CENTRE FOR HISTORY AND ECONOMICS King's College, Cambridge CB2 1ST. ______
Newsletter: Michaelmas Term 1999
History and Economics Seminar
13 October The Longest Years—Time and Work in Britain, 1750-1830 Hans-Joachim Voth (Centre for History and Economics and Robinson College, Cambridge)
27 October Hamlet in Purgatory Stephen Greenblatt (Harvard University)
17 November Henry Sidgwick’s Practical Ethics: A Century’s Perspective Sissela Bok (Harvard University)
24 November Victorian Exceptionalism? John Burrow (Balliol College, Oxford)
The seminars are held on Wednesdays at 5.00pm in King's College, H3.
This term, we will be meeting for tea and coffee on Wednesdays before the History and Economics Seminar, between 4 and 5 pm, in Room H-3, King's College. Please note that on all non-Seminar Wednesdays during Full Term, tea will be held at the Centre at 3D King's Parade. Friends and associates are welcome.
The administrative offices of the Centre for History and Economics are situated at 3D King's Parade. Staff may be contacted by phone on 01223 331197/331120/462551 or fax on 01223 331198 or e-mail [email protected] or [email protected]. http://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/histecon Staff Announcements
Hans-Joachim Voth (Germany), has joined the Centre as a Research Fellow and Associate Director, and a Fellow of Robinson College. Dr Voth is also an Assistant Professor in the Economics Department at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. His research interests include investment and economic growth; living standards, labour supply and growth in Europe, 1500-1900; and the German interwar economy. Dr Voth will be pursuing two research projects whilst at the Centre: The Seasonality of Baptisms, and Political Stability and Economic Growth - A View from Weimar’s Asset Markets.
Mamta Murthi (India), is a Research Fellow in connection with the project on Poverty and Inequality, and a Fellow of Clare Hall. Dr Murthi was previously a lecturer in Economics at the University of Sussex, and an economist at the World Bank. Her research interests include population and economic development; poverty and the economic transition; and social security reform. While at the Centre Dr Murthi is working on the recent economic demography of India. For more information, see www.kings.cam.ac.uk/histecon/mamta.htm
Thant Myint-U (Burma) will be affiliated with the Centre for a period of two years as a Research Associate in connection with the CSF programme. He is working on knowledge and multilateral interventions. Dr Myint-U was a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge from 1995 to 1999. He has also worked for the United Nations as a spokesman in Cambodia and the former Yugoslavia. In January 1999 he joined the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) in Stockholm.
Catherine Merridale, who was at the Centre on a two year research leave from Bristol University from 1996, has returned to her post in Bristol. She has completed her book on Death, Mourning and Memory in 20th Century Russia, 1890-1991. She will continue to work with the Common Security Forum (CSF) in connection with the Russia programme.
Noala Skinner, Research Associate, is currently on a leave of absence from the Centre to join UNICEF. She is based in Geneva at UNICEF's regional office for Europe, and is working on basic education. She will continue to coordinate the CSF programme on children and security.
Erik Grimmer-Solem, Research Assistant in the Leverhulme/Thyssen project on The Rise and Fall of Historical Political Economy in the 19th Century, received his PhD from Oxford University for his thesis ‘The Science of Progress: the Rise of Historical Economics and Social Reform in Germany, 1864-1894'. He has been appointed to a Faculty Assistant Professorship in the Division of Social Sciences at the University of Chicago.
Rama Mani, Research Associate, submitted her thesis, ‘Building a Just Peace: the Quest for Justice in Post-Conflict Societies’, in September 1999. She has now taken up a post at OXFAM in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, as Regional Policy Coordinator (Conflict) for the Horn of Africa.
Visiting Scholars
Yusuke Dan is currently visiting for one year (from April 1999) from Tokai University in Japan. He is a Fellow of Clare Hall and a Visiting Fellow of the Centre for History and Economics. Dr Dan specialises in British imperial history, with a special interest in South Africa. He has founded a now thriving association in Japan for British imperial history. He also takes a strong interest in contemporary development policies and has cooperated with the Centre since 1996, in connection with the Common Security Forum research programme. While in England Dr Dan will be doing research on historical materials including the Lord Durham and Jan Smuts papers.
Jean Drèze will be visiting the Centre in October 1999. Dr Drèze is a Professor at the Centre for Development Economics at the Delhi School of Economics in India, and a member of the MacArthur Network on Inequality and Poverty in Broader Perspectives (see below). He coordinates the economic and social security project of the Common Security Forum in India. While in Cambridge he will be collaborating with Amartya Sen and Mamta Murthi in connection with the Inequality and Poverty project.
History and Economics Studentship Programme
Sally Brierley (1999-2000, St John’s -- History) will be starting a one-year Economic and Social History MPhil course in October. She is working on the relationship between British governments and domestic capital markets in the mid and late eighteenth century. Her supervisor is Martin Daunton.
Christopher Beauchamp (Trinity Hall) will be starting a one-year Economic and Social History MPhil course and writing on the business history of the Co-operative Society movement. His supervisor is Martin Daunton.
Magnus Marsden (Trinity) will be starting a PhD in Social Anthropology on Islamic fundamentalism. He will be supervised by Susan Bayly.
Bernhard Fulda (Germany) (1998-99, Peterhouse -- History) received a distinction for his MPhil dissertation ‘The German Press 1910-1924: Politics and Business in the German media’. He will begin his PhD at St John’s College, Cambridge this fall. He will be supervised by Richard Evans.
James Thompson (King’s College) will begin his Research Fellowship at Jesus College this term. He has completed his PhD ‘Rethinking Public Opinion in Late Nineteenth Century Britain’, which was supervised by Peter Clarke, and will be submitting later in the autumn.
Paul Warde (1995-96, Fitzwilliam College) will begin his Research Fellowship at Fitzwilliam College in October. He has submitted his PhD thesis ‘The Ecology of Wood Use in Early Modern Württemberg, 1450-1650', which was supervised by Richard Smith.
Research Projects
Security and Globalization The Centre has established a new research programme on the politics of globalization to begin in October 1999. The programme will be organised jointly with the Harvard Centre for Population and Dvelopment Studies. It will have four main themes: (i) Globalization in Historical Perspective (coordinated by Emma Rothschild), (ii) Political Security and Globalization (coordinated by Richard Tuck and Melissa Lane); (iii) Economic and Social Insecurity (coordinated by Stephan Klasen and Emma Rothschild), and (iv) Militarism and Globalization (coordinated by Jean Drèze). The project is supported by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. Suggestions about the programme of work will be gratefully received. Inequality and Poverty in Broader Perspectives
In October 1998 the Centre began a two year programme on Poverty and Inequality, associated with the MacArthur network on Poverty and Inequality in Broader Perspectives. Dr Mamta Murthi will work with other members of the network, in particular Professor Amartya Sen and also Professors Sudhir Anand, Jean Drèze and Stephan Klasen. The project will pay special attention to analytical issues in the measurement and evaluation of inequalities, in the context of extensive empirical applications dealing with the United States (especially the hard inequalities that exist across ethnic divisions), India (especially the remarkably sharp regional and inter-district contrasts, and also differential positions of women and men), and South Africa (especially the long-standing racial and locational inequalities inherited from the Apartheid days).
Rise and Fall of Historical Political Economy in the 19th Century
This project began in October 1995, supported by the Leverhulme Trust and the Thyssen Foundation. It is coordinated by Emma Rothschild and Gareth Stedman Jones, together with Nancy Cartwright, Director of the Centre for the Philosophy of the Natural and Social Sciences at the London School of Economics. Roberto Romani was appointed as research fellow in October 1995. Erik Grimmer, from Nuffield College, Oxford, was appointed as research assistant for the programme.
Environmental Security Following a colloquium on Documenting Environmental Change (see below), a new research network will begin at the Centre to enable continued work and dialogue between social and natural scientists engaged in environmental history or forms of historical ecology. Initially, an electronic database of researchers and contacts working in these fields will be developed. A series of seminars entitled Documenting Environmental Change, to take place at Clare Hall, is being planned. The work will be coordinated by Meena Singh and Paul Warde.
Recent Events
European Monetary Union in the nineteenth-century: political, economic and financial aspects
A one day colloquium on European Monetary Unification, organised by Luca Einaudi, was held at King’s College on September 24, 1999. The aim of the colloquium was to discuss monetary integration of Europe in the 1860's and 1870's, looking specifically at the Latin Monetary Union. The politics of monetary union was explored on the basis of papers which use new archival resources in England and France. The position of enthusiastic and reluctant new candidates to join the existing union after its formation was also considered, with particular emphasis on the British and German internal debate. Participants included Marc Flandreau (CNRS, Paris), Anatole Kaletsky (The Times), and Jonathan Steinberg (Trinity Hall).
Documenting Environmental Change
The Centre held a meeting at Clare Hall on September 15, 1999 on Documenting Environmental Change. Meena Singh and Paul Warde organised the meeting, the aim of which was to bring together scholars from different disciplines working on the reconstruction of environmental change. The meeting considered methodological questions surrounding the use of different evidence for environmental change. Participants - who ranged from a diversity of disciplines such as history, English literature, archaeology, economic history, anthropology and geography - included Gillian Beer (Clare Hall), William Beinart (St Anthony’s College, Oxford), Yusuke Dan (Clare Hall), Lennart Strömquist (Uppsala University, Sweden) and Sverker Sörlin (Umeå University, Sweden).
The Peculiarities of the British Economic Experience
The Centre arranged a conference on the peculiarities of the British economic experience over the past three centuries, at King’s College in July 1999. The conference organisers were Professor Donald Winch of the University of Sussex and Professor Patrick O’Brien of the Institute of Historical Research. The colloquium was devoted to four broad themes: ‘Foreign observers’, ‘Free trade and protection’, ‘Fiscal policy’, and ‘Empire’. In the first session of the meeting, Foreign observers, presentations were made by Donald Winch, Emma Rothschild and James Thompson (Jesus College, Cambridge). The second sessions, Free trade and protection, included papers by Anthony Howe (London School of Economics), Frank Trentmann (Princeton University), and Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey (London School of Economics). In the third session, Fiscal policy, Patrick O’Brien, Martin Daunton (Churchill College, Cambridge) and George Peden (University of Stirling) gave presentations. The last session, Empire, heard a major paper by Peter Cain of Sheffield Hallam University.
Knowledge and Multilateral Interventions
In July 1999, the Center hosted a one-day meeting on Knowledge and Multilateral Interventions. Held at Trinity College. The purpose of the meeting was to examine the UN’s use of information in the Bosnia and Cambodia operations, and possible lessons for present ‘interventions’. A background paper was prepared by Thant Myint-U (International IDEA, Stockholm) and Elizabeth Sellwood (Royal Institute of International Affairs, London) on Knowledge and Multilateral Interventions: The UN’s Experiences in Bosnia and Cambodia provided the basis for the first session discussion. The second session consisted of a panel discussion on Civilian Aspects of Peace Implementation Operations. The outcome of the day was a short report, which will be sent to the Secretary General of the UN, and which will also be included in the published version of the background paper. Participants included Christopher Bayly (St Catharine’s College, Cambridge), Yusuke Dan (Tokai University/Clare Hall, Cambridge), Magnus Lennartsson (Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs), Edward Mortimer (Chief speech-writer to the Secretary-General, United Nations, New York), Izumi Nakamitsu (International IDEA, Stockholm), and Paul Risely (International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, The Hague).
Upcoming Events
Exhibiting Britain
The Centre is arranging a one day colloquium, organised by Becky Conekin, on Exhibiting Britain, to be held at King’s College in November. The aim is to discuss the Great Exhibition of 1851, the Festival of Britain, 1951 and the Millennium exhibitions in a historical, comparative context. A paper by Becky Conekin (London College of Fashion) will present the Festival of Britain as a Labour- led project, which drew on invented traditions and a sense of ancient ancestry. There will also be presentations by Max Jones (Peterhouse), on historians, national identity and heroes in early twentieth century Britain, and Brigitte Vogel, co-curator of the 'Unity, Justice and Freedom': The Germans 1949- 1999 exhibition, presently at the German Historical Museum, Berlin. The day will conclude with a panel discussion of issues of national identity and commemoration, past, present and future. For further information, please contact Amy Price at the Centre on 331120. Announcements
Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure
The Research programme of the Cambridge Group for the History of Population continues to develop with a particular focus on the inter-relationships between welfare provision and demographic patterns. Collaborative work on the elderly and the collectivity is being undertaken with Professor David Thomson of Massey University, New Zealand. Professor Thomson is a visiting research associate of the Group in Michaelmas Term. He is an authority on the well-being of the elderly in England during the New Poor Law era and has written very influential studies of early welfare experiments and the recent history of the welfare state in New Zealand—Selfish Generations and A World Without Welfare. He is particularly interested in issues to do with factors promoting declining age of withdrawal from the labour market. Work on the long-run trends in the social differences of adult mortality in which the striking similarity of trends across all social status groups, particular among females, has emerged as a very robust finding. The Group is involved in comparative work on this theme concerning Western Europe and Japan with Professor Kazunori Murakoshi of Surugadai University who is an authority on the demography of the Daimyo class in the Tokugawa period.
The Cambridge Group is heavily involved in the teaching and dissertation supervision of the newly established MPhil in Economic and Social History which has an intake of 11 candidates in 1999-2000, two of whom, Chris Beauchamp and Sally Brierley, hold studentships from the Centre for History and Economics. Richard Smith Cambridge Group Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies
In March 1999, a number of academics associated with the Centre for History and Economics spoke at the second Cambridge Gender Symposium, Girton College, including Mamta Murthi, Sheilagh Ogilvie, Melissa Lane and Paul Seabright. The aim of the Symposium was to celebrate the range of work being carried out in the Gender Studies field in Cambridge, and to encourage the University to support such research. We are delighted to announce that the Secretary General has recently set up a working group, to work towards an interdisciplinary Centre for Gender Studies. Melissa Lane of Kings College is one of the members of this group. The proposed Centre aims to bridge the barriers between departments, colleges, and the two universities based in Cambridge, drawing together researchers, visiting scholars, and providing an interdisciplinary discussion forum. The Centre will also help Gender Studies students find the appropriate teaching and supervision for their work. We hope to continue our association with scholars from the Centre for History and Economics. Any individual interested in advance notice of seminars and events should email their contact details to: [email protected] Lucy Delap King’s College If anyone would like to submit announcements to the Centre’s Newsletter, please contact Amy Price on (3)31120, or email: [email protected]. The Newsletter is produced at the beginning of each full term. Articles should be submitted at least one week prior to the first day of term. Members of Staff at the Centre
The Directors of the Centre are Emma Rothschild and Gareth Stedman Jones and Associate Director of the Centre is Hans-Joachim Voth.
The Executive Committee of the Centre consists of A.B. Atkinson, Nancy Cartwright, Olwen Hufton, Emma Rothschild, Quentin Skinner, Gareth Stedman Jones, Barry Supple and E.A. Wrigley.
The staff at the Centre are: Inga Huld Markan, Administrative Officer/Editorial Associate, who can be contacted at the Centre on 331197; Hans-Joachim Voth, Associate Director, who can be contacted at the Centre on 331197 or at Robinson College on 339170; Mamta Murthi, Research Fellow, who can be contacted at the Centre on 462551 or at Clare Hall on 740750; Amy Price, Administrative Officer/Research Associate, who can be contacted at the Centre on 331120; Emma Rothschild, Director, who can be contacted at the Centre on 331197 or 331120; Noala Skinner, Research Associate (on leave), Gareth Stedman Jones, Director, who can be contacted at the Centre on 331197 or 331120; Meena Singh, Research Fellow, who can be contacted at the Centre on 462551.
Seminars Notices of seminars in Cambridge and elsewhere are posted in the Centre offices (King's H-3 and 3D King's Parade). Seminars scheduled for this term in addition to the History and Economics seminar include:
Seminar in Political Thought and Intellectual History
October 11 Freedom and Money Gerald Cohen (All Souls College, Oxford)
October 25 Kant’s Heading: Cosmopolitan Right Jeremy Waldron (Faculty of Law, Columbia University)
November 8 The Uses of Rhetoric: Aristotle on Deliberation, Distrust, and Citizenship Danielle Allen (Classics Department, University of Chicago)
November 22 Law, obligation, and ‘unwritten law’ in Hobbesian political thought Alan Cromartie (University of Reading)
The Seminars are held on Mondays at 5.00pm in G21 in the Classics Faculty Seminars (continued)
Themes in Modern History
20 October The British Disease: Secrecy, Society and the State David Vincent (University of Keele)
3 November History, myth and popular culture: the strange case of the Titanic Richard Howells (Leeds University)
17 November Popular recreation in eighteenth-century England Emma Griffin (Trinity College, Cambridge)
8 December Onanism and the ethics of desire, 1712-1998 Thomas Laqueur (University of California at Berkeley)
The seminars are held on Wednesdays at 5pm in King’s College, Gibbs Building, F6
Seminar in Modern Economic and Social History
21 October The Grand or British Tour? Influences in building the English country house, 1700-1830 Richard Wilson (UEA)
4 November Globalisation versus nationalism: British Petroleum, OPEC and world oil, 1950-75 James Bamberg (BP History and University of Cambridge)
18 November The making of the modern career, 1840-1940 Andy Miles (University of Birmingham)
2 December Wealth-holding (£100,000+) in 19th century Britain: preliminary patterns WD Rubenstein
All meetings are held on Thursdays in the Nihon room at Pembroke College, at 5 pm Seminars (continued)
History of Population and Social Structure Seminars
11 October Northeast Thailand Funeral Societies John Bryant (Khon Kaen University, Thailand)
25 October Mortality patterns of the monks of Durham Cathedral Priory in the fifteenth and early sixteenth Centuries: Preliminary reflections on initial findings John Hatcher (Corpus Christi College, Cambridge), Jim Oeppen (Cambridge Group) and David Stone (Corpus Christi College, Cambridge)
8 November Godparentage, patronage and kinship in Chester, 1600-1623 Catherine Francis (King’s College, Cambridge)
22 November Dependence and independence in widowhood in eighteenth and nineteenth century Northwest Europe Beatrice Moring (Cambridge Group)
6 December Generation replacement in European populations since 1870 Tony Wrigley (Corpus Christi College, Cambridge)
Mondays at 5.00 pm in the Cambridge Group Library, 27 Trumpington Street
Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies
27 October A discussion of gaining European Funding for research associated with women Dr Nicole Dewandre (European Commission)
1-2.30 pm, SPS Seminar Room, Free School Lane, all are welcome.
Gender Theory Study Group
26 October Theorising Gender in Post-Communism Peggy Watson
23 November How do we Measure Gender Inequality Ingrid Robeyns (Wolfson College, Cambridge)
8.15 pm, Room 10, 8-9 Jesus Lane
This group will be limited in number. Please email [email protected] for more information. Recent Centre Publications:
Knowledge and Multilateral Interventions: The UN's Experiences in Cambodia and Bosnia-Herzegovina (September 1999) Thant Myint-U and Elizabeth Sellwood
An Imperfect History of Perfect Competition (April 1999) Richard Tuck
Globalization and Democracy in Historical Perspective (April 1999) Emma Rothschild
The Reception of Lujo Brentano's Thought in Britain, 1870-1900 (October 1998) James Thompson
Bruno Hildebrands Kritik an Adam Smith (October 1998) Emma Rothschild
From the Franc to the "Europe": Great Britain, Germany and the attempted transformation of the Latin Monetary Union Into a European Monetary Union (September 1998) Luca Einaudi
Measuring Poverty and Deprivation in South Africa (July 1998) Stephan Klasen
Durkheim's Sociology, Simiand's Positive Political Economics and the German Historical School (May 1998) Philippe Steiner
Une autre histoire sociale? (April 1998) Gareth Stedman Jones
In Search of Full Empirical Reality: Historical Political Economy, 1870-1900 (January 1998) Erik Grimmer-Solem and Roberto Romani
Industrie, Pauperism and the Hanoverian State: the Genesis and Political Content of the Original Debate about the ‘Industrial Revolution’ in England and France, 1815-1840 (January 1997) Gareth Stedman Jones
Basutoland - An Historical Journey into the Environment (January 1997) Meena Singh
Comments or suggestions about the Newsletter should be sent to Amy Price or Inga Huld Markan at the Centre for History and Economics, King’s College, Cambridge, CB2 1ST.