A series examining how historians, especially in English-language scholarship, have revised the view of the Habsburg Monarchy from a 'prison of nations' into a multinational state that worked. Much of the text consists of the author's prompts to Google AI and the AI's answers, with brief commentary on Habsburg-era history in Germany, Hungary, and other successor states.
Website: https://www.coulombescompany.com
Long-form essays on the history of innovation and the causes of the British Industrial Revolution, drawing on archival research. Recent issues cover the salt trade, Scotland's outsized role in invention, and Tudor labour laws and trade.
Venkatesh Rao writes personal, theory-driven essays that build loose models of technology, history and culture, including his world machines theory and his experience of working with AI coding agents. Issues also cover his book club readings, protocol fiction and commentary on debates about humanism and AI.
A weekly newsletter that explains one mental model per issue through a detailed historical story, then ties it to creative work. Issues cover topics such as hostile attribution bias, design thinking and the Gestalt law of closure.
Personal essays and cultural criticism on philosophy, the arts and poetry, drawing on memories of record collecting, Dylan's religious turn, poems about Nazi atrocities, and pop-chart history. The writer mixes anecdote with close reading and historical research to explore what art and evil reveal about people.
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