between them. The most important findings of the paper are: (a) the ontological and epistemological characteristics of the concept of value and scarcity have shaped the definitions of economics; (b) the boundaries of the study object of economics have been expanded since today's mainstream economics deals with multiple topics as diverse as crime, education, development, health, etc. However, the methodological tools used in mainstream economics have been narrowed since approaches such as the philosophical, ethical, historical, and institutional approaches have been left behind; (c) the part of reality that mainstream economics can grasp have left behind important issues of the contemporary world, such as gender, social, and environmental issues. A clear understanding of the scope and boundaries of economics could help to define more realistic research questions for economic science, and it would help to define new economic paradigms that address the contemporary issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On Sunday, November 13, 2022, the cultural section of the 'Il Corriere della Sera' devoted its main article to the first volume of Gianni Toniolo's latest opus, Storia della Banca d'Italia. Formazione ed evoluzione di una banca centrale, 1893–1943. The article characterized the book as an 'extraordinary economic autobiography of the country', and Toniolo as 'undoubtedly the greatest of Italian economic historians'. That very day Gianni Toniolo died in Rome at the age of eighty. To review Toniolo's work and life, even in the limited space these pages allow, is to go back over a period of Italian and international economic historiography, from the 1970s to the present day, to which Toniolo made vital and original contributions in a number of different ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

El artículo discute el fenómeno del retorno de migrantes venezolanos que huyeron debido a la crisis en su país. Examina si este retorno es significativo, quiénes están regresando y en qué condiciones. Aunque el número exacto es incierto, se estima que alrededor de 300,000 venezolanos han regresado desde 2020 debido a la vulnerabilidad y dificultades en los países de acogida.

The 1930s are historically recognized as the decade of the 1929 Crash and the years of economic non-stagnation for the US government and those of several European countries. The so-called "Keynesian" policies, despite being successful experiences, were continuously "attacked" ever since John Maynard Keynes launched his General Theory (GT). The success of the GT may be attributed to the significant reduction in unemployment at the time, mainly due to an increase in public investment spending. This is because the main device available for public administration to reduce a high unemployment rate, when an economy is in a cyclical state of recession/depression, is public investment, preferably investment in basic social capital. Having made this preamble, the main objective of the article is to discuss the importance of financing public investments in the capitalist economy and its economic and social effects, having as a basis for this the history and the economic theory of John Maynard Keynes. For this, it is crucial to adopt an exploratory, qualitative and bibliographic approach as a methodological procedure. It may be concluded that the only egress to stimulate private investment in times of crises, apart from measures to support consumption through social programs for the unemployed, is government investment. This is because government investments are autonomous investments, i.e., they do not depend on interest, nor on income. Furthermore, autonomous investment decisions, especially in the construction of public works with huge economic (roadways, ports, railways) and social (schools, hospitals and housing) repercussions, tend to break the barrier of distrust in relation to the future and promote a dynamic effect on the economy and society as a whole. Keynes, therefore, emphasizes the importance of governmental intervention to stabilize the economy. The importance of Keynes's economic theory lies in the fact that his ideas brought a new perspective to economic theory and helped shape the economic policies implemented in many countries to this day. His contributions paved the way for a better understanding of economic dynamics, whether in the public or private sector, in stabilizing the economy, especially in times of crisis, and in promoting social welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Laura Wilson's article, "Beyond Tobacco Road: Enriching the Field of Sharecropping Studies," explores the often overlooked topic of sharecroppers in southern literature. The author argues that sharecroppers, who were marginalized and exploited, have not received enough attention in studies of southern literature. The article analyzes various literary works that depict sharecropping and its impact on economic, social, and political issues in the South. It also discusses the historical power dynamics of sharecropping and its influence on modern America. The text examines the portrayal of sharecroppers during the Great Depression, critiques the problematic representation of their voices by certain writers, and explores narratives of sharecropper unionization and the transition from sharecropping to mechanization. Additionally, the article examines modern representations of the plantation and emphasizes the ongoing impact of sharecropping on inequality and injustice in the United States. [Extracted from the article]

This essay presents a critical analysis of Özgür Orhangazi's Türkiye ekonomisinin yapısı (The structure of the Turkish economy). The book examines the last four decades of the Turkish economy, accounting for its place in the global capitalist system and focusing on the radical effects of the liberalization of capital mobility in 1989. Moreover, the book describes the growth model of the Turkish economy over the last two decades, consisting of three components: high dependency on foreign capital inflow, debt accumulation, and construction-oriented growth. This review finds that the book lacks in its examination of the internal dynamics of capitalism in Turkey, especially concerning the evolution of the two branches of the Turkish bourgeoisie: construction capital, which is the extension of commercial capital; and industrial capital, which has made its mark on the history of capitalism in Turkey. Class struggle inside the bourgeoisie has in fact shaped the last century of economic and political history in Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The "Great Divergence" is the historical process that gave rise to the persistent gap in the per capita income between different regions of the world, about two centuries ago. Conventional explanations attribute its origin to the exceptional features of European societies. In this article I synthesize the challenges to this position and argument that ignores the importance of coercion and its relationship with technological innovation, institutions and culture. Coercion was not a sufficient condition for the Great Divergence, but it was necessary for the formation of persistent economic gaps between regions of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This summary is about a special issue of the journal Europe-Asia Studies that focuses on the relationship between ideology and economic policy in the Soviet Union and post-Soviet Russia. The essays in the special issue explore various aspects of this relationship, including the impact of the Kosygin reforms, the Soviet Union's engagement with international finance, the adaptation of World Bank development policies, and the critique of "capitalist realism" in Russian studies. The essays highlight the complex and contingent nature of Soviet economic development and its connection to ideology and sovereignty. The special issue aims to contribute to the understanding of socialism and capitalism in the context of Soviet and post-Soviet Russia. [Extracted from the article]

The article is a book review of "India is Broken: A People Betrayed, Independence to Today" by Ashoka Mody. The book explores India's economic and political history from 1947 to the present, making three main observations. First, India's unemployment and poverty can be traced back to policy choices made by the first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. Second, successive governments have failed to invest in human development, particularly in primary and girls' education. Third, the desire for political power has led to the erosion of democratic norms, religious intolerance, and poor governance. The book provides a comprehensive overview of India's complex history and is readable and informative. The review also mentions another book, "Making Place for Muslims in Contemporary India" by Kalyani Devaki Menon, which explores the placemaking practices of Muslims in the context of exclusionary nationalism. [Extracted from the article]

This article discusses the energy transition and geopolitical challenges faced by Cuba in its pursuit of a low-carbon economy. The author explores the contradictions between Cuba's socialist political project and its efforts to achieve a sustainable and low-carbon economy. The article highlights the importance of energy conservation and efficiency in Cuba's energy program, as well as the role of infrastructure and the geopolitical context in shaping the energy transition. While the book fails to outline Cuba's current energy sources, it provides valuable insights for policymakers and challenges existing assumptions about energy transitions. [Extracted from the article]

Angus Deaton's book, "Economics in America: An Immigrant Economist Explores the Land of Inequality," challenges the predominant economic theories and models that have been used to understand and address inequality. Deaton argues for a reliance on empirical evidence and natural experiments, rather than theory-based modeling. While the book begins with a promising case study on the effects of a rise in the minimum wage, it becomes more diffuse and fails to challenge the fundamental presuppositions of mainstream economics. Deaton also discusses the role of education, inequality, and technological innovation in economic development, and questions the use of GDP per capita as a metric for measuring material welfare. Overall, Deaton's perspective on inequality in America is seen as accepting and offering only marginal alleviation, without challenging mainstream economics or offering alternative approaches to measuring economic welfare. [Extracted from the article]

The text presents the author’s perspective on problems of the food economy sector in the context of innovations and technological transformations. The role and importance of food economy, innovative knowledge and human capital with regard to the smooth and efficient functioning of the agricultural facility, as well as current problems of technological disproportion in food economy related industries’ development have been outlined. The vectors for the formation of a target agricultural education model as a factor of the innovative and creative development of the food economy both at the state and regional level, are determined. Global economic history is characterized with the mutual relationship of world economic development by two basic factors - population growth, and the technical and accelerated development of modern technical and technological transformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Never Together: The Economic History of a Segregated America" by Peter Temin is a historical narrative that explores the racial divide in American economic and social life. The book covers various periods, including slavery, Reconstruction, the Gilded Age, the Civil Rights movement, and the Trump presidency. Temin argues that racism was perpetuated by ruling elites as a strategy to divide and weaken the working class. However, some arguments in the book are not well defended, and the issue of reparations for enslaved Americans is not addressed. [Extracted from the article]

"In a New Light: Histories of Women and Energy," edited by Abigail Harrison Moore and R. W. Sandwell, aims to address the gender imbalance in narratives about the history of energy. The authors argue that women have been largely absent from historical accounts of energy history due to a male-centric approach and the sources researchers focus on. The book explores the significance of women in energy history, particularly their role in decision-making regarding new energy sources. It highlights women's involvement in various fields related to energy, such as candle lighting, electrical energy technology implementation, decorating services, and technical expertise. The authors use a range of sources, including oral histories, to incorporate marginalized perspectives into the narratives of energy history. However, the book's focus is primarily on western Europe and North America, with limited case studies from other regions of the world. The book also emphasizes the importance of memory and oral history in understanding past events and raises questions about the future of energy and the shift toward green energy. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses two books, "Fueling Mexico: Energy and Environment, 1850–1950" by Germán Vergara and "Electrifying Mexico: Technology and the Transformation of a Modern City" by Diana J. Montaño, which explore the history of energy in Mexico. Vergara's book focuses on the diverse transformations of the Mexican energy system and the increasing use of fossil fuels, while Montaño's book examines the sociocultural dynamics of electricity in Mexico City. The books highlight the historic specificity of Mexico's energy development and the impact of international enterprises in the Mexican energy sector. Both studies emphasize the complexity and richness of Mexico's energy history, challenging simplistic narratives of modernization. [Extracted from the article]

"The Origins of Global Economic Governance" by Jamie Martin explores the early development of international economic governance from the 1910s to the 1940s. The book highlights how the World Wars, self-determination movements, and economic crises during this period blurred the lines between national and international affairs. It discusses the emergence of international economic institutions and their impact on state sovereignty, as well as the debates surrounding the democratic legitimacy of institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. The author argues that these institutions transformed the exercise of sovereignty in a new international order based on principles of self-determination. The book provides a comprehensive analysis of the historical context and offers potential avenues for further research in the field of international economic governance. [Extracted from the article]

This essay traces a thread between the Novak's philosophical and theological contribution and the economic and ethical reflection on the commons. Although present embryonically, these interconnections have not been taken into consideration so far. This convergence will be presented through three interrelated stages: a sound theological background, Scholastic reasoning and the evolution of the idea of common goods. From these points some interesting insights will emerge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]