In this episode, we talk about the invisible, unequal, and unjust world of cotton.

Today we talk about how the three piece suit got made, how women's fashion was helped by bike-riding socialists, and whey in fashion everyone steals from everyone else.

In this episode I compare the rise of restaurants in the 18th and 19th centuries with the rise of domestic home cooked meals in the same period.

In this episode, we talk about the consumer revolution of the 18th century, a weird time when commemorative plates were like MAGA hats.

In this episode, I try to make a big narrative about how the Industrial Revolution happened.

In this episode, I run through three stances on what the Industrial Revolution actually was.

In this episode, I try to sum up two weeks' of reading about capitalism, finance, markets, and machines into one minute.

And I fail. The episode is twenty minutes. College try, though!

We tackle one of life's only certainties: taxes, and how changes in warfare led to two very different tax systems in Britain.

Book:

Martin Daunton: Trusting Leviathan

In this episode, I argue for a periodization of European history based on particular era's drug of choice. First spices, then coffee, then gin and opium.

Books:

Wolfgang Schivelbusch, Tastes of Paradise

Zheng Yangwen, The Social Life of Opium In China

In this episode, we look at another explanation for the spread of empire and capitalism. Technology

Books today are

David Headrick, The Tools of Empire

David Headrick, the Tentacles of Progress

Timothy Mitchell, Rule of Experts