While the newest Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), such as the internet, are in some ways unique, in other respects they have historical predecessors. For example, the experiences of the introduction of the telegraph and the telephone provide certain parallels with newer ICTs....

We give an overview of the origins of the Cliometric revolution, its place within the larger economic history discipline, and what we see as the future of cliometrics and economic history, not as separate disciplines, but as complementary approaches to thestudy of economic growth in the long run.