A newsletter by a South African economic historian that combines archival research on the Cape Colony with commentary on economics, universities and AI. Each issue tells a story-driven, data-informed essay about South Africa's past and present.
Website: https://www.ourlongwalk.com
Long-form essays on pre-colonial African history, drawing on primary sources such as traveller accounts, manuscripts and economic records. Readers get a free portion of each essay, with the remainder behind a Patreon paywall.
Anton Howes writes long-form history of innovation, focusing on the causes of the British Industrial Revolution, with multi-part series on topics like salt trade, Scottish scientific achievement, and Tudor labour and trade policy. Readers get deeply researched narratives tracing how ideas, economic institutions and archives shaped technological progress.
Economist Brad DeLong posts commentary and crossposts on economic history, political economy, and current topics such as AI spending and gender history. Readers get an opinionated academic perspective that links to and reacts to other writers' work.
Long-form historical essays on overlooked episodes, from Bentham's Russian inspection house to a British gossip columnist's resistance to appeasement and the Hanseatic League's trade wars. The writing is literate and narrative-driven, offering context and wit that a reader would not easily find in a standard news digest.
One short email a week with hand-picked newsletters from the index. Free, no spam, unsubscribe anytime.
