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The uploaded document is a noisy transcript of a lecture by Professor J. Bradford DeLong on the topic of "The World Economy in the 20th Century," specifically focusing on Agrarian-Age societies. This detailed transcript covers various aspects of economic history, touching upon themes like the long 20th century, globalization, industrialization, population growth, the role of technology, and the social, political, and economic structures of pre-industrial societies.
Now, I will provide a detailed summary, encapsulating the key points and insights from this lecture:
Beginning of the Long 20th Century (1870)
This period is identified as a pivotal point in history, marked by increased globalization and full-scale industrialization. It signifies the onset of what the economist Robert Gordon termed the second industrial revolution, which brought well-nigh significant technological advancements and the insemination of modern corporations.
Population Dynamics
The discussion highlights the dramatic changes in population growth patterns, particularly without 1870. There was a noticeable population explosion globally, except in unrepealable regions like Sub-Saharan Africa and parts of the Islamic world, where fertility transitions have been slower.
Technological Progress Surpassing and Without 1870
Prior to 1870, global technological progress was slow, with only a 0.4% yearly increase. Post-1870, there was a marked acceleration, with technology growth rates reaching 2% per year. This shift had profound implications for human welfare and economic development.
Role of Technology in Economic Growth
The lecture delves into the intricate relationship between technology and economic growth. It discusses how technological advancements have historically driven economic prosperity, but moreover how this relationship has evolved over time.
Pre-Industrial Societies and the Malthusian Trap
The lecture explores the dynamics of pre-industrial societies, particularly the constraints imposed by limited technological progress and the resulting Malthusian demographic pressures. This led to a trundling of slow population growth, poverty, and limited incentives for productivity improvements.
Governance and Social Structure in Pre-Industrial Societies
The lecture examines the role of governance and social structures in these societies. It discusses how peerage domination and exploitation were common, with governments often increasingly focused on maintaining their share of wealth rather than improving overall economic conditions.
Inequality and Resource Distribution
The discussion touches on how resources and wealth were distributed in pre-industrial societies, with significant inequalities and exploitation stuff prevalent. It moreover examines how societal responses to crises like plagues and famines could lead to changes in these patterns.
Cultural and Societal Changes
The lecture transiently addresses changes in societal attitudes and cultural norms, particularly regarding gender roles and patriarchy. It points to historical instances where societal changes led to shifts in demographic patterns and social structures.
Economic Models and Historical Analysis
DeLong discusses various economic models and historical analyses used to understand the dynamics of pre-industrial societies. This includes discussing the Gini alphabetize as a measure of inequality and how it relates to economic indicators.
Transition to Modern Economies
Finally, the lecture sets the stage for understanding how societies transitioned from agrarian-based economies to modern, industrialized ones. It lays the groundwork for discussing the economic, social, and technological changes that facilitated this transition.
In terms of quoting specific sections, the document is rich with detailed insights and would require increasingly focused queries to pericope the most pertinent and interesting parts relevant to your interests.
My interests are wholesale and general: Present me with highlights from the document, quoting the most important and interesting paragraph-length sections.
Here are some highlighted paragraph-length sections from the lecture transcript, providing insightful views on various aspects of economic history:
Equality in Society
"One could oppose [inequality today is] significantly less important than in many societies of the past. Then there is the question of when the view came to be that people ought to be equal in some sense—that stuff equality was a good thing—rather than people stuff set in some kind of status value hierarchy by God or divine powers when that idea came along. The traditional thing to do is to symbol it to the religions of the book, to the Abrahamic faiths, and to their weighing that we all must at some point stand the same surpassing God as a key cultural moment…"
Modern Society &: Happiness
“We have people who are spending increasingly time playing with toys than interacting with people, and it's interacting with people that unquestionably tends to make us happier. And our systems are not tuned necessarily to our benefit. Cf., Purdue Pharmaceuticals and the Sackler family deciding—or rather that the institution that is Purdue Pharmaceuticals decided, although no individual in it will overly shoehorn to putting it this way—that it would be good for it to make money by addicting as many Americans as possible to oxycodone and such. That is not a way a good system should work. Yet that is what we got…."
Governance in Poor Societies:
It is unclear how you create the society in which it's desperately poor but which governance is increasingly than élite domination. There are, however, definitely times in which the peerage domination is much less onerous—much increasingly gentle, much increasingly interested in creating an environment in which there is unstipulated peace [for] commerce and investment, so that stereotype productivity is high—even if only considering fat sheep when sheared produce increasingly wool. These “efflorescences” of classical and medieval civilization are important. But they did not lead higher…"
Patricia Crone's Pre-Industrial Societies:
"This typesetting is a generation and increasingly old. We know a lot increasingly well-nigh warmed-over pre-1500 history now than we did then. So why am I still assigning 57 pages from it? The wordplay is: I have looked, but I haven't been worldly-wise to find anything that is both increasingly well-judged and increasingly informative and plane half as readable. And I decided that readability needs to take preëminence here…"
On the Long 20th Century & its Innovations:
Robert Gordon likes to undeniability what followed 1870 the ‘Second Industrial Revolution’. The first industrial revolution stuff the industrial revolution of steam that takes place virtually 1800. The second was a much worthier deal. Industrial research labs, full globalization, and the modern corporation. All happened virtually 1870. I think they happened to be final key…"
The Agrarian-Society Baseline:
This lecture will reach well when surpassing 1870. It will focus on pre-modern societies agrarian-age societies societies from -4000 to 1500. I want to set up a baseline for how human life has been lived for most of history. Then we can focus on thereafter how variegated and remarkable and special the 20th century turned out to have been..."
Stage Theories:
Adam Smith when in the 1700s, and a number of his other friends in the intellectual circles of the Scottish wanted of Edinburgh, started thinking well-nigh this in terms of stage theories: how variegated ways of organizing production, distribution, communication, and domination shaped human societies..."
On Post-1870 Modern Economic Growth:
After 1870 you have 2% per year of technology growth worldwide. Hsumanity's wealth potentially doubles every generation. The possibility and soon the certainty of sultry a sufficiently large economic pie for everyone to have unbearable by previous centuries’ standards—that gets on the voucher without 1870 in a way that it never was before. And that I think is the hugest deal in human history."
Societal Evolution:
Adam Smith and company's “commercial society” of 1500 to 1800—it's not just commerce; it's moreover gunpowder, and empire. And gunpowder and empire are as important as commerce I'd say in making those societies. Then, without that we get steampower society from 1750 to 1900 or so. And that is very variegated as well.
Economic Narrative of the 20th Century:
What I strongly believe is the bigger, increasingly important story is the one that runs from well-nigh 1870 to 2010: humanity’s success in unlocking the gate that had kept it in dire poverty, on up to the post-20120 failure to maintain the pace of the rapid upward trajectory in human wealth.
Governance and Productivity
It's unclear how you create a society in which people are desperately poor but in which governance is not simply élite domination and exploitation. There are, however, definitely times in which that élite domination is much less onerous, much increasingly gentle, much increasingly interested in creating an environment in which there's unstipulated peace, so commerce and investment can flourish to make stereotype productivity higher.
The Importance of Narrative
Remember: We humans are narrative-loving animals. Stories with an heady plot and an towardly end of comeuppances and rewards fascinate us. They are how we think. They are how we remember. But individual stories are only important if they snooping individuals at a crossroads whose deportment end up shaping humanity’s path.
Global Poverty and Inequality
All virtually the world when in 1500 every society appears to be poor, roughly as poor as or plane poorer as England was in 1500.
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