Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Prologue -- Chapter 1. Lending to the Sound of Cannon -- Chapter 2. Philip'S Empire -- Chapter 3. Taxes, Debts, and Institutions -- Chapter 4. The Sustainable Debts of Philip Ii -- Chapter 5. Lending to the Borrower from Hell -- Chapter 6. Serial...

Can weakened religiosity lead to the rise of totalitarianism? The Nazi Party set itself up as a political religion, emphasizing redemption, sacrifice, rituals, and communal spirit. This had a major impact on its success: Where the Christian Church only had shallow roots, the Nazis received...

Crowding-out during the British Industrial Revolution has long been one of the leading explanations for slow growth during the Industrial Revolution, but little empirical evidence exists to support it. We argue that examinations of interest rates are fundamentally misguided, and that the...

This paper presents a case study of a well-informed investor in the South Sea bubble. We argue that Hoare's Bank, a fledgling West End London banker, knew that a bubble was in progress and that it invested knowingly in the bubble; it was profitable to ride the bubble. Using a unique dataset on...