DOCSLIB.ORG

Situating Human Generations in Big History Peter D Nixon

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Situating Human Generations in Big History Peter D Nixon Situating human generations in Big History Peter D Nixon Abstract Big History provides the cosmology for the present work in which the disproportionate impact of inequality on today’s young generation is contextualised by examination of three types of societies, past empires, present capitalism and one pre-colonisation indigenous society, over time periods of more than centuries. Generations are seen as demographically referenced social locations like gender and race and at any one time several interdependent generations exist. Other referents include the work of JS Mill, his controversial ethology project, the history of ideas, the non-identity problem and social anthropology. The article concludes by anticipating a tentative reconstruction of Mill’s ethology based on advances in social science in the century and a half since his time. Correspondence | Peter Nixon, [email protected] Citation | Nixon, P. (2018) Situating human generations in Big History. Journal of Big History, II(2); 53 - 77. DOI | http://dx.doi.org/10.22339/jbh.v2i2.2302 Introduction “the dynamics of heat”, and the rate at which the universe has been expanding are said Big History looks at history from the Big Bang, to be responsible for the complexity we see which was, as far as we know, the beginning of our universe, to the present, placing humanity in this thermodynamics states that energy is always context without privileging humanity. Big History conserved,around us (Spier, though 2015, it may 53-56). change The in form,first law e.g. of from divides the past into manageable chunks which electricity to heat, or from heat to motion. The second law distinguishes energy which is available and sometimes do not. Books have been written to do work, i.e. free energy, from that which can aboutsometimes Big History fit established (Christian, fields 2011; of knowledge Spier, 2015) no longer be harnessed and states that in a closed system the amount of free energy decreases follows. It is claimed here that the links between over time: it is the free energy which creates and and other fields of scholarship referred to in what sustains complex entities (Christian, 2011, 506- taking a very long term view of the past and future 507). The rate at which the universe is expanding andthese the fields place of of knowledge humanity establish in this view. the need for has led to a description of what has been called The key concepts in Big History which make the Goldilocks Principle (Spier, 2015, 63-65). This it a suitable framing reference for the present principle states that for the bringing into being of work are those of complexity, energy, and the complex entities the circumstances must be just evolutionary process that has created our right: the relevant circumstances relate to gravity, temperature, pressure, radiation and other forms History and the problem to be addressed here, an of energy. The circumstances that brought the outlineuniverse of and the us.rest After of the briefly article describing is presented. Big stars into being are quite different from those The principles of thermodynamics, literally, which evolved later around the stars and allowed Journal of Big History Volume II Number 2 Summer 2018 Situating human generations in Big History complex life to develop. As Hawking (1996, 164- History Association web page carries a passage 173) explains, ordered, organized or complex more directly relevant to the present work: states of inorganic or animate being are less likely Does Big History provide a to arise than disordered states. The development narrative that can help nurture the of complexity is an evolutionary process. Big development of the empathy and History offers a view of the entire universe that is cooperation that are part of our based on careful observation and contestability in social nature? Can humans form a more perfect human community about our origins that have been handed down as we continue to create a more throughvarious fields generations of science in many rather cultures than the around narratives the complex society than has existed world but which have been constrained by the before? Or will our current levels circumstances and technologies available to those of social complexity face inexorable cultures. Big History gives us a new cosmology. demise? In lived human experience cosmology may reference various time scales and social practices. Before considering a modern social paradox The worlds of work, family, school, domesticity, relevant to this goal it is important to appreciate intergenerational relationships, governance, the relation between time and human Big History. etc. can be described and analyzed as discrete, Christian (2011, 3) links Hawking’s ground- though in lived experience they intersect. The breaking view of time with Big History. For the way these worlds can be understood in Big purposes of the present work it is only necessary History is necessarily different from the ways to acknowledge Hawking’s account of the pre- they may be understood from traditional religious human history of the universe and his multi- perspectives. This work assumes that the manner dimensional theories that may help us predict in which these worlds intersect in the lives of its post humanity future. The timescale that is individuals may prove a fruitful focus for Big relevant to the present problem is that of human History consideration in the future. generational transition. Focusing on this may Human history is a very compressed, short part produce outcomes relevant at other timescales, of the big picture. But: e.g. that of global warming, and be the subject of surrounding forces which operate on yet different On the modern map of complexity, timescales such as structures of social power. humans are as central as they were The generational transition timescale contains within most traditional cosmologies. representations of the past and hopes for the (Christian, 2003, 437-458). future: it is part of the evolutionary process which Big History research projects span many started at the Big Bang and is embedded within disciplines. At Macquarie University Gillings, the Big History of the earth and that of humanity. Paulson & Tetu (2015) and Gillings (2017) Spier has recently described the attributes of concern themselves with internal microbial academic research which are common across human health and the impact of antibiotics and social sciences. His background as a cultural History doctorate in the world was completed at anthropologistthe fields of the infuses natural his sciences, writing humanities which speaks Macquariein our environment University respectively. by Dr David The Baker first (2015). Big strongly to the present work: His interests are complexity, Universal Darwinism … doing social science research, and cultural evolution. The International Big Journal of Big History Page 54 Peter Nixon most notably longer term of them is beyond the scope of the present work. participatory observations within a The three key points to be demonstrated in what cultural setting that is different from follows are that: our own, places far greater demands 1. poverty lines have been publicly set by on a wide variety of skills than any government in Australia and other developed other form of science. (Spier, 2017). countries for decades, The present work provides a theoretical 2. inequality has been steadily rising, background for social science research concerning Big History and human generations. This sets the 3. the disproportionate impacts of inequality on work apart from much of the public commentary the young. on generations and backgrounds research to be reported in a sequel article. The present work and its sequel will take account of the four basic Australia based on a survey conducted by Prof.Firstly, Ronald poverty Henderson lines were in Melbourne first drawn in in1966 by Spier: logical consistency, explanation or (Kewley, 1973, 391-393; Henderson, Harcourt & structuringrequirements of forempirical academic observations, research identified openness Harper, 1970). This led to him being appointed by the Federal government to lead the National The sequel will also address his additional Commission of Inquiry into Poverty which requirementto falsification in and relation the sharing to social of science findings. arising updated these lines (Henderson, 1975, 14), out of the participatory action research tradition: guided Federal budget provisions in 1972-73 and it will locate the researcher in generational and featured in parliamentary debates at the time institutional terms, in relation to the research (Kewley, 1973, 400-401). Today those poverty process, participants and outcomes. Without lines are updated quarterly by the Melbourne specifying them in the same terms, these points Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research were addressed by the author in an earlier at Melbourne University. publication (Nixon, 2009). Similar accounts can be given concerning other developed countries. For example, in United The paradox: Rising inequality in the Kingdom it began with the Beveridge Report presence of publicly declared ‘poverty lines’ in the 1940’s (Gordon & Townsend, 1990). In A current issue which focuses our attention on Canada, Germany, Great Britain and the United intergenerational relationships is the paradoxical States, comparisons were not possible until co-existence over decades in developed countries of publicly set ‘poverty lines’ on the one hand available, implying that data had been gathered
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Theory and Method in Historical Sociology Soc 6401H
    THEORY AND METHOD IN HISTORICAL SOCIOLOGY SOC 6401H Instructor: Joseph M. Bryant Time: Thursdays, 4-6, Room 240 Email: [email protected] Office: Department of Sociology, 725 Spadina, Rm. 346 Phone: 946-5901 We know only a single science, the science of history. One can look at history from two sides and divide it into the history of nature and the history of men. The two sides are, however, inseparable; the history of nature and the history of men are dependent on each other so long as men exist. Marx & Engels (1845) Every social science—or better, every well-considered social study—requires an historical scope of conception and a full use of historical materials. C. Wright Mills (1959) SYNOPSIS: Can the major constraining dichotomies and polarities that have skewed the history of the social sciences over the past two centuries—voluntarism/determinism, agency/structure, nominalism/realism, micro/macro, objectivism/subjectivism, nomothetic/idiographic, maximizing rationality/cultural specificity—be resolved and transcended through use of a contextual-sequential logic of explanation, as offered in Historical Sociology? In an effort to answer that question, we will examine the central ontological and epistemological issues and controversies raised by recent efforts to develop a fully historical social science, a fully sociological historiography. We will open with a review of the celebrated Methodenstreite that shaped the formation of the social science disciplines in the late 19th and early 20th centuries—disputes that turned heavily on disagreements regarding the proper relationship between historical inquiry and sociological theorizing. The program of positivism—to model social science after the nomological natural sciences—gained institutional ascendancy, and history was driven to an “external” and largely “auxiliary” status within disciplines such as sociology and economics.
    [Show full text]
  • Freshest Advices on What to Do with the Historical Method in Philosophy When Using It to Study a Little Bit of Philosophy That Has Been Lost to History
    1 Freshest Advices on What To Do With the Historical Method in Philosophy When Using It to Study a Little Bit of Philosophy That Has Been Lost to History Bennett Gilbert Portland Oregon December the 10th, 2011. www.porlockspensum.com The historical method in philosophy is the study of the history of philosophy as a means of thinking about philosophical issues for the sake of the practice of original philosophical work. Formerly it was widely thought that the historical method was indispensable to the practice of philosophy. Those opposed to this view, whom I’ll call “presentists”1 in this paper, hold that, whatever notions the historical method and original philosophical work might have in common as rational rigorous and honest inquiries, the subject matter of the two studies is at heart different, on various accounts, and therefore that the history of philosophy is of little benefit, if not positively harmful, to the 1This use of the word “presentist” is to be rigidly distinguished from “presentism” as a position in the metaphysics of time. 2 practice of philosophical inquiry. Those whom I’ll here call the “traditionalist” view the historical method as indispensable, claiming that philosophical practice that does not include the history of philosophy and its problems misses some things (variously described by various writers) that are of the essence in philosophy. I shall not here directly evaluate these claims as to the critique one makes of the other. My attitude is irenic. I see only harm in arguing that any method is essential to the practice of philosophy in any sense such that work done without it is to be disparaged or dismissed on this sole ground or by any clever reasoning from this ground directly for the exclusion of work made by other methods of philosophical inquiry.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction 1
    HIS ¤HINKING ABOUT TO|y SA|aH MAZA The University of Chicago Press Chicago and London CONTENTS Introduction 1 1 the history of whom? 10 History from Above: “Great Men” and a Few Women 10 Social History and Quantification 14 E. P. Thompson’s Historical Revolution 23 Resistance and Agency 28 Power and the Private Sphere 34 2 the history of where? 45 How National History Became Unnatural 45 Oceans, Middle Grounds, Borderlands 57 The Rise of Global History 71 Displacing Euro- America 77 3 the history of what? 83 From Ideas to Things 83 The Changing History of Ideas 86 Thomas Kuhn’s Scientific Revolution 91 Science in Historical Context 96 The New History of Things 101 Nature and Other Nonhuman Actors 108 4 how is history produced? 118 From Chroniclers to Academics 118 Popular and Public History 124 Orthodoxy and Revisionism: How Debate Shapes History 137 Do Sources and Archives Make History? 146 5 causes or meanings? 157 Causality and History 157 In Search of Laws and Patterns: Social Science History and Comparison 161 Marxism and the Annales School 166 Multicausal History and the Return of the Event 171 In Search of Meaning: Microhistory 178 Clifford Geertz, Michel Foucault, and the “New Cultural History” 185 6 facts or fictions? 199 The Rise and Fall of Objectivity 199 Postmodernism and History: Radical Skepticism and New Methods 209 Everything Is Constructed 216 Barbarians at the Gate 220 Distortion or Imagination: Where Do We Draw the Line? 225 Conclusion 235 Acknowledgments 239 Index 241 INT|oDUCTION What historians do, while it may seem obvious, proves surprisingly hard to define once you start thinking about it.
    [Show full text]
  • Studies on Collingwood, History and Civilization
    Studies on Collingwood, History and Civilization Jan van der Dussen Studies on Collingwood, History and Civilization Jan van der Dussen Heerlen , The Netherlands ISBN 978-3-319-20671-4 ISBN 978-3-319-20672-1 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-20672-1 Library of Congress Control Number: 2015951386 Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifi cally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfi lms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specifi c statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Printed on acid-free paper Springer International Publishing AG Switzerland is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www. springer.com) Acknowledgements The following four essays are reproduced from their original publication.
    [Show full text]
  • Big Data in Computational Social Science and Humanities Computational Social Sciences
    Computational Social Sciences Shu-Heng Chen Editor Big Data in Computational Social Science and Humanities Computational Social Sciences [email protected] Computational Social Sciences A series of authored and edited monographs that utilize quantitative and computational methods to model, analyze and interpret large-scale social phenomena. Titles within the series contain methods and practices that test and develop theories of complex social processes through bottom-up modeling of social interactions. Of particular interest is the study of the co-evolution of modern communication technology and social behavior and norms, in connection with emerging issues such as trust, risk, security and privacy in novel socio-technical environments. Computational Social Sciences is explicitly transdisciplinary: quantitative methods from fields such as dynamical systems, artificial intelligence, network theory, agentbased modeling, and statistical mechanics are invoked and combined with state-of-theart mining and analysis of large data sets to help us understand social agents, their interactions on and offline, and the effect of these interactions at the macro level. Topics include, but are not limited to social networks and media, dynamics of opinions, cultures and conflicts, socio-technical co-evolution and social psychology. Computational Social Sciences will also publish monographs and selected edited contributions from specialized conferences and workshops specifically aimed at communicating new findings to a large transdisciplinary audience. A fundamental goal of the series is to provide a single forum within which commonalities and differences in the workings of this field may be discerned, hence leading to deeper insight and understanding. Series Editors Elisa Bertino Larry S. Liebovitch Purdue University, West Lafayette, Queens College, City University of IN, USA New York, Flushing, NY, USA Claudio Cioffi-Revilla Sorin A.
    [Show full text]
  • The Problem of Moral Statements in Historical Writing
    Montclair State University Montclair State University Digital Commons Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects 5-2012 The rP oblem of Moral Statements in Historical Writing Alexandra Katherine Perry Montclair State University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/etd Part of the Education Commons, and the History Commons Recommended Citation Perry, Alexandra Katherine, "The rP oblem of Moral Statements in Historical Writing" (2012). Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects. 20. https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/etd/20 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by Montclair State University Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects by an authorized administrator of Montclair State University Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE PROBLEM OF MORAL STATEMENTS IN HISTORICAL WRITING A DISSERTATION Submitted to the Faculty of Montclair State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education by ALEXANDRA KATHERINE PERRY Montclair State University Upper Montclair, NJ 2012 Dissertation Chair: Dr. Jaime Grinberg Copyright © 2012 by Alexandra Katherine Perry. All rights reserved. ABSTRACT THE PROBLEM OF MORAL STATEMENTS IN HISTORICAL WRITING by Alexandra Katherine Perry Bernard Williams (1985) begins his skeptical look at the history of ethical theory with a reminder of where it began, with Socrates’ question, "how should one live?" (pg. 1). This question is relevant to historians, who ask a similar question, “how did people live?” in their own work, To wonder “how one should live” or to make statements about the ways in which people have lived is to rely on the work of historians.
    [Show full text]
  • Postmodern Theory of History: a Critique
    Postmodern Theory of History: A Critique Trygve R. Tholfsen Teachers College, Columbia University 1. Among the more striking spinoffs of postmodernism in the past fifteen years or so has been an arresting theory of history. On the assumption that "the historical text is an object in itself, made entirely from language, and thus subject to the interrogations devised by the sciences of language use from ancient rhetoric to modern semiotics"1, postmodernists have set out to enlighten historians about their discipline. From that perspective, they have emphasized the intrinsic fictionality of historical writing, derided the factualist empiricism that purportedly governs the work of professional historians, dismissed the ideal of objectivity as a myth, and rejected the truth claims of traditional historiography. Historians have been invited to accept the postmodern approach as a means to critical self reflection and to the improvement of practice. Some postmodern theorists have taken a more overtly anti-histori• cal line that bears directly on important questions of theory and prac• tice. Rejecting the putative "autonomy" claims of professional histo• riography, they dismiss the notion of a distinctively "historical" mode of understanding the past. On this view, the study of origins and de• velopment is of limited analytical value; and the historicist principle of historical specificity or individuality is the remnant of a venerable tradition that has been displaced. It follows that historians ought to give up their claim to special authority in the study of the past. This article will concentrate on the postmodern rejection of the notion that the past has to be understood "historically." 1 Hans KELLNER, "Introduction: Describing Re-Descriptions" in Frank ANKERSMIT and Hans KELLNER (eds.), A New Philosophy of History, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1995, p.
    [Show full text]
  • History and Idealism: the Theory of R. G. Collingwood
    History and Idealism: The Theory of R. G. Collingwood Saul A. Kripke This is the final submitted version of the following article: Kripke, S. A. (2017), History and Idealism: The Theory of R. G. Collingwood. Collingwood and British Idealism Studies, 23: 9-29, which has been published in final form by Imprint Academic at https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/imp/col/2017/00000023/00 000001/art00002. 1 History and Idealism: The Theory of R. G. Collingwood1 Saul A. Kripke In this essay, the phrase, “the idealist theory of history,” will denote the idealist cultural philosophy of history, as proposed by Collingwood and others, not the idealist speculative philosophy, as adumbrated by Hegel and various kindred spirits. The distinction between a speculative and cultural philosophy of history, as formulated by Walsh (1951: 13-15), contrasts the philosopher’s “speculative” task (or alleged task) of formulating the teleology or ultimate meaning of history with the “cultural” task of investigating the epistemological foundations of historical research.2 A speculative idealist theory of history will attempt to show, as Hegel has done, that history progresses according to dialectical laws of “thought” or “world spirit,”3 but a critical (or cultural) idealist view of history need make no such commitment.4 1 This paper was written for an undergraduate history course at Harvard, in my third (junior) year of college (1960-1; second term). My teacher, Richard T. Vann, urged me to publish it even then. Since a couple of Collingwood scholars expressed interest in this paper, I have finally followed Vann’s advice. I have kept the paper pretty much as it was, with very minor stylistic revisions (such as replacing the then conventional use of ‘he’ by an alternation of ‘he’ and ‘she’).
    [Show full text]
  • The Role of Causation in History 73
    72 history in the making vol. 2 no. 1 The Role of Causation in History 73 similarly bold fashion Tapp asserts that causation should be the foremost concern of all historians; ‘the great central pillar’ of historical thinking.3 E.H. Carr is another to argue the importance of causation in history, stating that history is first and foremost a ‘study of causes’.4 More so, Carr believes that the true historian’s role is, having assessed the causes of an event, to form them into a hierarchy of importance. In establishing a plurality of causes, and then forming them into The Role of a hierarchy of importance, the issue of subjectivity, selection and value judgements becomes pertinent as they reflect the historian’s own unique interpretation of the past, as identified by Mendel Cohen in his analysis of selection in causation.5 To assess all that has been said about Causation in History causation and history would overstep the bounds of this essay, but it is clear from this brief survey of opinions that whilst causation is acknowledged as a fundamental aspect in the study of history, there is little consensus on the precise role it should play. Perhaps as Stephen Rigby, Frederick Teggart and Anton Froeyman all recognise, the reason for such contention is that there James Brien no consensus on the identification of a ‘cause’, nor do all historians understand the philosophy of causation.6 Bearing the significant issues of the debate in mind, I will suggest a common sense Honours, approach to historical causation; assessing causal relationships within history, balancing the Univeristy of New England major concerns of plurality, hierarchy, selection, determinism, free will and chance in history as expressed by historians.
    [Show full text]
  • Postmodernism and Historiography
    Durham E-Theses 'How warped the mirrors': postmodernism and historiography Olson, Ryan Scott How to cite: Olson, Ryan Scott (2002) 'How warped the mirrors': postmodernism and historiography, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/3971/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 'How Warped the Mirrors' Postmodernism and Historiography Ryan Scott Olson The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without his prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. 2 1 JAN 200~l Submitted for the Master of Arts degree University of Durham Department of Theology 2002 The Copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation of its contents should be published without his prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged.
    [Show full text]
  • Collingwood's Idea of History : the Development and Form of Historical Inquiry Timothy A
    University of Richmond UR Scholarship Repository Honors Theses Student Research Spring 1984 Collingwood's idea of history : the development and form of historical inquiry Timothy A. Hartin Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.richmond.edu/honors-theses Recommended Citation Hartin, Timothy A., "Collingwood's idea of history : the development and form of historical inquiry" (1984). Honors Theses. Paper 562. This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Research at UR Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of UR Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND LIBRARIES llll IIll IIll Ill II lllll lllll IIll llll Ill II IIll Ill IIll II Ill Ill Illll 3 3082 01028 5160 Collingwood's Idea of History: The Development and Form of Historical Timothy A. Gartin History Honors Thesis Spring 198L~ Collingwood 1 s Idea of History: The Development and Form of Historical Inquiry Introduction History was long considered a somehow second-rate discipline, incapable of producing true knowledge like math or the hard sciences. Whether viewed as ~he handmaiden of theology in the Middle Ages or simply denied a place among the sciences by the latter-day positivists, history 1 s independence and value as a study in its own right have been denied from many points of view at different ~imes. R. G. Collingwood takes issue with this attitude towards history by l'~s~tonomy both in subject and method in his ihe Idea of History. His !inquiry into the nature of history is divided into two parts.
    [Show full text]
  • That Disputatious Pair. Economic History and the History of Economics
    Donald Winch That Disputatious Pair: Economic History and the History of Economics1 I My title derives, indirectly at least, from a comment by Donald Coleman on the troubled relationship between history and economics which he later documented at greater length.2 Here it is modified to fit the relationship between those whose main task is to understand the economic past and those, like myself, whose chief concern is with the history of earlier efforts by economists to understand their own economic past, present, and future. The modification suits my immediate purpose in seeking to provoke further conversations, possibly disputatious ones, between economic historians and historians of economics. It also signals that I shall not be directly concerned with that running methodological theme within economic history, the extent to which its narratives and analyses could or should rely, partially or wholly, on tools developed by economists to explain the economic present. Such disputes are internal to the economic history community, and it seems impertinent for someone who is simply a consumer of its products to propose improved methods of production. To this self-denying ordinance should be added another. It centres on the ways in which some influential English economic historians during the last quarter of the nineteenth century found it necessary to criticize economists, past and present, for their failures to comprehend the Industrial Revolution (the capital letters were then obligatory) and the nature of modern economic life more generally. Fortunately, we now have a number of studies of this episode -- a crucial one in any attempt to understand the origins and early development of economic history as an academic entity in this country.3 My two self-denying ordinances are, 1 This paper was written to provoke discussion during one of the sessions at the Economic History Society Conference, University of Sussex, April 6, 1997.
    [Show full text]