Ryan Mazzola > Recent Status Updates

I’m such a predictable mf I’ll read a TOME of a history novel and then juxtapose it with some theory and see what shakes out on the other side of the sifter. lol. Anyway I’ll probably be so sick of theory by the end of this. So far I’m loving it, per usual. But give it a minute because it is so fucking hard to read theory the way these dudes wrote holy smokes.

Oh wow this is so illuminating and insightful.

The author uses modern capitalist language and logics to describe Islamic merchants in the year 100 CE. I am sympathetic to his mission and commitment to deliver a sweeping history on such an expansive topic, but I find myself wanting more out of each section. He describes that traders at the port of Aden in the second century developed “institutions” but never really describes the aforementioned institutions.

This is an easily falsifiable theory that gets shrouded by the breadth of anecdotal stories they weave together. I do not think this holds up whatsoever. The Roman and Mayan examples they bring up on their own volition falsify their theory, as does the experience of the US, Somalia, and a few other island nations near the equator.

This book uncritically applies assumptions of neoclassical economics on every country [and every single civilization] throughout history and forces them to fit within their little box of “inclusive or extractive” institutions as determinant of their prosperity. It’s shocking how narrow-mindedly they approach their research. They hail political centralization and establishment of “good” economic incentives

super interesting and fine for popular consumption. But that’s also sort of a problem. Because this book tries to cover so much in so few pages, it jumps around from topic to topic and sort of makes the claim that “oh yeah we know all these things because.. ECONOMICS” when much of the causality established is based on our present understanding of economics. It’s a circular logic and neglects centuries of