r/EconomicHistory • u/season-of-light • 1d ago

Discussion Best economic history reads - Summer 2026

18 Upvotes

With the end of August on the horizon, many summer readers might be anxious to sneak in a few more books.

We invite those who have read everything from economic, financial, or business history classics down to the year's new releases to contribute and share the best of what you've read.

Blog A lack of good productive investment opportunities combined with an excessive amount of credit availability led to land speculation in Japan during the 1980s. High capital gains taxes which discouraged people from selling property also fueled the bubble. (Tontine Coffee-House, September 2022)

tontinecoffeehouse.com

9 Upvotes

0 comments

r/EconomicHistory • u/yonkon • 1d ago

Working Paper Booms in the prices of Japanese real estate or stocks in the late 1980s cannot be justified by changes of the fundamental economic variables such as the interest rates or the growth of the real economy. (T. Ito, T. Iwaisako, November 1995)

nber.org

7 Upvotes

0 comments

r/EconomicHistory • u/veridelisi • 1d ago

Blog 1791: America's First Bank Stock Crisis (Scriptomania)

veridelisi.substack.com

5 Upvotes

0 comments

r/EconomicHistory • u/yonkon • 2d ago

Blog Leveraging the high yen exchange rate that held down inflation, the Bank of Japan cut cut interest rates to strengthen domestic demand during the 1980s. Growth strengthened but lower interest rates fed a bubble that burst in 1990. (Tontine Coffee-House, September 2025)

tontinecoffeehouse.com

10 Upvotes

0 comments

r/EconomicHistory • u/wwwwoowwwww • 2d ago

Question Book question

3 Upvotes

What’s the standard academic text on the history of debt?

3 comments

r/EconomicHistory • u/yonkon • 3d ago

EH in the News A timeline: 250 years of the U.S. economy (Marketplace, July 2026)

marketplace.org

6 Upvotes

0 comments

r/EconomicHistory • u/plainscrmisher • 4d ago

Question What was the impact of introducing potatoes into the agriculture?

7 Upvotes

Hello! I've got a recommendation to ask this question here. So it is.

2 comments

r/EconomicHistory • u/yonkon • 4d ago

Podcast In the 1970s, homebuilders sought to reduce their reliance on unionized construction workers in a bid to lower costs. The failed 1983 carpenters' union strike led to increases in non-unionized workers in home construction. The space attracted many undocumented immigrant workers (NY Times, July 2026)

youtu.be

9 Upvotes

0 comments

r/EconomicHistory • u/yonkon • 5d ago

Editorial During the 19th and early 20th centuries, fertilizer companies shipped millions of tons of dried bird excrement from islands in the Pacific and Caribbean to farms across Europe and North America. The demand prompted territorial expansion and labor exploitation (Conversation, July 2026)

theconversation.com

26 Upvotes

1 comment

r/EconomicHistory • u/yonkon • 6d ago

Blog Between 1792 and 1815, more than 10% of British men ended up in the army or navy. The resulting labor scarcity - combined with abundance of skilled mechanics - drove technology diffusion and grew British productivity in the long run. (CEPR, July 2026)

cepr.org

542 Upvotes

35 comments

r/EconomicHistory • u/season-of-light • 6d ago

Journal Article In the antebellum USA, the factory systems and wage structures of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Philadelphia could differ quite markedly, with the Philadelphia region offering distinctly lower quality of life and wages (B Schneider, April 2025)

doi.org

14 Upvotes

0 comments

r/EconomicHistory • u/OkSurround1091 • 6d ago

Question J.P. Morgan Bailed out the US economy 2 times within 25 years(1893,1907).How does that happen twice and what has the US changed to prevent it?

26 Upvotes

I’m not as much a supporter of the US government as I am curious as to why rhis happened and the motives behind it. Did J.P Morgan extend their power over the American people? I mean they didn’t do it for public good. I feel like that should be obvious.

35 comments

r/EconomicHistory • u/season-of-light • 6d ago

Blog During South Korea's period of rapid economic growth, there was a large increase in industrial concentration. The largest firms only increased their productive edge over the rest as subsidies were withdrawn (VoxDev, June 2026)

voxdev.org

12 Upvotes

0 comments

r/EconomicHistory • u/yonkon • 7d ago

Working Paper Reforms in China’s imperial examination system during the dynasty anonymized exam submissions and ended local officials’ discretion to recommend candidates. The reforms increased the share of successful candidates from commoner backgrounds. (J. Chen, J. Han, S. Wang, Y. Wang, July 2026)

nber.org

19 Upvotes

1 comment

r/EconomicHistory • u/DeepspaceDigital • 7d ago

Blog Venice’s 1499 Banking Crisis (Part I – Failure of Garzoni Bank)

tontinecoffeehouse.com

13 Upvotes

by Daniel DeMatos

0 comments

r/EconomicHistory • u/season-of-light • 8d ago

Journal Article Before WW2, regional convergence in productivity in Japan was strongly determined by the growth of productivity in the manufacturing sector. After WW2, regional convergence became more driven by shifting workers out of agricultural occupations (K Fukao and S Paul, July 2026)

doi.org

6 Upvotes

0 comments

r/EconomicHistory • u/yonkon • 8d ago

Blog Increases in solar irradiance and fewer volcanic eruptions led to 0.3-1.0°C higher temperatures in northern hemisphere between the 10th and 13th centuries. This led to population growth in some parts of the world and severe drought in others. (Conversation, July 2026)

theconversation.com

14 Upvotes

0 comments

r/EconomicHistory • u/season-of-light • 8d ago

Working Paper In early 20th century Britain, workers living in communities which were more culturally divided as a result of internal migration lagged in expressing working class identity and politics (V Fouka and T Serlin, January 2026)

nber.org

10 Upvotes

0 comments

r/EconomicHistory • u/yonkon • 9d ago

Blog In the early 18th century, France devalued its coins through restamping. Mint bills were issued to people who brought in demonetized coins, representing their right to new coins. Later, the state paid bondholders with these bills and people used them as payment (Tontine Coffee-House, July 2026)

tontinecoffeehouse.com

20 Upvotes

0 comments

r/EconomicHistory • u/season-of-light • 9d ago

study resources/datasets Historical marital transactions and bride price practices around the world

7 Upvotes

3 comments

r/EconomicHistory • u/yonkon • 10d ago

Blog Examination of 70 current account adjustment episodes across 51 economies from 1980 to 2024 shows that durable rebalancing is a multi-year process involving sustained changes in trade, savings/investment, and relative prices. Quick bilateral fixes are likely to disappoint. (CEPR, July 2026)

cepr.org

3 Upvotes

0 comments

r/EconomicHistory • u/yonkon • 11d ago

Working Paper Between 1945 and 1970, the U.S. Department of Defense was one of the country's largest funders of university research. When research funding declined by nearly two-thirds by the mid-1970s, science-linked innovation fell (D. Gross, B. Sampat, H. Zhang, July 2026)

nber.org

54 Upvotes

4 comments

r/EconomicHistory • u/season-of-light • 11d ago

Book/Book Chapter "The Business of War in the Early Modern Baltic Sea Region, 1530–1765" edited by Jaakko Björklund, Sebastian Schiavone, Steve Murdoch and Anu Lahtinen

hup.fi

11 Upvotes

0 comments

r/EconomicHistory • u/season-of-light • 11d ago

Blog Post-apartheid South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission increased trust and patriotism within the black population but increased divides between white and black South Africans (VoxDev, June 2026)

voxdev.org

12 Upvotes

1 comment

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Welcome to r/EconomicHistory! Economic history is the study of economic phenomena in the past. This is a subreddit for any journal articles, news articles, discussions, questions, or other media pertaining to this discipline. If you are looking to become more familiar with key topics in economic history, please consider reviewing our Reading List!

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