The lasting impact of slavery

I am an historian and contemplate the lasting effects of virtually everything on an almost daily basis. This happened and that led to this happening which... But even so I was a bit surprised by this report suggesting that the fears of the old slaving times is not forgotten, it is not even past. [from Andrew Sullivan]:

Part of an abstract from a paper by Nathan Nunn and Leonard Wantchekon:

We investigate the historical origins of mistrust within Africa. Combining contemporary household survey data with historic data on slave shipments by ethnic group, we show that individuals whose ancestors were heavily threatened by the slave trade today exhibit less trust in neighbors, family co-ethnics, and their local government.

Full paper here (pdf). I used to dismiss this kind of long-term historical damage. But the evidence increasingly suggests that history really does matter; that the collective psyche can be traumatized from generation to generation. In some ways, a Burkean should not in any way be surprised.

Carmen and I have an exceptionally good friend whose parents survived that Holocaust and I have seen studies suggesting that the effects of that horror were passed on to succeeding generations. The evil men do outlives them.

history really does matter ... a new motto for myself.

The Laboratory of History

Which model of politics and economy would work best for a developing country in the 21rst century? Hard to tell, but let's go to the history lab and take a look at our two latest experiments.

Oh dear, one of the test tubes seems to have exploded, destroying the experiment and the lab assistants.

Oh well. There are plenty more grad students to conduct further tests while I remain at a safe distance here in my office at History Central.