Human Nature and the Rules We Make
Human nature has been remarkably consistent. The rules governing it, somewhat less so. Leonardo da Vinci was born in 1452 to parents who were not married to one another. Neither was married to anyone else at the time. Both subsequently married other people. His...
Adam Ferguson — The Philosopher Who Saw Society Building Itself
In eighteenth-century Edinburgh, a remarkable group of thinkers was attempting to understand how human societies worked. David Hume examined the habits and conventions that made cooperation possible, while Adam Smith explored moral judgment, commerce and the division...
Edinburgh — Where Scotland Learned to Question
Edinburgh is a city best approached on foot, although your legs may have a few objections. The Old Town rises and falls along a rocky ridge, its narrow closes disappearing between tall buildings, Streets occasionally open onto unexpected views of the Firth of Forth or...
Abbotsford—The Romantic Legacy of Sir Walter Scott
Nestled on the banks of the River Tweed, Abbotsford stands as a monument to the power of storytelling and the imagination of one of Scotland's most influential writers, Sir Walter Scott. Built as a family home and a sanctuary for creativity, this eclectic masterpiece...
The Trouble with the Correct Point of View
I was reading something written Ryan Holiday recently when a sentence stopped me short. He was discussing Thomas Jefferson, whose reputation has become increasingly controversial in recent years. Holiday’s conclusion was essentially: we used to admire Jefferson; now,...
Power Lines—The Rise of the Electric World
Before electricity remade the night, people had become remarkably good at managing darkness. Candles and oil lamps had illuminated homes for centuries, until the nineteenth century brought gaslight to streets, factories, theatres and drawing rooms. Each improvement...
Black Underfoot—Coal and the First Energy Abundance
In the summer of 1976, London was preparing to celebrate the Queen’s Silver Jubilee. Some buildings had already been cleaned for the occasion; others were still waiting their turn. The contrast was startling. Pale stone gleamed beside façades darkened by decades of...
Steam, Engines & Smoke — The Real Engines of the Industrial Age
Steam & Smoke: The Real Engines of the Industrial Age Before electricity lit streets and homes, the machinery driving the industrial world was hard to ignore. Steam hissed, pistons thudded and chimneys poured smoke into the air. At the heart of it all was...
Standard Time — Sandford Fleming and the Order of Hours
A World Out of Sync For most of human history, time was local. Towns set their clocks by the sun, with noon defined as the moment it reached its highest point in the sky. When people and information travelled slowly, the small differences between one town’s time and...
The Long Recovery — When England Quietly Changed Direction
The England we left at the end of the fourteenth century had endured almost everything history could throw at it. The Black Death had returned more than once. War with France dragged on for generations. Harvests failed. The Peasants' Revolt exposed deep social...
