Collections: Why No Roman Industrial Revolution?

This week we are taking a look at the latest winner of the ACOUP Senate poll, which posed the question "Why didn't the Roman Empire have an industrial revolution?" To answer that, we need to get into some detail on what the industrial revolution itself was and the preconditions that produced it, as well as … Continue reading Collections: Why No Roman Industrial Revolution?

Collections: Rome: Decline and Fall? Part III: Things

This is the third and final part (I, II, III) of our series tackling the complicated and still debated question of 'how bad was the fall of Rome (in the West)?' In our first part, we looked at the question through the prism of 'words' - language, culture, religion and literature. There we found a … Continue reading Collections: Rome: Decline and Fall? Part III: Things

Collections: Teaching Paradox, Victoria II, Part I: Mechanics and Gears

This is the first post in a three-part series that will be examining the historical assumption of Paradox Interactive's grand strategy computer game set in the 19th and early 20th century, Victoria II. Readers will find a number of references here to our previous discussion of one of Paradox's other games, Europa Universalis IV, but … Continue reading Collections: Teaching Paradox, Victoria II, Part I: Mechanics and Gears

Collections: Clothing, How Did They Make it? Part IVb: Cloth Money

This post is also available in audio form, thanks to the efforts of our volunteer narrator. This is the second half of the fourth part of our four part (I, II, III, IVa, IVb) look at the production of textiles, particularly wool and linen, in the pre-modern world. Last time, we looked at commercial textile … Continue reading Collections: Clothing, How Did They Make it? Part IVb: Cloth Money

Collections: Clothing, How Did They Make It? Part IVa: Dyed in the Wool

This post is also available in audio form, thanks to the efforts of our volunteer narrator. This is the first half of the fourth part of our four part (I, II, III, IVa, IVb) look at the production of textiles, particularly wool and linen, in the pre-modern world. Last time, we spun our wool and … Continue reading Collections: Clothing, How Did They Make It? Part IVa: Dyed in the Wool

Collections: Clothing, How Did They Make It? Part III: Spin Me Right Round…

This post is also available in audio form, thanks to the efforts of our volunteer narrator. This is the third part of our four part (I, II, III, IVa, IVb) look at the production of textiles, particularly wool and linen, in the pre-modern world. Last time, we processed our raw fibers, removing extraneous material and … Continue reading Collections: Clothing, How Did They Make It? Part III: Spin Me Right Round…

Collections: Clothing, How Did They Make It? Part I: High Fiber

This post is also available in audio form, thanks to the efforts of our volunteer narrator. This week we are starting the first of a four (I, II, III, IVa, IVb) part look at pre-modern textile production. As with our series on farming and iron, we are going to follow the sequence of production from … Continue reading Collections: Clothing, How Did They Make It? Part I: High Fiber