The podcast can be found both on iTunes and Soundcloud. The interview has been recorded as part of the bachelor course ‘Thinking about Capitalism: From Adam Smith to Thomas Piketty’. The essay below does not repeat or summarise the content of the podcast. Rather, it puts the work of Wolfgang Streeck and the podcast in…

Deadline for applications for the SCOOP programme. 10 PhD positions, within the context of the SCOOP programme – Sustainable Cooperation – Roadmaps to a Resilient Society are currently open to applications. Positions 3 and 5 have an explicitly historical focus; 3: Accommodating Newcomers in the Labour Market  5: Running the Family Business: Stakeholders, Values and…

A recent history of the Dutch Red Cross during WWII, for which Keetie Sluyterman of our department was on the supervisory committee, was published on the 1st of November. The conclusions were stark; the Red Cross in the Netherlands did next to nothing for Dutch Jews. To read more on the reason the book was…

Guest post written by Dr. Corinne Boter:   Most research on the financial history of the Netherlands tells the story from above, looking at the development of formal institutions such as banks and insurance companies. That is why we know very little about how ‘normal’ people used to manage their finances. In the project Kasboekje…

Jan Luiten van Zanden, Auke Rijpma and Jan Kok (eds.) recently released the book Agency, Gender and Economic Development in the World Economy 1850-2000, Routledge. This book is the culmination of the research project of the same name conducted at Utrecht University and Radboud University Nijmegen. Working with Selin Dilli, Lotte van der Vleuten and…

By Jan Luiten van Zanden Someone who commits suicide is extremely unhappy. The happiness industry has also made abundantly clear that people are unhappy The number of victims of violent crime has plummeted. Have we become madder since Freud?   How did people feel in the past? Suicide, prisons and psychiatric patients. A history of…

One from the archives: Economic growth not translating into well-being of Dutch households   The prosperity and well-being of Dutch households has hardly risen in recent years, despite the economic growth in the same period. This is revealed by Rabobank and Utrecht University’s Comprehensive Indicator of Well-being, which was presented today. This indicator is an…

This collection of pages is a platform for the Economic and Social History research group at Utrecht University and their students.