Month: July 2011

• July 16, 2011

  On history and premodernity: A clue to the peasant’s life

  So certain stormy conquests looked at retrospectively, through the eyes of men today, seem like episodes, whatever their duration. They are achieved quickly or slowly. Then, one fine day, they collapse like stage sets. (102) Fernand Braudel, The Structures of Everyday Life: Civilization and Capitalism, 1500-1800. Volume 1. *   *   * If history is only…
• July 15, 2011

  Brooks on confronting death

  In “Death and Budgets,” David Brooks argues that health care costs won’t be brought under control until we confront our own mortality.
• July 14, 2011

  The tale of the precocious boy

  There’s an old story about a young boy who grows up in a farming town. Year in year out, the parents barely hang on. It’s hard work this farming life, with each year farming folk being replaced by big business. Farmers grumble and say it is what it is and get back to work. The…
• July 13, 2011

  In these unsettled times: a brief case

  1. An unsettled time is characterized by the transition from workable habits to new ideas. Ann Swidler distinguishes between settled and unsettled periods. (“Culture in Action: Symbols and Strategies,” American Sociological Review 51 (1986): 273-86.) A “settled culture,” she observes, is defined by “traditions and common sense.” The agent “refines and reinforces skills, habits, modes…
• July 12, 2011

  Fukuyama on institutional development & institutional decay

  “Rapid transformation destroys old coping mechanisms, old safety nets, while it creates a new set of demands, before new coping mechanisms are developed.” –Joseph Stiglitz, Forward to Karl Polanyi’s Great Transformations — Notes on Fukuyama’s Origins of Political Order (2011) Overview of Institutions “Institutions initially appear for what in retrospect were historically contingent reasons. But…