Creations of history

Sara Sheridan describes one way in which history informs the present. This chimes in with quite a bit of economic research which shows how history shapes societies today.
The latest example of this comes from Alberto Alesina and colleagues. They show (pdf) how societies which traditionally made intensive use of the plough have lower fertility even today than societies which used other tools such as the hoe. This, they say, is because child labour is of less use to plough-based agriculture than it is to hoe-based farming - and this different economic incentive to have children shaped cultural norms which persist long after society has moved away from agriculture.
This, though, is but one example. Graziella Bertocchi and Arcangelo Dimico describe how American slavery affects inequality and educational attainment today. Daron Acemoglu and colleagues have shown (pdf) that the holocaust still affects population and voting behaviour now. Nathan Nunn has analyzed the impact of slavery upon African societies now. And Stanley Engermann and Kenneth Sokoloff have shown (pdf) that inequality and slavery in south America has left the region relatively poor today.
All of this confirms Edmund Burke’s famous saying that society is  “a partnership not only between those who are living, but between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born.” Like all partnerships it binds us and changes us in unexpected ways.
What’s more, it is in the very nature of things that we do not fully appreciate this, because, as Jolie says, “culture is what you don’t notice” - but culture is the route through which yesterday affects today.
All this matters, because it stands opposed to a nasty strand of libertarianism and managerialism - the notion that people are, or can be, self-made men. But it’s not so easy. We are - for good in the UK and for bad in many other places - the creations of history.

Comments

[Nigel]

completely agree --- Oakeshott is very good on that too - how politics has to work with practice, culture and tradition, and is not something you can just rationally work out from first principles

[Neil]

There's a Sun headline in there somewhere... HOES CAUSE HIGHER BIRTH RATES

I'll get my coat.

[alanm]

Over the iron cage of determinism i'll take the unfulfilled potential and dashed hopes of makng my own bed.

[BenSix]

Hey, I'm a self-made man! I just used other people's materials, tools, designs, instructions...

[Jackart]

That "no man is an island, entire of himself", does not mean that a man is simply a creation of his culture and history. Whilst some libertarians ascribe too much agency to the individual, you ascribe too little. Is it not a counsel of dispair to suggest that man cannot break the bonds of his upbringing? Research such as this generates the knowledge by which individuals can break those bonds.

[Tom Addison]

Hmmm, would love to know what the root cause of the shiteness of the England national team is then. As any reader of a Jonathan Wilson book/article will know, it's been around for a while. As Brian Glanville said:

“The story of British football and the foreign challenge is the story of a vast superiority, sacrificed by stupidity, short-sightedness, and wanton insularity. It is a story of shamefully wasted talent, extraordinary complacency and infinite self-deception.”

I blame 1066.

[chris]

@ Tom: I've blamed class divisions:
http://stumblingandmumbling.typepad.com/stumbling_and_mumbling/2010/06/class-and-football.html
It could well be that the UK's early industrialization - which entrenched a boss-worker divide - is bad for English football.

[Paul Sagar]

"This, they say, is because child labour is of less use to plough-based agriculture than it is to hoe-based farming - and this different economic incentive to have children shaped cultural norms which persist long after society has moved away from agriculture."

Yeah, right.

[Laura]

We are creatures of the society we grow up in and also result of the family that has brought us up and of our own convictions. We are not self-made people but we are not totally "constructed" by external factors.

[Tom Addison]

Thanks for that Chris, I'll definitely give that a read tonight and see if I can write something on it over the weekend for the blog. Much appreciated.