Angus Bylsma @angusbylsma.bsky.social · 23/09/2026This week’s review!—Lynn White Jr’s infamous Medieval Technology and Social Change. Because they don’t make historians of technology like they used to.unevenandcombinedthoughts.substack.comHorsing AroundMedieval Technology and Social Change, Lynn White Jr, 1962. 020
Angus Bylsma @angusbylsma.bsky.social · 06/09/2026This weeks' review! On Emile Chabal's new biography of Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Hobsbawm. My attempt to have a poke at the surprisingly topical question: was Hobsbawm Great? unevenandcombinedthoughts.substack.com/p/past-and-p...unevenandcombinedthoughts.substack.comPast & PresentThe Age of Hobsbawm: The Life of a Revolutionary Historian, Emile Chabal, 2026. 110
Angus Bylsma @angusbylsma.bsky.social · 14/07/2026This week’s review! - wrapping up Sven Beckert’s Capitalism: A Global History. The non-Eurocentric historian doth protest too much, methinks.open.substack.comBeyond the ShadowCapitalism: A Global History, Sven Beckert, 2025 (pt.II). 010
Angus Bylsma @angusbylsma.bsky.social · 29/06/2026This week's review! - My attempt to tackle Sven Beckert's monstrous Capitalism: A Global History. The good, the bad, and the ugly of (trying to) imitate Fernand Braudel.unevenandcombinedthoughts.substack.comCut AdriftCapitalism: A Global History, Sven Beckert, 2025 (pt.I). 020
Reposted by Angus BylsmaJohannes Boehm @johannesmboehm.bsky.social · 09/06/2026It's been great fun talking to @angusbylsma.bsky.social about coins, trade, the 'end of antiquity', and even a little bit about methods and questions in economics and economic history. 093
Angus Bylsma @angusbylsma.bsky.social · 09/06/2026This one is a longer read than my usual reviews. So maybe sit down with a beer or a coffee. Here’s a taste—as you can see, I’ve got questions for historians, for economists, and for methodological navel-gazers! 042
Angus Bylsma @angusbylsma.bsky.social · 09/06/2026This one is a longer read than my usual reviews. So maybe sit down with a beer or a coffee. Here’s a taste—as you can see, I’ve got questions for historians, for economists, and for methodological navel-gazers! 000
Angus Bylsma @angusbylsma.bsky.social · 09/06/2026This week’s post!—an interview with Johannes Boehm about his spectacular new paper with Thomas Chaney, ‘Trade and the End of Antiquity’. Whether your interests are early medieval history, trade theory, or just coins, this one is worth your time.unevenandcombinedthoughts.substack.comTrade and the End of AntiquityAn Interview with Johannes Boehm 193
Reposted by Angus BylsmaSam Thorpe @samthorpe.bsky.social · 26/05/2026New from me, on the wonderful @angusbylsma.bsky.social's blog: an essay about the collapse of Bretton Woods and the possibility of building such a system anew today, and a review of Martin Daunton’s comprehensive history of The Economic Government of the World.unevenandcombinedthoughts.substack.comSlouching Towards LiberalizationThe Economic Government of the World, Martin Daunton, 2023 (Pt.II). 152
Angus Bylsma @angusbylsma.bsky.social · 26/05/2026@samthorpe.bsky.social also wrote the supplemental to this review, on recent research on the elasticity of taxable income. There is no paywall on this one, so take a look.open.substack.comSupplemental: Slouching Towards LiberalizationThe Elasticity of Corporate Taxable Income Across Countries, Agostini, Asatryan, Bach, et al., 2026. 000
Angus Bylsma @angusbylsma.bsky.social · 26/05/2026This week’s review!—back to Daunton, this time on the demolition of Bretton Woods and the potential lessons within. A guest post by the brilliant @samthorpe.bsky.social.open.substack.comSlouching Towards LiberalizationThe Economic Government of the World, Martin Daunton, 2023 (Pt.II). 073
Reposted by Angus BylsmaSam Thorpe @samthorpe.bsky.social · 16/05/2026Against my better judgement, I've finally started a (free) Substack. As I explain in my first post, I see this as an avenue to write on some of the big questions that economics research isn't well-suited to: normative claims, historical work, and thinking about the roots of economic analysis.thestockexchangeandtheholygrail.substack.comKicking things offAbout me, about this blog 171
Angus Bylsma @angusbylsma.bsky.social · 12/05/2026This week's review! - Martin Daunton's The Economic Government of the World. Explaining why Bretton Woods was what it was, and wasn't what it wasn't.open.substack.comNarrowed VisionThe Economic Government of the World, Martin Daunton, 2023. 011
Angus Bylsma @angusbylsma.bsky.social · 27/04/2026This week’s review! - Robert Yee's The City’s Defence. On economic knowledge, governance, empire, and the making of the postwar world.open.substack.comIn ControlThe City's Defence: The Bank of England and the Remaking of Economic Governance 1919-1939, Robert Yee, 2025. 000
Angus Bylsma @angusbylsma.bsky.social · 13/04/2026This week’s (not) review! - a very short discussion of, and excerpt from, Vasily Grossman’s Everything Flows. For those who prefer their novels unabashedly world-historical…open.substack.comHistory's DecreeEverything Flows, Vasily Grossman, 1994 (2011) 000
Angus Bylsma @angusbylsma.bsky.social · 31/03/2026This week’s review! - Michael Albertus’ Land Power. A book as filled with interesting vignettes as it is devoid of interesting ideas.open.substack.comReshuffled, Reframed?Land Power: Who Has It, Who Doesn’t, and How That Determines the Fate of Societies, Michael Albertus, 2025. 000
Angus Bylsma @angusbylsma.bsky.social · 17/03/2026This week's review! - Claudia Goldin's Career and Family. History, the Pill, and the Pay Gap. Check it out!open.substack.comTicking ClocksCareer and Family: Women's Century Long Journey Towards Equity, Claudia Goldin, 2021. 000
Angus Bylsma @angusbylsma.bsky.social · 03/03/2026Something a little different this week: my thoughts about (Ashley Kahn’s book on) Miles Davis, Kind of Blue, and when Eric Hobsbawm was really, really wrong.open.substack.comOn a TightropeKind of Blue: Miles Davis and the Making of a Masterpiece, Ashley Kahn, 2000. 000
Angus Bylsma @angusbylsma.bsky.social · 17/02/2026This week’s review! — Peter Temin’s Lessons from the Great Depression. It’s all expectations, baby! (and history, and politics)open.substack.comExpecting WorseLessons from the Great Depression, Peter Temin, 1991. 000
Angus Bylsma @angusbylsma.bsky.social · 03/02/2026This week's review! - C. B. Schedvin's Australia and the Great Depression. Because I know that what excites your minds most of all are old monographs about the economic history of insignificant countries (seriously though, I promise it is interesting).open.substack.comPaying UpAustralia and the Great Depression, C. B. Schedvin, 1970. 000
Angus Bylsma @angusbylsma.bsky.social · 20/01/2026This week’s review! — Douglass North’s Institutions, Institutional Change, and Economic Performance. On changing your mind, Marxism and neoclassical economics, and, of course, institutional change.open.substack.comA Big PriceInstitutions, Institutional Change, and Economic Performance, Douglass C. North, 1990. 051
Angus Bylsma @angusbylsma.bsky.social · 14/01/2026Fact of the day: the first steam engine was brought to Australia in 1813 by a guy named John Dickson. But no-one knew how to assemble, let alone use it, and so it didn’t begin operating until a mechanic could be brought over from the UK two years later. 010
Angus Bylsma @angusbylsma.bsky.social · 06/01/2026This week's review! - @brankomilan.bsky.social's The Great Global Transformation. On political economy of our moment.unevenandcombinedthoughts.substack.comWithin and BetweenThe Great Global Transformation: National Market Liberalism in a Multipolar World, Branko Milanovic, 2025. 011
Angus Bylsma @angusbylsma.bsky.social · 05/01/2026Can’t believe no-one has yet written a history of Germany in the 19th/20th century called “Guns, Germans, and Steel”. 000
Angus Bylsma @angusbylsma.bsky.social · 19/12/2025I’m not convinced this ‘historyLLM’ business is anything other than an amusing toy. Great fun for sure, but let’s not pretend we can actually learn anything of historical interest from an LLM trained on pre-1913. 010
Angus Bylsma @angusbylsma.bsky.social · 17/12/2025This week’s review! — Joel Mokyr’s The Enlightened Economy. A big book with a lot to say on what did, and did not, cause the British Industrial Revolution.unevenandcombinedthoughts.substack.comCutting ThroughThe Enlightened Economy: Britain and the Industrial Revolution 1700-1850, Joel Mokyr, 2011. 001
Angus Bylsma @angusbylsma.bsky.social · 25/11/2025This week’s review! — seizing the moment to start a belated Joel Mokyr journey with The Lever of Riches. While the book’s title reminds one of a second-rate fantasy novel, it is actually anything but. In fact, Mokyr surprised (almost) all my expectations.unevenandcombinedthoughts.substack.comCatching SparksThe Lever of Riches: Technological Creativity and Economic Progress, Joel Mokyr, 1992 000
Angus Bylsma @angusbylsma.bsky.social · 11/11/2025This 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.unevenandcombinedthoughts.substack.comDownstreamA Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World, Gregory Clark, 2007 010
Angus Bylsma @angusbylsma.bsky.social · 21/10/2025This 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.unevenandcombinedthoughts.substack.comPostmen & PoliceTrade and Institutions in the Mediaeval Mediterranean: Evidence From the Genizia, Jessica Goldberg, 2012. 010
Angus Bylsma @angusbylsma.bsky.social · 07/10/2025This 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…unevenandcombinedthoughts.substack.comCultivating SeedsInstitutions and the Path to the Modern Economy, Avner Greif, 2006. 000
Angus Bylsma @angusbylsma.bsky.social · 23/09/2025This week’s review — THE FINAL WICKHAM POST. Sizing up the mediaeval Italian city-states properly.unevenandcombinedthoughts.substack.comSharks and RemorasThe Donkey and the Boat: Reinterpreting the Mediterranean Economy, 950-1180, Chris Wickham, 2023. 000
Angus Bylsma @angusbylsma.bsky.social · 10/09/2025This week’s review! — more Chris Wickham, this time about the mediaeval commercial revolution. What, where, why and whether it was even a thing.open.substack.comOut of ItalyThe Donkey and the Boat: Reinterpreting the Mediterranean Economy, 950-1180, Chris Wickham, 2023. 010
Angus Bylsma @angusbylsma.bsky.social · 26/08/2025This 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.unevenandcombinedthoughts.substack.comDownsizingThe Inheritance of Rome: Illuminating the Dark Ages 400-1000, Chris Wickham, 2009. 000
Angus Bylsma @angusbylsma.bsky.social · 12/08/2025This week’s review! — pt. 2 on Chris Wickham’s Framing the Early Middle Ages. Peasants, Pots, and Pirenne!unevenandcombinedthoughts.substack.comPeasants and PotsFraming the Early Middle Ages: Europe and the Mediterranean 400-800, Chris Wickham, 2004. 032
Angus Bylsma @angusbylsma.bsky.social · 29/07/2025This 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.unevenandcombinedthoughts.substack.comThe Heights of DarknessFraming the Early Middle Ages: Europe and the Mediterranean 400-800, Chris Wickham, 2004. 020
Angus Bylsma @angusbylsma.bsky.social · 02/07/2025This 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).unevenandcombinedthoughts.substack.comSurprising PersistenceThe Decline of Sterling: Managing the Retreat of an International Currency, 1945-1992, Catherine R. Schenk, 2010. 000
Reposted by Angus BylsmaDavid Edgerton @davidedgerton.bsky.social · 17/06/2025This 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. 172
Angus Bylsma @angusbylsma.bsky.social · 17/06/2025This 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!unevenandcombinedthoughts.substack.comOut of EmpireThe Rise and Fall of the British Nation: A Twentieth Century History, David Edgerton, 2018. 020
Angus Bylsma @angusbylsma.bsky.social · 05/06/2025Some absolutely fantastic Grossberg paintings here 001
Angus Bylsma @angusbylsma.bsky.social · 02/06/2025This 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!unevenandcombinedthoughts.substack.comReglued, UnstuckBritish Imperialism 1688-2015, P. J. Cain and A.G Hopkins, 2016. 000
Angus Bylsma @angusbylsma.bsky.social · 20/05/2025The Apple Music Classical app has no right being as good as it is 000
Angus Bylsma @angusbylsma.bsky.social · 19/05/2025This 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)…unevenandcombinedthoughts.substack.comThe City and the MillBritish Imperialism 1688-2015, P. J. Cain and A.G Hopkins, 2016 (1993). 000
Angus Bylsma @angusbylsma.bsky.social · 05/05/2025For 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!unevenandcombinedthoughts.substack.comDevelopment and DiplomacyIn the Global Vanguard: Agrarian Development and the Making of Modern Taiwan, James Lin, 2025. 022
Angus Bylsma @angusbylsma.bsky.social · 22/04/2025This 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!unevenandcombinedthoughts.substack.comThe HelmsmenLords of Finance: The Bankers who Broke the World, Liaquat Ahamed, 2009. 000
Angus Bylsma @angusbylsma.bsky.social · 14/04/2025The right to watch television should be conditional on first having seen Kenneth Clark’s Civilisation. The Peano axioms of culture. 010
Angus Bylsma @angusbylsma.bsky.social · 08/04/2025More brilliant Minard flow-maps — here we have the impact of the American Civil War on European Cotton Imports! I can’t get enough… 041
