Thomas Piketty's Capital: Live Blog V

We live tweet events so why don't we live blog our books? They may last longer than a Premier League match or election night special, but we read them continuously and their covers bound a discrete event. During their course our support veers between characters or new facts prompt us to change intellectual direction. They ebb and flow like all tweet worthy events.

Well, starting over again was an excellent idea. Being able to read in hundred-page chunks is the best way to enjoy this book.

It is a work of staggering research and near genius. And a testament to the raw power of history. Individual fortunes and the minor "events" of short outlook history are nothing in the long view. When we talk about the Post-War years as a major period of history, how arrogant we are. Interpreting history on a three century scale produces insights not otherwise possible. This is what Piketty does, examining rates of growth, capital to income ratios, and rates of savings across long stretches of history. What an inconsequential half-century we have just finished. Yes, major events blew apart the lives of those who lived it, but through a macroeconomic lens they make up an aberrant blip.

The only difficulties in reading this book are the joyful self-interruptions needed to pause and think on the consequences of Piketty's revelations.

Thomas Piketty's Capital: Live Blog IIII

Back to the beginning. That was slightly embarrassing. But like the idea behind this says:

We live tweet events so why don't we live blog our books? They may last longer than a Premier League match or election night special, but we read them continuously and their covers bound a discrete event. During their course our support veers between characters or new facts prompt us to change intellectual direction. They ebb and flow like all tweet worthy events.

Turns out this is not a subway book. The physical heft was obviously a challenge. But reading in snippets, nodding off in the early morning, and stopping mid-page at my station wasn't working out. I didn't remember much of the previous foray and so Piketty's patient explanation of ideas never found root in the sand of my mind.

So it's home reading for this. Where I can control my environment (to some degree) and regulate properly the cadence of reading. Because it's too good a book to leave publicly displayed on my shelf as an unread vanity book.

I mean, I have my pride.

Thomas Piketty's Capital: Live Blog III

We live tweet events so why don't we live blog our books? They may last longer than a Premier League match or election night special, but we read them continuously and their covers bound a discrete event. During their course our support veers between characters or new facts prompt us to change intellectual direction. They ebb and flow like all tweet worthy events.

Past the introduction now after the Friday evening commute. And the Annales influence is plain to see. Piketty's strength - and claim - is his data set stretching back into the late eighteenth century. Everything is la longue durée. Change is tectonic: imperceptible to a generation, but profound over time. I've always found this approach fascinating but becomes more striking when coupled with compounding numbers.

Sorry, where were we? Yes. We're beginning to define our terms and explain foundational concepts like α = r x ß. Which is all very interesting. But still not as exciting as encountering the Annales school living, breathing, and in a book about the economy.

Thomas Piketty's Capital: Live Blog II

We live tweet events so why don't we live blog our books? They may last longer than a Premier League match or election night special, but we read them continuously and their covers bound a discrete event. During their course our support veers between characters or new facts prompt us to change intellectual direction. They ebb and flow like all tweet worthy events.

Like most academic introductions, this went on as expected with the setting of limits and a conceptual framework. Which is where I fell for Piketty. It wasn't just his put down of math obsessed economists in favour of those who recognize the discipline's ties to politics and history (à la Keynes who remains notably absent). It was his clarion call for interdisciplinarity. Which is entirely believable - so many academics just nod to it out of politeness - given his admiration for Lucien Febvre and Fernand Braudel. Eminent historians both of the Annales school.

And did I mention the translator? He was translator to the later Annales members.

So, I get where M. Piketty comes from. I've spent time in his world. It's a great place.