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Nick Fitzhenry

@nickfitzhenry.bsky.social
3.5K followers 14K following 53 posts

Postdoc at CAMPOP & King's College, Cambridge PhD in Economic History, LSE. nicholasfitzhenry.co.uk Research: death, disease & doctors during Apartheid Methods: Applied econometrics & historical demography. Teaching: Industrial Rev., History of Middle East

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Nick Fitzhenry @nickfitzhenry.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Went with my partner to the town of Eyam in the Peak District. The village is famous for self-quarantining during the 1665/6 Great Plague: buying goods from the neighbouring villages dropped off at a boundary stone. 1/3 of the village died. And yes, I bought a scan of the death register!
Me standing next to Eyam's tourist sign, holding the death register of the 1666 plagueThe plague cottageRiley the rat, the town's mascotA stained-glass window in Eyam church depicting the plague.
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Nick Fitzhenry @nickfitzhenry.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
It is said that the birth rate is in decline, that the French population is becoming smaller, that this is a sign of decadence ... foreigners invade us and on our soil come to take the place of our nationals. — Maria Deraismes writing … at the end of the 19th century!
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Alice Roberts @profaliceroberts.bsky.social · 03/05/2026
This is an absolutely stunning piece of research and visualisation! Tracking letters from one merchant’s company in the 14th-15th century. He was trading spices from the eastern med and importing English wool into Tuscany. Click on the link for an interactive map!
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Jonas Schöley @jschoeley.com · 29/04/2026
demoscapes.org is a visual atlas of demographic surfaces hosted at @mpidr.bsky.social. It is also my passion project growing out of my 2016 human mortality database explorer. Did you publish something containing Lexis surfaces? Consider reaching out and having your work featured on the site.
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Dr Anna Clark @drannaclark.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
Death by Shakespeare Causes of 74 deaths in Shakespeare's plays #ShakespeareDay
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Nick Fitzhenry @nickfitzhenry.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
Death by Chocolate Chumps. Birmingham Annual Medical Report, 1896.
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Nick Fitzhenry @nickfitzhenry.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
Annual Medical Report, Hampstead, 1958
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Nick Fitzhenry @nickfitzhenry.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
Simply Fresh
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Nick Fitzhenry @nickfitzhenry.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
A book review from the South African Medical Journal, 1924
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Nick Fitzhenry @nickfitzhenry.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
Bakery infested by crickets or cockroaches — woodcut from Olaus Magnus, Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus (Rome, 1555). Reproduced in the Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 2 June 1924, for an article on the antiquity and life history of the cockroach.
Black-and-white woodcut of a 16th-century bakery interior. On the left, a woman in a long dress and headcloth carries a long plank on her shoulder. In the centre, a male baker in a long tunic and cap uses a long-handled peel to slide loaves into a domed brick oven. Loaves rest on a sloping board behind him. Swarms of insects — crickets or cockroaches — pour from cracks in the wall and ceiling above the oven. To the right, shelves hold pots and jars, and a candle burns in a wall niche. Hatched lines shade the walls and floor.
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Nick Fitzhenry @nickfitzhenry.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
This was certainly a highlight of 2026.
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Ashwin Varma @ashwinvarma97.bsky.social · 05/04/2026
Here are a couple of examples. Lung cancer survival rates for EGFR+ mutated Lung cancer.
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Nick Fitzhenry @nickfitzhenry.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
Glad to be helping putting this together. Do come along if you are in Cambridge.
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LSE Department of Economic History @lseechist.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
This week @nickfitzhenry.bsky.social, class teacher on the course "Economic History of the Middle East and North Africa", took his students on a field trip to see the Cambridge Cairo Genizah collection - famous from Greif's paper on The Maghribi Traders' Coalition - and the Fitzwilliam 📜🔎
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Hampton Gaddy @hggaddy.bsky.social · 06/10/2025
🚨 The Economist has been telling you for years that polygamy causes civil war by locking men out of marriage. A new article with @rebeccasear.bsky.social and @anthrolog.bsky.social explains that the demography of marriage markets doesn't actually work that way. 🧵 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
pnas.org
High rates of polygyny do not lock large proportions of men out of the marriage market | PNAS
There is a widespread belief, in both the scholarly literature and the popular press, that polygyny prevents large numbers of men from marrying by ...
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Nick Fitzhenry @nickfitzhenry.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
I'm submitting my PhD dissertation today, with the defence scheduled in early December. Long years of work, but proud of the outcome and excited to develop it further. Thought I'd share the first few pages of the front matter:
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Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
UNTIL IT'S DONE, Ep. 2 When the Brownsville Clinic opened in 1916, it was the first birth control center in America. Its very existence felt impossible. For young women, it was a lifeline. 109 years later, the Clinic is long closed—but Brownsville mothers are still struggling.
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Evan @evansmithhist.bsky.social · 12/08/2025
Facebook reminds me that a year ago I started a project of scanning the journals of the Central African Historical Association, based at the University of Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, which ran from 1970 to the early 1980s. I have uploaded my scans to Dropbox here: www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/ruzbp...
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Nick Fitzhenry @nickfitzhenry.bsky.social · 08/08/2025
Under-5 diarrhoeal disease death rates in South Africa during the 70s and 80s for coloured (mixed-race), indian and white race groups (apartheid state did not collect complete data for the black majority). The seasonality and heightened rates for the coloured population are quite shocking.
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Terry McGlynn @hormiga.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
When was the last time you've listened to Graceland. You might want to listen to Graceland again. It's really good.
the cover of the album, which is cream white and in the middle, a square image of 15th century Ethopian art depicting St. George, the Patron saint of ethiopia. The image is a cool piece of art, not as psuedophotorepresentative like you'd see coming out of europe at that time, it's been characterized as "proto-cubist" and it will make you want to look at more ethiopian art from that period of time, at least it is for me now after I looked this up to fill in the alt text.
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Jenna @jennaonthenet.bsky.social · 02/08/2025
David Byrne came to my band’s show at a gay bar in Bed-Stuy and sang This Must Be The Place with us and I still haven’t processed it
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Nick Fitzhenry @nickfitzhenry.bsky.social · 24/07/2025
A striking visualisation of vaccine impact: Cape Town whooping cough deaths plummeted after DP (diphtheria and pertussis [whooping cough]) vaccine introduction (1950). Also reveals stark racial health disparities in South Africa, particularly in the first half of the 20th century.
The graph shows high mortality rates among 'non-white' populations (solid line) with significant peaks in the 1930s-1940s, followed by a sharp decline after the introduction of the DP vaccine in 1950. The dotted line represents White populations, which had much lower mortality rates throughout
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Orkney Library & Archive @orkneylibrary.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
The shipwreck uncovered in Sanday, #Orkney last year has been identified as HMS Hind, later the Earl of Chatham which was wrecked in the Bay of Lopness in 1788. More than 230 years buried in the seabed, before being released by a storm in 2024. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Archaeologists identify 250-year-old Shipwreck in Orkney
Scientific analysis and community-led research led to the identification of the Earl of Chatham, which was found last year.
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Prashant 🌊 @prasshant.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
That's the post !
Chloe Kelly and Agyemang
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Nick Fitzhenry @nickfitzhenry.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
Clioguesser: guess the year based on a political map, ranging from 1000 BCE to 2024 CE. I am 15th on the leaderboard ;) clioguesser.azurewebsites.net/leaderboard
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LSE Department of Economic History @lseechist.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
Congratulations to @nickfitzhenry.bsky.social and Mina Ishizu for receiving the 2025 #LSE Class #Teaching Awards 🧑‍🏫🥳 info.lse.ac.uk/staff/educat... #econhist #education
info.lse.ac.uk
LSE Class Teacher Awards
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Nick Fitzhenry @nickfitzhenry.bsky.social · 14/04/2025
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Nick Fitzhenry @nickfitzhenry.bsky.social · 11/04/2025
A video I made for a job interview summarising my PhD work and its relevance to students of economics. youtu.be/r4U07e00oY0?...
youtu.be
Nick Fitzhenry - PhD Summary
YouTube video by Nick Fitzhenry
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Jordan @jordanpfot.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
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Andrew Heiss @andrew.heiss.phd · 20/03/2025
I’ve long used FiveThirtyEight’s interactive “Hack Your Way To Scientific Glory” to illustrate the idea of p-hacking when I teach statistics. But ABC/Disney killed the site earlier this month :( So I made my own with #rstats and Observable and #QuartoPub ! stats.andrewheiss.com/hack-your-way/
Screenshot of the linked Quarto website, with input checkboxes to change different conditions for a regression model that predicts economic performance based on US political party, with a reported p-value
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Jordan @jordanpfot.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
This reminds me of an Archbishop Desmond Tutu quote I hold close to my heart.
"I'm deeply committed to reconciliation and I care enormously for all the people in this country… You see, we can't go to heaven alone. If I arrive there, God will ask me: 'Where is De Klerk? His path crossed yours.' And he also – God will ask him: 'Where is Tutu?' So I cry for him, I cry for De Klerk – because he spurned the opportunity to become human."
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Nick Fitzhenry @nickfitzhenry.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
Last week, we took our students on a tour of the National Gallery, teaching the history of economic and demographic change through art. 🖼️🎨🧵
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BK. Titanji @boghuma.bsky.social · 09/02/2025
TB is a disease of poverty A new RCT in @thelancetinfdis.bsky.social shows that pre-test & post-test TB counseling + conditional cash transfers significantly improved treatment outcomes in South Africa. The intervention cut unsuccessful TB outcomes nearly in half! www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
thelancet.com
Effects of conditional cash transfers and pre-test and post-test tuberculosis counselling on patient outcomes and loss to follow-up across the continuum of care in South Africa: a randomised controlle...
The package of interventions consisting of pre-test and post-test tuberculosis counselling with conditional cash transfers significantly reduced the risk of unsuccessful tuberculosis patient outcomes,...
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Nick Fitzhenry @nickfitzhenry.bsky.social · 21/01/2025
CFP: Workshop on Health Transitions in the Global South CFP Deadline 3 February 2025 Workshop 9-10 June 2025 at LSE Sponsored by the LSE Historical Economic Demography Group www.lse.ac.uk/Economic-His...
lse.ac.uk
Health Transitions in the Global South 2025
Health Transitions in the Global South 2025
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Nick Fitzhenry @nickfitzhenry.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
My round for our Christmas dinner party quiz: 🎄Economic Christory 🎄
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Nick Fitzhenry @nickfitzhenry.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
Did someone try to Hot Frosty Adam Smith?
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Luisa Bicalho Ritzkat @lbritzkat.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
1/5 Jonathan Guthrie claims in his @ft article that “It’s bananas to regard art as an investment”. A few thoughts from someone researching art as an investment - a thread🧵 www.ft.com/content/daf9...
ft.com
It’s bananas to regard art as an investment
Enjoy your paintings and sculptures. Just don’t expect a return on what you paid for them
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Kris Inwood @kris-inwood.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
Linked 🇨🇦 census data show big regional differences in intergenerational mobility 1871-1901 & substantial improvement for Quebec over the 20th century. Structural change but not human capital variation helps to explain spatial differences in mobility. New working paper from Minns, Summerfield et al!
lse.ac.uk
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Nick Fitzhenry @nickfitzhenry.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
I created a starter pack of LSE Economic History people on Bluesky. Let me know if I have missed you! go.bsky.app/BJSugbh
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Nick Fitzhenry @nickfitzhenry.bsky.social · 22/11/2024
I've put together my personal website — rather proud of these (GPT-generated) icons for each of my research projects! www.nicholasfitzhenry.co.uk
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Eric Schneider @ericbschneider.com · 19/11/2024
I've been at the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Pisa today presenting new research. Thanks to Giuliana Freschi, Giacamo Gabbuti and Alessandro Nuvolari for inviting me. I use daily fog events in turn-of-the-century London to measure the short- and long-run health costs of pollution for children.
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Nick Fitzhenry @nickfitzhenry.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
In my undergrad teaching, a persistent task is getting students to write better essays. I am putting together some slides on how to answer essay questions that ask students to evaluate causal questions (e.g., "Did geographic luck cause the Rise of the West?".) Just put together this diagram.
A diagram distinguishing between different qualities of causal arguments in essay writing, with accompanying flow charts.

1. Bad Essays
1.1) Unrealistically single causal.
1.2) Unrealistically omni-causal: the ‘laundry-list’ essay. List of factors, but with no distinction between the relative influence of each.

2. Better Essays
Primarily single causal/realistically multi-causal. 

Multiple factors, with relative influence of each factor demonstrated.


3. Great Essays
Primarily single causal/realistically multi-causal, with causal chains considered. Here, 𝑥_1 is a primary, ultimate factor, causing outcome 𝑦 through 𝑥_2 and 𝑥_3  . The factor 𝑥_2 is fully endogenous to 𝑥_1. 𝑊hile 𝑥_3 is partially endogenous to 𝑥_1, it’s influence on 𝑦 also has an exogenous component, caused in turn by 𝑧_1, a factor independent of  𝑥_1. Finally, 𝑥_4  has a fully exogenous influence on 𝑦, which completely independent of 𝑥_1. 

Relative influences of each factor are demonstrated.
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Francisco J. Beltrán Tapia @fjbeltrantapia.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
Charles Butcher (NTNU) presenting the LEGACIES project. Capturing the presence of pre-colonial states and their potential influence on post-colonial democratization.
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Hampton Gaddy @hggaddy.bsky.social · 30/10/2024
I'm presenting some excess mortality methods work from my PhD at the Office of National Statistics tomorrow! Email / DM me if you want a link to join online, and don't mind thinking about more ghosts on Halloween 👻🎃
Needles in a Haystack: Modelling Excess Mortality Against Uninformative Baselines

Hampton Gaddy (LSE / OsloMet)

Office of National Statistics, 31 October 2024, 12-1pmA scatterplot of 1,546 counties in the United States, plotted by crude death rate and population size in 1917. Isolines are laid on top showing estimates of the smallest 1918 pandemic death tolls that can be estimated within 5% of the true toll. Many counties are too small for typical death tolls to be estimated well at the local levelA ggridges plot of distributions of simulated excess mortality estimates, depending on the underlying population size (ranging from 1,000 to 1 million) but holding all else constant. The model used underestimates the true death toll and exhibits very high variance in small populations
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Rafe Meager (they/them) @economeager.bsky.social · 26/10/2024
William Kentridge has a new series on Mubi where he mostly complains about himself to himself and us and it's GLORIOUS
2 william kentridges stand talking and reading in his studio, one complains "he [meaning himself] has filled my head with such pitiful fragments that cannot be expunged"
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Nick Fitzhenry @nickfitzhenry.bsky.social · 26/09/2024
Delighted to be in Sardinia to present at the IUSSP Workshop ‘Tuberculosis: The White Death as a Social Disease’
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Nick Fitzhenry @nickfitzhenry.bsky.social · 24/09/2024
At the Broadstreet Pump
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Nick Fitzhenry @nickfitzhenry.bsky.social · 23/09/2024
Heartbreaking to see the Daily Maverick is under such finanical strain and is downsizing its staff. Being out of the country, the DM has been the most reliable source of news and insight from home.
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Andrea Grimes @andreagrimes.com · 23/09/2024
It's extremely important that everyone know the best spooky show on tv, FROM, is back today for season three www.imdb.com/title/tt9813...
imdb.com
From (TV Series 2022– ) ⭐ 7.7 | Drama, Horror, Mystery
52m | TV-MA
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Eric Schneider @ericbschneider.com · 19/09/2024
📢 Did smallpox cause stillbirths in the past? Our study of Swedish data (1780–1839) reveals surprising findings about the impact of smallpox and the role of vaccination. 🧵👇 Article forthcoming at Population Studies: doi.org/10.1080/0032...
doi.org
Did smallpox cause stillbirths? Maternal smallpox infection, vaccination, and stillbirths in Sweden, 1780–1839
While there is strong evidence that maternal smallpox infection can cause foetal loss, it is not clear whether smallpox infections were a demographically important cause of stillbirths historically...
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