Ancient China was characterized by a feudalism strikingly similar to what we find in medieval Europe. In both places, feudalism was used as a form of government based on a fragmentation and privatization of political power. Well, upon closer inspection China was not feudal after all. But then, neither was Europe. Feudalism had to be … Continue reading The Problem of History Revisited
Historical political economy (HPE) is a vibrant research field that traverses traditional disciplinary boundaries. In the past ten years, the number of articles in this tradition in top political science journals has more than doubled. In this post, I discuss some patterns and tendencies in the HPE articles in top political science journals that Eugene … Continue reading The Trajectory of a Booming Field: A Look Back at a Decade of HPE Research
The blog’s name – Broadstreet – is a nod to the legendary John Snow and his study of the 1854 cholera outbreak in London. Snow found convincing evidence for a previously unproven water-born theory of cholera transmission, with a rigorous yet interdisciplinary approach — using detailed socio-economic data, ethnography, historical patterns of disease transmission, and early techniques of causal inference. CONTINUE READING