Edited manuscript went to publishers today. Going to bed.

These days, The Iliad sounds like current affairs:. A leader is more powerful and stronger.when he is angry with a lesser man. He may consume his anger for that day.but he will keep the grudge inside his belly.until at last he acts on it. #Homer.

The nation-state system fixes people in place. It assumes that humanity is a sedentary species. It is not prepared for humanity that is, to a significant degree, mobile. #afternations.

6 Books That Capture the Soul of Delhi Better Than Any History Textbook Ever Could .

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RT @WindhamCampbell: In my life in general, I've been mostly interested in modern art and Western Art. But as I get older, I'm more interes….

@gerritsen_anne @Sven_Beckert @KatharinaPistor.

There was no room for the 6th book: Burbank & Cooper, "Empires in World History". Over 3000 years, transnational empires were dominant form of large-scale political organisation. More stable and successful than nations today. C21 could learn much from imperial Persia or China.

To write #AfterNations, I had to teach myself how we came to be organised as we are. How the European nation-state came to replace every other political form. Here: five of the most illuminating books I read. (Illustrated with a 20 year-old photo.).

2025. Centenary of the two #novels which most set my youthful head alight. "Mrs Dalloway" by #VirginiaWoolf , "The Trial" by #FranzKafka. (Later, I read "Midnight's Children" by @SalmanRushdie and realised the novel could still speak. And resolved to write one.).

RT @m_aslany: From my upcoming book “Peasants”.Persian Sugar Chronicles: in 510 BCE, Persian chroniclers marked a sweet milestone. Emperor….

Reading in New Haven in 2025 cut with images of Delhi streets shot by @thoma_ellis in 2014.

I notice much greater shock in France than other countries I've lived when someone proposes a tree be cut down. Does it have to do with the fact that the French word for "to fell" a tree is "abattre"? "To slaughter." As in: "abattoir".

Spanish silver mining required great armies of slaves and workers – not only to work the mines, also to supply food and industrial inputs. In the sixteenth century, Potosí, at an altitude of 4000 metres, had a population of 160,000, exceeding that of London. #afternations

RT @m_aslany: How timely. I’m eagerly awaiting the release of this monumental book – especially now, when political systems everywhere seem….

@davidwengrow last line owes much to you and David.

Back-cover text. #afternations

RT @zriboua: Thread on history of Polisario Front and why it should be designated as a foreign terrorist organization:. 1/ Who are the Sahr….

Use of the word "crisis", Google Books, 1800-present #afternations

RT @yachay_dc: It's hard to imagine a fuller, more prolific and accomplished literary life, but Mario Vargas Llosa did much more. I am glad….

RT @m_aslany: When @JDVance uses “Chinese peasants” as an insult, he taps into a long tradition of dismissing the countryside as backward &….

Some important work happening in economics, allowing us to make comparisons between different systems. Gini coefficient of China & Rome around 1 CE generally less than that of today's global economy (0.6-0.7). Top 10% had more, but so did bottom 40%. #afternations #inequality.