Both the anomalies of education history, and its less surprising contrasts, fit broad patterns that can be revealed and partially explained using low-tech methods. Over most of human history, contrasts in the output of education were driven mainly by contrasts in the supply of tax support for...

The debate over whether political democracy is the least bad regime, as Churchill once said, remains unresolved because history has been ignored or misread, and because recent statistical studies have not chosen the right tests. Using too little historical information, and mistaking formal...

Über Jahrtausende hinweg entsprach der Lebensstandard fast aller Menschen weltweit mehr oder weniger dem Existenzminimum, bis er Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts drastisch anstieg. Viele Nationen genießen heute beispiellosen Wohlstand, andere haben den Sprung aus der wirtschaftlichen Stagnation noch...