The Economic and Political History Podcast

Interview with Rory Naismith, author of 'Making Money in the Early Middle Ages'Between the end of the Roman Empire in the fifth century and the economic transformations of the twelfth, coined money in western Europe was scarce and high in value, difficult for the majority of the population to make use of. And yet, as Rory Naismith shows in this illuminating study, coined money was made and used throughout early medieval Europe. It was, he argues, a powerful tool for articulating people’s place in economic and social structures and an important gauge for levels of economic complexity. Working from the premise that using coined money carried special significance when there was less of it around, Naismith uses detailed case studies from the Mediterranean and northern Europe to propose a new reading of early medieval money as a point of contact between economic, social, and institutional history.-------Javier Mejia is a Stanford University lecturer who specializes in the intersection of social networks and economic history. His research interests also include entrepreneurship and political economy, with a particular focus on Latin America and the Middle East. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Los Andes University. Mejia has previously been a Postdoctoral Associate and Lecturer at New York University-Abu Dhabi and a Visiting Scholar at the University of Bordeaux. He is also a frequent contributor to various news outlets, currently serving as an op-ed columnist for Forbes Magazine.Twitter (X): https://twitter.com/JavierMejiaCInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/javier_mejia_c/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/javier-mejia-cubillos-64504562/

Interview with Luis Schenoni, author of 'Bringing War Back In. Victory, defeat, and the state in nineteenth-century Latin America'Since Charles Tilly’s claim that “war made the state,” scholars have viewed the bellicist account of state formation through a European lens. In Europe, war drove rulers to tax, conscript, and build bureaucracies, culminating in powerful states. Yet  Latin America's  wars were thought to be too infrequent and externally financed to foster state capacity. Bringing War Back In (Cambridge University Press, 2024) shows nineteenth-century Latin America faced more wars than Europe, which shaped state development, not through mobilization alone but via the long-term effect of war outcomes. Victorious states legitimized wartime institutions, consolidating state capacity, while defeated states suffered lasting decline. Leveraging statistics and archival evidence the book shows how international threats systematically triggered state building and how victors and losers were set into divergent paths that rigidified in a peaceful twentieth century. Because all Latin American states survived their wars, and experienced then a long-lasting peace in the twentieth century, this region allows for a complete understanding of bellicist theory that considers the post-war phase in the long run. Overall, the book offers a new and compelling explanation for the levels of state capacity (and development) that we see today both within Latin America and beyond.-------Javier Mejia is a Stanford University lecturer who specializes in the intersection of social networks and economic history. His research interests also include entrepreneurship and political economy, with a particular focus on Latin America and the Middle East. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Los Andes University. Mejia has previously been a Postdoctoral Associate and Lecturer at New York University-Abu Dhabi and a Visiting Scholar at the University of Bordeaux. He is also a frequent contributor to various news outlets, currently serving as an op-ed columnist for Forbes Magazine.Twitter (X): ⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/JavierMejiaC⁠⁠⁠Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/javier_mejia_c/⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/javier-mejia-cubillos/⁠⁠⁠Youtube: ⁠⁠⁠https://youtube.com/@javiermejia5309?si=LEy5CuqD83qVB8jd

Volha Charnysh, an MIT Associate Professor and author of 'Uprooted', delves into the intriguing consequences of post-WWII population transfers. Exploring how integrating displaced populations can bolster state building and local economies, she discusses the dual effects of increased cultural diversity and initial social disruption. The talk highlights how diverse migrant inflows can spur gains in entrepreneurship and education over time. Additionally, Charnysh contrasts the historical and modern handling of forced migration and its implications for citizenship and societal integration.

Interview with Josephine Quinn, author of 'How the World Made the West: A 4000 Year History' In How the World Made the West, Josephine Quinn poses perhaps the most significant challenge ever to the “civilizational thinking” regarding the origins of Western culture—that is, the idea that civilizations arose separately and distinctly from one another. Rather, she locates the roots of the modern West in everything from the law codes of Babylon, Assyrian irrigation, and the Phoenician art of sail to Indian literature, Arabic scholarship, and the metalworking riders of the Steppe, to name just a few examples.According to Quinn, reducing the backstory of the modern West to a narrative that focuses on Greece and Rome impoverishes our view of the past. This understanding of history would have made no sense to the ancient Greeks and Romans themselves, who understood and discussed their own connections to and borrowings from others. They consistently presented their own culture as the result of contact and exchange. Quinn builds on the writings they left behind with rich analyses of other ancient literary sources like the epic of Gilgamesh, holy texts, and newly discovered records revealing details of everyday life. A work of breathtaking scholarship, How the World Made the West also draws on the material culture of the times in art and artifacts as well as findings from the latest scientific advances in carbon dating and human genetics to thoroughly debunk the myth of the modern West as a self-made miracle. ------- Javier Mejia is an economist at Stanford University who specializes in the intersection of social networks and economic history. His research interests also include entrepreneurship and political economy, with a particular focus on Latin America and the Middle East. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Los Andes University. Mejia has previously been a Postdoctoral Associate and Lecturer at New York University-Abu Dhabi and a Visiting Scholar at the University of Bordeaux. He is also a frequent contributor to various news outlets, currently serving as an op-ed columnist for Forbes Magazine. Twitter (X): ⁠https://twitter.com/JavierMejiaC⁠ Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/javier_mejia_c/⁠ LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/javier-mejia-cubillos/⁠ Youtube: ⁠https://youtube.com/@javiermejia5309?si=LEy5CuqD83qVB8jd

Agustina Paglayan, an Assistant Professor at UC San Diego and author of 'Raised to Obey', discusses the unsettling origins of mass education. She reveals that the push for universal primary education was less about literacy and more about controlling the 'savage' lower classes. Alongside Javier Mejia, an economist from Stanford, they explore the historical roots of compulsory education in Prussia and the dual nature of educational policies intended to instill obedience. The conversation critiques modern education systems for fostering conformity over creativity.

Interview with Eva Payne, author of 'Empire of Purity: The History of Americans' Global War on Prostitution' Between the 1870s and 1930s, American social reformers, working closely with the US government, transformed sexual vice into an international political and humanitarian concern. As these activists worked to eradicate prostitution and trafficking, they promoted sexual self-control for both men and women as a cornerstone of civilization and a basis of American exceptionalism. Empire of Purity traces the history of these efforts, showing how the policing and penalization of sexuality was used to justify American interventions around the world.Eva Payne describes how American reformers successfully pushed for international anti-trafficking agreements that mirrored US laws, calling for states to criminalize prostitution and restrict migration, and harming the very women they claimed to protect.  ---- Javier Mejia is an economist at Stanford University who specializes in the intersection of social networks and economic history. His research interests also include entrepreneurship and political economy, with a particular focus on Latin America and the Middle East. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Los Andes University. Mejia has previously been a Postdoctoral Associate and Lecturer at New York University-Abu Dhabi and a Visiting Scholar at the University of Bordeaux. He is also a frequent contributor to various news outlets, currently serving as an op-ed columnist for Forbes Magazine.

Daniel Waldenström, a leading economist from Sweden, shares insights from his book 'Richer and More Equal'. He reveals a surprising historical narrative that since the late 1800s, the middle class has significantly expanded its wealth share, challenging the idea that capitalism equals inequality. Waldenström argues for tax and social policies that uplift the bottom and middle tiers of society, rather than penalizing entrepreneurs. Together with economist Javier Mejia, they critically evaluate how emotional perceptions of inequality can distort public opinion, especially in sensitive regions like Latin America.

Interview with Dale C. Copeland, author of 'A World Safe for Commerce: American Foreign Policy from the Revolution to the Rise of China' When the Cold War ended, many believed that expanding trade would usher in an era of peace. Yet today the United States finds itself confronting not just Russia in Europe but China in the Indo-Pacific, Africa, and Latin America. Shedding new light on how trade both reduces and increases the risks of international crisis, A World Safe for Commerce traces how, since the nation’s founding, the United States has consistently moved from peace to conflict when the commerce needed for national security is under threat. ---- Javier Mejia is an economist at Stanford University who specializes in the intersection of social networks and economic history. His research interests also include entrepreneurship and political economy, with a particular focus on Latin America and the Middle East. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Los Andes University. Mejia has previously been a Postdoctoral Associate and Lecturer at New York University-Abu Dhabi and a Visiting Scholar at the University of Bordeaux. He is also a frequent contributor to various news outlets, currently serving as an op-ed columnist for Forbes Magazine. Twitter (X): ⁠⁠https://twitter.com/JavierMejiaC⁠⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/javier_mejia_c/⁠⁠ LinkedIn: ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/javier-mejia-cubillos/⁠⁠ Youtube: ⁠⁠https://youtube.com/@javiermejia5309?si=LEy5CuqD83qVB8jd⁠

Stefanos Geroulanos, Director of the Remark Institute and a professor at NYU, discusses his book 'The Invention of Prehistory.' He examines how Enlightenment thinkers shifted views on human origins, impacting notions of race and imperialism. The conversation delves into the allure of prehistory, the evolution of cultural hierarchies, and how Darwinism influenced political ideologies. Geroulanos also critiques historical narratives regarding Neanderthals, revealing how ideologies shape our understanding of identity in contemporary contexts.

I'm thrilled to share with you an episode from a new show called The Civic Agora. This venture is part of the Stanford Civics Initiative, where we explore the essence of citizenship and unravel the threads of thought that construct a flourishing society. In this episode of the Civic Agora, we chat with Brandice Canes-Wrone. She is a professor in the political science department and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford. She is also the director of the Center for Revitalizing American Institutions. Her current research focuses on representation and accountability, including projects on elections, campaign finance, and representation. Follow The Civic Agora on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@UCK4HRxXhgWCeELg8XV6keFQ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4DFAAkrAb9ySguVq7X4IQS Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy9lOGUzOGU0MC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/d0476371-ace7-4616-a111-cfd3c2241a82/the-civic-agora Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-civic-agora/id1708437088 ---- Javier Mejia is an economist at Stanford University who specializes in the intersection of social networks and economic history. His research interests also include entrepreneurship and political economy, with a particular focus on Latin America and the Middle East. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Los Andes University. Mejia has previously been a Postdoctoral Associate and Lecturer at New York University-Abu Dhabi and a Visiting Scholar at the University of Bordeaux. He is also a frequent contributor to various news outlets, currently serving as an op-ed columnist for Forbes Magazine.