Introduction

My guest for this episode is Jari Eloranta, he is a professor of comparative economic and business history at Appalachian State University. Jari's work focuses on the economic history of national defense. In this far-reaching conversation, we go all the way back to pre-modern societies' methods of financing their militaries, then trace the transitions up through the early modern period and into the 20th century. We discuss the way war has shaped modern states and institutions.

Books mentioned:

The First Total War: Napoleon's Europe and the Birth of Warfare as We Know It, by David A. Bell.

The Gunpowder Age: China, Military Innovation, and the Rise of the West in World History, by Tonio Andrade.