Angus Bylsma
@angusbylsma.bsky.social
Writing about economic history at https://unevenandcombinedthoughts.substack.com
Pinned
Angus Bylsma
@angusbylsma.bsky.social
· Aug 12
Peasants and Pots
Framing the Early Middle Ages: Europe and the Mediterranean 400-800, Chris Wickham, 2004.
unevenandcombinedthoughts.substack.com
This week’s review! — pt. 2 on Chris Wickham’s Framing the Early Middle Ages. Peasants, Pots, and Pirenne!
This week’s review! — my no doubt highly unoriginal take on an old classic, Gregory Clark’s A Farewell to Alms. Malthus, wages, and the question of whether everything is downstream of demography.
Downstream
A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World, Gregory Clark, 2007
unevenandcombinedthoughts.substack.com
November 11, 2025 at 7:39 PM
This week’s review! — my no doubt highly unoriginal take on an old classic, Gregory Clark’s A Farewell to Alms. Malthus, wages, and the question of whether everything is downstream of demography.
This week’s review! — Jessica Goldberg on Trade and Institutions in the Medieval Mediterranean. A book which leaves Avner Greif’s thesis in the same place as the French fleet in 1798: lying at the bottom of the Nile.
Postmen & Police
Trade and Institutions in the Mediaeval Mediterranean: Evidence From the Genizia, Jessica Goldberg, 2012.
unevenandcombinedthoughts.substack.com
October 21, 2025 at 4:50 PM
This week’s review! — Jessica Goldberg on Trade and Institutions in the Medieval Mediterranean. A book which leaves Avner Greif’s thesis in the same place as the French fleet in 1798: lying at the bottom of the Nile.
This week’s review! — on Avner Greif’s Institutions and the Path to the Modern Economy. Games, institutions, and mediaeval Jewish-Egyptian merchants. Also the closest I’ve ever come to reviewing a work of fiction…
Cultivating Seeds
Institutions and the Path to the Modern Economy, Avner Greif, 2006.
unevenandcombinedthoughts.substack.com
October 7, 2025 at 3:57 PM
This week’s review! — on Avner Greif’s Institutions and the Path to the Modern Economy. Games, institutions, and mediaeval Jewish-Egyptian merchants. Also the closest I’ve ever come to reviewing a work of fiction…
This week’s review — THE FINAL WICKHAM POST. Sizing up the mediaeval Italian city-states properly.
Sharks and Remoras
The Donkey and the Boat: Reinterpreting the Mediterranean Economy, 950-1180, Chris Wickham, 2023.
unevenandcombinedthoughts.substack.com
September 23, 2025 at 4:03 PM
This week’s review — THE FINAL WICKHAM POST. Sizing up the mediaeval Italian city-states properly.
This week’s review! — more Chris Wickham, this time about the mediaeval commercial revolution. What, where, why and whether it was even a thing.
Out of Italy
The Donkey and the Boat: Reinterpreting the Mediterranean Economy, 950-1180, Chris Wickham, 2023.
open.substack.com
September 10, 2025 at 8:38 PM
This week’s review! — more Chris Wickham, this time about the mediaeval commercial revolution. What, where, why and whether it was even a thing.
This week’s review — on central bank independence and… wait no, not that! Actually a much more relevant topic: Chris Wickham’s Inheritance of Rome. On the Byzantine economy, mediaeval Egypt, and the Arab conquest.
Downsizing
The Inheritance of Rome: Illuminating the Dark Ages 400-1000, Chris Wickham, 2009.
unevenandcombinedthoughts.substack.com
August 26, 2025 at 3:19 PM
This week’s review — on central bank independence and… wait no, not that! Actually a much more relevant topic: Chris Wickham’s Inheritance of Rome. On the Byzantine economy, mediaeval Egypt, and the Arab conquest.
This week’s review! — pt. 2 on Chris Wickham’s Framing the Early Middle Ages. Peasants, Pots, and Pirenne!
Peasants and Pots
Framing the Early Middle Ages: Europe and the Mediterranean 400-800, Chris Wickham, 2004.
unevenandcombinedthoughts.substack.com
August 12, 2025 at 10:55 AM
This week’s review! — pt. 2 on Chris Wickham’s Framing the Early Middle Ages. Peasants, Pots, and Pirenne!
This week’s review! — beginning a medieval odyssey with Chris Wickham’s mammoth book, Framing the Early Middle Ages. Taxes, demesnes, slaves, and why Britain really dropped the ball in the 5th century.
The Heights of Darkness
Framing the Early Middle Ages: Europe and the Mediterranean 400-800, Chris Wickham, 2004.
unevenandcombinedthoughts.substack.com
July 29, 2025 at 12:32 PM
This week’s review! — beginning a medieval odyssey with Chris Wickham’s mammoth book, Framing the Early Middle Ages. Taxes, demesnes, slaves, and why Britain really dropped the ball in the 5th century.
This week’s review! — on Catherine Schenk’s superb The Decline of Sterling, and how sterling can and can not help us think about the dollar today (plus some personal news).
Surprising Persistence
The Decline of Sterling: Managing the Retreat of an International Currency, 1945-1992, Catherine R. Schenk, 2010.
unevenandcombinedthoughts.substack.com
July 2, 2025 at 11:15 AM
This week’s review! — on Catherine Schenk’s superb The Decline of Sterling, and how sterling can and can not help us think about the dollar today (plus some personal news).
Reposted by Angus Bylsma
This is a wonderful discussion of my Rise and Fall of the British Nation, and the first to note the importance to it of my critique of Cain and Hopkins, which I took, along with that of Anderson and Nairn, to be richest existing analyses of the twentieth century British nation and empire.
This week’s review! — on @davidedgerton.bsky.social’s The Rise and Fall of the British Nation. Well, less of a review than a discussion of how Edgerton sheds light on the pitfalls of gentlemanly capitalism. Plus a bit about Hobsbawm the nationalist at the end!
Out of Empire
The Rise and Fall of the British Nation: A Twentieth Century History, David Edgerton, 2018.
unevenandcombinedthoughts.substack.com
June 17, 2025 at 3:38 PM
This is a wonderful discussion of my Rise and Fall of the British Nation, and the first to note the importance to it of my critique of Cain and Hopkins, which I took, along with that of Anderson and Nairn, to be richest existing analyses of the twentieth century British nation and empire.
This week’s review! — on @davidedgerton.bsky.social’s The Rise and Fall of the British Nation. Well, less of a review than a discussion of how Edgerton sheds light on the pitfalls of gentlemanly capitalism. Plus a bit about Hobsbawm the nationalist at the end!
Out of Empire
The Rise and Fall of the British Nation: A Twentieth Century History, David Edgerton, 2018.
unevenandcombinedthoughts.substack.com
June 17, 2025 at 11:40 AM
This week’s review! — on @davidedgerton.bsky.social’s The Rise and Fall of the British Nation. Well, less of a review than a discussion of how Edgerton sheds light on the pitfalls of gentlemanly capitalism. Plus a bit about Hobsbawm the nationalist at the end!
Final maths exam next week… here we go!
June 5, 2025 at 11:05 AM
Final maths exam next week… here we go!
Some absolutely fantastic Grossberg paintings here
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The privatization of ICE detention. The monsoon comes early. Mogadishu under pressure & an African road.
Great links, images, and reading from Chartbook Newsletter by Adam Tooze
adamtooze.substack.com
June 5, 2025 at 10:16 AM
Some absolutely fantastic Grossberg paintings here
This week’s review! - finishing up my look at Cain and Hopkins’ British Imperialism, on the 20th century. There’s something for everyone - expansion, decline, Sterling, and Eurodollars!
Reglued, Unstuck
British Imperialism 1688-2015, P. J. Cain and A.G Hopkins, 2016.
unevenandcombinedthoughts.substack.com
June 2, 2025 at 11:40 AM
This week’s review! - finishing up my look at Cain and Hopkins’ British Imperialism, on the 20th century. There’s something for everyone - expansion, decline, Sterling, and Eurodollars!
Economic historians getting creative
May 20, 2025 at 11:55 AM
Economic historians getting creative
The Apple Music Classical app has no right being as good as it is
May 20, 2025 at 11:16 AM
The Apple Music Classical app has no right being as good as it is
This week’s review! — part one of my look into Cain and Hopkin’s monumental book, British Imperialism 1688-2015. Gentlemanly capitalism, services, and who ran the British Empire (supposedly)…
The City and the Mill
British Imperialism 1688-2015, P. J. Cain and A.G Hopkins, 2016 (1993).
unevenandcombinedthoughts.substack.com
May 19, 2025 at 10:48 AM
This week’s review! — part one of my look into Cain and Hopkin’s monumental book, British Imperialism 1688-2015. Gentlemanly capitalism, services, and who ran the British Empire (supposedly)…
For this week’s review, I read @jamestwotree.bsky.social’s new history of Taiwanese agrarian development at home and abroad, In the Global Vanguard. Land reform, Africa, and Straw Hat Diplomats!
Development and Diplomacy
In the Global Vanguard: Agrarian Development and the Making of Modern Taiwan, James Lin, 2025.
unevenandcombinedthoughts.substack.com
May 5, 2025 at 10:57 AM
For this week’s review, I read @jamestwotree.bsky.social’s new history of Taiwanese agrarian development at home and abroad, In the Global Vanguard. Land reform, Africa, and Straw Hat Diplomats!
This week’s review! — something a little bit different (and more light-hearted) to wrap up my focus on interwar monetary history, for now. Liaquat Ahamed’s very entertaining if dubious Lords of Finance!
The Helmsmen
Lords of Finance: The Bankers who Broke the World, Liaquat Ahamed, 2009.
unevenandcombinedthoughts.substack.com
April 22, 2025 at 10:48 AM
This week’s review! — something a little bit different (and more light-hearted) to wrap up my focus on interwar monetary history, for now. Liaquat Ahamed’s very entertaining if dubious Lords of Finance!
The right to watch television should be conditional on first having seen Kenneth Clark’s Civilisation. The Peano axioms of culture.
April 14, 2025 at 11:12 AM
The right to watch television should be conditional on first having seen Kenneth Clark’s Civilisation. The Peano axioms of culture.
More brilliant Minard flow-maps — here we have the impact of the American Civil War on European Cotton Imports! I can’t get enough…
April 8, 2025 at 11:42 AM
More brilliant Minard flow-maps — here we have the impact of the American Civil War on European Cotton Imports! I can’t get enough…
This week’s review — my brief reflections on Charles Kindleberger’s World in Depression 1929-1939. I couldn’t resist thinking about our present moment… a very timely read!
(With unavoidable reference to @adamtooze.bsky.social and @delong.social)
(With unavoidable reference to @adamtooze.bsky.social and @delong.social)
Couldn't, Wouldn't
The World in Depression 1929-1939, Charles P Kindleberger, 1973 (2012).
open.substack.com
April 7, 2025 at 10:53 PM
This week’s review — my brief reflections on Charles Kindleberger’s World in Depression 1929-1939. I couldn’t resist thinking about our present moment… a very timely read!
(With unavoidable reference to @adamtooze.bsky.social and @delong.social)
(With unavoidable reference to @adamtooze.bsky.social and @delong.social)
Fantastic paintings from an artist I had never heard from before. The art is what keeps bringing me back to chartbook - helps break me out of my futurism/expressionism shell!
This morning’s Chartbook features art from American painter Deborah Remington. One the most influential abstract painters, Remington is most known for her hard-edge paintings (characterized by areas of flat colour with sharp or “hard” edges). Read today’s Chartbook for more on the legendary artist!
March 26, 2025 at 11:55 AM
Fantastic paintings from an artist I had never heard from before. The art is what keeps bringing me back to chartbook - helps break me out of my futurism/expressionism shell!
You can’t help but fall in love with Charles Joseph Minard’s flow maps!
The godfather of data visualisation.
The godfather of data visualisation.
March 26, 2025 at 11:49 AM
You can’t help but fall in love with Charles Joseph Minard’s flow maps!
The godfather of data visualisation.
The godfather of data visualisation.