In 2022, Sam Matthews Boehmer won the inaugural Global History dissertation prize, awarded to the best Warwick UG dissertation in the field of global history. His winning dissertation has now been published in the International History Review,Link opens in a new window and can be found hereLink opens in a new window.

Maxine Berg (Warwick University) and Pat Hudson (Cardiff University) discuss their recent book, on the role of slavery in capitalist development and the British industrial revolution, on "Ceteris Never Paribus: The History of Economic Thought Podcast". Host and Producer: Maria Bach (Centre Walras-Pareto, University of Lausanne). Listen here.

We are delighted to announce the publication of Slavery, Capitalism and the Industrial Revolution Link opens in a new window(Polity Press) by Maxine Berg and Pat Hudson. The role of slavery in driving Britain's economic development is often debated, but seldom given a central place. In their remarkable new book, Maxine Berg and Pat Hudson ‘follow the money’ to document in revealing detail the role of slavery in the making of Britain’s industrial revolution. Slavery was not just a source of wealth for a narrow circle of slave owners who built grand country houses and filled them with luxuries. The forces set in motion by the slave and plantation trades seeped into almost every aspect of the economy and society.

This project looks at the impact of global media coverage on the memorialisation of the Berlin Wall. Cheryl Nah shows that external influences should be considered when understanding how national symbols are remembered and celebrated, especially in this increasingly globalised world.

Recently, Joel Mokyr wrote the following, in a piece entitled "'The Holy Land of Industrialism': rethinking the Industrial Revolution"

"On the eve of the Industrial Revolution, Britain’s high-skilled workers were superior to those anywhere else, and this difference was a critical element in its technological performance during the Industrial Revolution. The institution that produced this superior competence was British apprenticeship, which was the chief source of technical human capital in this age."

Not everyone agreed...

In a reply entitled 'Slavery, Atlantic trade and skills: a response to Mokyr’s ‘Holy Land of Industrialism’', Maxine Berg and Pat Hudson wrote: 'We challenge the idea that Britain’s short-lived industrial primacy in the late 18th and early 19th centuries is explained by ‘comparative advantage’ in high-level artisan skills possessed by an elite workforce. Skills were vital to the industrial revolution but the timing of change and its regional concentration suggest that Britain’s rise to dominance in Atlantic trade was the major causal factor. Rapidly growing markets in Africa and the Americas, especially for textiles and metalwares, centred on Britain’s leading role in the slave trade and the extension of her plantation frontier in the Caribbean. Structural and industrial change, concentrated in the economic hinterlands of Atlantic ports, facilitated product and process revolutions. Diverse Atlantic demands and new Atlantic raw material supplies stimulated skill development and key innovations in light and heavy industry.'

For the whole debate, including other responses, please see the Journal of the British Academy, Volume 9.