It’s been a good year here at Abandoned Footnotes HQ. On the more academic side of things, three papers derived from ideas first discussed in this blog a long time ago are now in print (ungated copies here, here, and here, if anybody is interested enough). I may get around to saying more about them sometime next year. Plus, progress on other projects, and 11 posts on this blog!
The most viewed post was “The Saudi Monarchy as a Family Firm,” which won a 3QuarksDaily prize; the runner up was “Propaganda as Signaling.” The graph-heavy posts (modernist art masquerading as social science?) were also widely shared. Thanks to everyone who read, commented on and shared them!
As is the tradition here, here are a few things for your reading pleasure:
- Two blogs I discovered this year and have really enjoyed: Pseudoerasmus by the eponymous pseudonymous author (mostly economic history, growth, and development) and The Scholar’s Stage by T. Greer (East Asian history, strategy, politics). I especially enjoyed Pseudoerasmus’ Where do pro-social institutions come from? and T. Greer on Hobbes and Ibn Khaldoun.
- For your political science and IR needs, Chaos and Governance seems to have restarted occasional blogging. I’ve also learned quite a bit from Tom Pepinsky this year. Alas, however, Jay Ulfelder has decided to stop blogging…
- Ribbonfarm has been greatly reinvigorated this year, especially with the posts on ritual by Sarah Perry, and the posts on physics by Brian Skinner. I especially enjoyed A Children’s Picture-book Introduction to Quantum Field Theory, Samuel Beckett’s Guide to Particles and Antiparticles, An Ecology of Beauty and Strong Drink and Ritual and the Consciousness Monoculture.
- A few books that I wish I had had more time to talk about this year: Andrew G. Walder’s China under Mao and Alison Pargetter’s Qaddafi’s Libya. And so much more to say about Nina Tumarkin’s Lenin Lives! Perhaps next year…
- Some other neat or fun or simply good pieces I’ve saved this year: Andrew Batson’s Marxist Numerology, or Why Seven Workers are Different than Eight; BLDGBLOG’s Occult Infrastructure and the “Funerary Teleportation Grid” of Greater London ; Justin E. H. Smith’s The Stateless Europeans; XKCD’s Randall Munroe’s Proton Earth, Electron Moon (reminds me of this old classic, How to Destroy the Earth); on Liberland, a micronation that seems like a performance art piece; Perry Anderson’s Incommensurate Russia.
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