I am a coeditor of and regular contributor to the Broadstreet blog, which features work on Historical Political Economy research in the social sciences. If you would like to pitch an idea for a post, please email me.

Selected Broadstreet Posts:

Archival Silences in Historical Political Economy On the various challenges posed by missing data in HPE research and the imperfect options we have for dealing with them

Physical Geography and Historical Political Economy On the use and misuse of physical geographic data (e.g., agricultural productivity, topography) in HPE research.

The Creation and Survival of Unreliable Data On how unreliable historical data are created, stored, and disseminated over centuries, with an application to Mexico’s (unreliable) post-Revolution census in 1921

Policy, History, and Mexico-U.S. Migration Looking back at the politics and policy of Mexico-U.S. migration in the early twentieth century

Borders and Boundaries in HPE Research On the use of spatial discontinuities and historical borders in HPE research

Adventures with an (Almost) Amazing Dataset On how a dataset that looks amazing can have serious shortcomings when you look closer: a case study of the Mexican Historical Archive of Localities with some broader lessons for HPE research

From Conquest to Centralization (with Francisco Garfias) On the creation and gradual centralization of the colonial state in New Spain and how this process was shaped by domestic conflict. Reprinted in Spanish in Revista NEXOS as De la Conquista a la centralización

When State Building Backfires (with Francisco Garfias) On how how the strengthening of the colonial state in Spanish America led to its collapse

Is Anything Going to Change? Some reflections on the permanent and transient consequences of pandemics drawing on lessons from the Black Plague in Europe and the collapse of Mexico’s Indigenous population in the sixteenth century