Some Chicago Boyz know each other from student days at the University of Chicago. Others are Chicago boys in spirit. The blog name is also intended as a good-humored gesture of admiration for distinguished Chicago School economists and fellow travelers.
Jim Bennett responds to a (positive) review of his book The Anglosphere Challenge: Why the English-Speaking Nations Will Lead the Way in the Twenty-First Century in the (very good) Australian magazine Quadrant. If you have not yet read TAC, pick it up and use it for beach reading this summer. Bennett’s post shows the development … Read more
John had an interesting post entitled “Russia: East or West”. It cited in part to the discussion we had in the comments to this post about the correct way to think about Russia in relation to the West. I cited to this article (actually an abridgement) by Prof. Richard Hellie of the University of Chicago. … Read more
Prior to the miracle of Civil Society, human societies habitually lived under coercive and superstitious systems, and generally took such a condition for granted. They were right to do so. There was no alternative. Within such societies, the maintenance of the social order was normally quite properly accorded far more importance than any possible augmentation … Read more
[cross-posted on Albion’s Seedlings] The success of Europe, and especially the Anglosphere, in the last few centuries has kept historians busy, pondering just why and when the Europeans made such an impact on the world. Not surprisingly, the theories of causality often mirror their times. Way back when, European success was seen as religious and … Read more
Kelly, Jack, Gunpowder: Alchemy, Bombards and Pyrotechnics: The History of the Explosive That Changed the World, 2004 [cross-posted on Albion’s Seedlings] Cross-fertilizing with an earlier review of Macfarlane and Martin’s Glass: A World History, “Gunpowder” tracks technological change across a wide sweep of historical time and space from the perspective of one material. Most people … Read more