Serendipity Talk: How the World Became Modern

Ray Squitieri, How the World Became Modern
Monday, April 27
3:30-5:00 PM
Online

For nearly all of human history most people lived at subsistence level. Life expectancy barely improved, child mortality remained alarmingly high, and one bad harvest still threatened famine. It’s true that high culture flowered in several places at different times—classical Athens, Tang Dynasty China, Golden-age Baghdad, and Renaissance Florence, among others—but technology grew too slowly to outrun growth in population.  Around 1500 the economy of western Europe began to open up, with faster growth of knowledge, the spread of literacy, more  trade and contact among people. The Industrial Revolution kicked off around 1770, but only around 1870 did technology begin to outpace fertility, and living standards begin to rise. In the 150 years since then, human life has improved by nearly all measures and population has soared. This talk will look closely at this transition, when economic history in the West turned a corner. We will ask, Why 1870 and not earlier? Why Europe and not, say China?

Ray Squitieri is a retired economist. In Washington, he worked at the US Department of Treasury and the Council of Economic Advisors, mostly on energy and environmental analysis. He has taught courses at OLLI that include classical music and opera, modern European history, Chinese history, economic history, linguistics, personal finance, and acoustics.

No registration is required. The Zoom link will be e-mailed to all those subscribed to the OLLI newsletter the morning of the talk. If you do not receive the newsletter and would like to attend, please join the email list at https://www.olli-dc.org/join_email_list.