Elite Persistence and Elite Change – Insights into 19th-Century Revolutions via Big Data
I am researching elite persistence in 19th century Europe, specifically, I am looking at the nobility after the French Revolution and follow them throughout the 19th century. Recent research has shown that wealthy elites weather shocks like revolutions and political change surprisingly well. We still do not fully understand why this is the case.
I am fascinated by the long nineteenth century and the transitions it has brought onto the world. As Eric Hobsbawm, most of the vocabulary you need to understand a newspaper today was born in the early nineteenth century.
From Records to Riches
With Aurelius Noble
Together with my co-author Aurelius Noble, I have created an end-to-end pipeline to digitise large parts of the Tables des Successions et Absences, the French Estate Tax Registers.
A Testament to Revolution
The New Regime of the Family
Work in Progress
Explore my ongoing works in progress.
The Grub Street Origin of the Revolution
With Julius Koschnick
Building on the work of Robert Darnton, we investigate the effects a steep increase in the tax on paper in ancien régime France had on the literary diet of the 18th century French. The tax increased the inflow of illegal literature from clandestine publishers outside France, hurt domestic publishing, and led to the wider circulation of radical ideas.
“Swiss Slavery” – The Case of Berbice
With Florentine Friedrich
Switzerland was not among the major colonial powers of Europe. In the absence of a strong centralised state prior to the Helvetic Republic, many individuals of Swiss cities’ patrician classes were active in plantation agriculture and slave-holding. One example where Swiss plantation ownership was especially wide-spread is the Dutch colony of Berbice.
Revolution in the Rauracian Republic
After the Revolution of 1791, Sister republics of the French Republic were installed all over Europe. The first (lasting) Sister Republic was the Rauracian Republic, established in 1792, in the northern part of the Prince Bishopric of Basel.
I have found complete household-level wealth data for three cross-sections: Before the Revolution, for the Republican period and for the Imperial period.