The Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure - seminar series

Research seminar series run by the Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure (Campop).

Seminars will take place in person in the Geography Department and online via Microsoft Teams at 4:00pm.

The support of the Trevelyan Fund (Faculty of History) is gratefully acknowledged.

Convenors: Romola Davenport (rjd23@cam.ac.uk), Alice Reid (amr1001@cam.ac.uk), Hannaliis Jaadla (hj309@cam.ac.uk), and Leigh Shaw-Taylor (lmws2@cam.ac.uk).

View the archive of previous seminars.

# Wednesday 5th February 2025, 4.00pm - Emma Diduch (University of Cambridge)

People, places, and peers - fertility trajectories in Derbyshire, 1881-1911.​ ​

Venue: Rm 101, William Hardy Building, Department of Geography, Downing Site

Abstract not available

# Wednesday 19th February 2025, 4.00pm - Daniel Gallardo Albarrán (Wageningen University)​

Progress in the pipeline: cholera, politics and the waterworks revolution in Germany.​

Venue: Rm 101, William Hardy Building, Department of Geography, Downing Site

European countries paved the way for modern economic growth during the nineteenth century with large-scale reforms facilitating human capital accumulation. The literature has investigated the drivers of this process by looking at the role of elites in broad education investments. However, less attention has been devoted to understanding the provision of infrastructures promoting workers’ health, a key component of human capital at the time. This paper tests the hypothesis whether capital-labour production complementarities in the production process compelled economic and political elites to invest in public health goods. We relate the extraordinary and sudden decline in working-age population caused by the 1866 cholera epidemic in Germany to subsequent construction of piped water supplies. Our results show that cities affected by the epidemic were approximately 6 percentage points more likely to build waterworks compared to cities without the epidemic. An instrumental variable approach supports the causal interpretation of our results. In addition, we find that capital-skill complementarities were an important driver of investment in health infrastructures. We show that commercial cities, employing more valuable workers, exposed to cholera were more likely to build waterworks. Also, shocked places with a greater share of literate workers invested in these systems earlier than their counterparts with lower levels of human capital, particularly in the first two decades after the epidemic.

# Wednesday 5th March 2025, 4.00pm - Charlie Udale and Eric Schneider (LSE)​

Transport and the transmission of plague across settlements in early modern England.​

Venue: Rm 101, William Hardy Building, Department of Geography, Downing Site

Abstract not available

# Wednesday 19th March 2025, 4.00pm - Nick Fitzhenry (LSE)​

Mortality in the century of apartheid, 1940-1970: spatial and racial inequalities in mortality and doctors during the antibiotic transition.​

Venue: Rm 101, William Hardy Building, Department of Geography, Downing Site

Abstract not available

Core Seminar in Economic and Social History

Seminars take place on Thursdays at 5:15 pm in Room 5 of the History Faculty. All are welcome, either in person or online.

The Core seminar combines multiple seminars: Medieval Economic and Social History; Early Modern Economic and
Social History; Modern Economic and Social History and Policy; African Economic History; Global Economic History;
Quantitative History; Financial History; the Centre for History and Economics; and the Cambridge Group for the
History of Population and Social Structure. Their specialist seminar programmes do not run in Michaelmas term, but
each meets separately again in the Lent and (sometimes) Easter terms.

Seminar convenors: Amy Erickson (ale25@cam.ac.uk), Leigh Shaw-Taylor (lmws2@cam.ac.uk), Emily Chung (evc28@cam.ac.uk), Guillaume Proffit (gpap3@cam.ac.uk)

Economic and Social History at Cambridge: www.econsoc.hist.cam.ac.uk

There are no forthcoming seminars at present. Please check back here later.

You may wish to view the archive of previous seminars.

Quantitative History Seminar

Supported by the Centre for History and Economics and the Trevelyan Fund (Faculty of History).

The seminar meets on Wednesdays at 1.15pm in the Faculty of History and on Zoom.
Sandwiches and fruit will be available from 1.00pm.

Convenors: Aleksandra Dul (amd217@cam.ac.uk), Alexis Litvine (adl38), Leigh Shaw-Taylor (lmws2@cam.ac.uk)

There are no forthcoming seminars at present. Please check back here later.

You may wish to view the archive of previous seminars.

Additional seminars of interest to Campop members

Additional seminars of interest to Campop members.

View the archive of previous seminars.

# Tuesday 21st January 2025, 1.00pm - Sheila Rowbotham

Reasons to rebel: Revisiting the 1980s

Venue: History Faculty Room 6 (2nd floor)

Abstract not available

# Tuesday 4th February 2025, 1.00pm - Laura Schwarz, University of Warwick

Gender and the politics of the 'white working class': A feminist history of Brexit Britain

Venue: History Faculty Room 6 (2nd floor)

Abstract not available

# Thursday 13th February 2025, 5.00pm - Liam Brunt (NHH Norwegian School of Economics) and Edmund Cannon (University of Bristol)

What can probate inventories tell us about grain storage in the early modern period?

Venue: History Faculty Room 11

We use probate inventories to measure grain storage and ascertain how and where grain was stored. A key issue is the method of estimating the proportion of carryover when only stored quantities are observed directly (i.e. we observe the numerator of the ratio, but not the denominator) and we discuss two methods to resolve this issue. There are also the standard issues of selection and heterogeneity. We show that carryover was typically small and predominantly the preserve of large farmers. There is an absence of evidence for millers or grain merchants.

# Thursday 27th February 2025, 5.00pm - Mathias Donabaum (University of Vienna)

Title to be confirmed

Venue: History Faculty Room 11

Abstract not available

# Thursday 13th March 2025, 5.00pm - Aidan Collins (University of Newcastle)

Credit, Debt, and Personal Failure in the English and New York Courts of Chancery, 1674-1800

Venue: History Faculty Room 11

This paper examines cases involving bankruptcy and debt recovery brought before the court of Chancery — a court of equity which dealt with civil disputes — in London and New York. In doing so, the paper explores the numerous meanings attached to personal failure in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, demonstrating the negative aspects of early modern trade networks and the active role of the court when such networks broke down.

# Tuesday 18th March 2025, 1.00pm - Hillary Taylor, University of Padua

Corrective violence and labour discipline in early modern England

Venue: History Faculty Room 6 (2nd floor)

Abstract not available

# Wednesday 30th April 2025, 1.00pm - Alex Langstaff, New York University

Pan-European efforts to unionize survey interviewers in the 1970s

Venue: History Faculty Room 6 (2nd floor)

Abstract not available

# Tuesday 3rd June 2025, 1.00pm - Kyle Zarif, Yale University

The culture of defense: Trade unionism, the arms trade, and the subject of labor history in neoliberal Britain

Venue: History Faculty Room 6 (2nd floor)

Abstract not available