{"title":"Sheilagh Ogilvie","description":"\u003cp\u003eSheilagh Ogilvie’s work offers a profound exploration of historical institutions and economic life, focusing on how social structures and guilds shaped European development. Her books, including \u003cem\u003eControlling Contagion\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eThe European Guilds\u003c\/em\u003e, provide rigorous analysis grounded in historical evidence, appealing to readers interested in the intricate dynamics of past societies.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBlending the clarity of education and the depth of historical research, Ogilvie’s writings serve both scholars and curious minds seeking to understand the forces behind economic and social history in Europe. Her insightful approach illuminates the complexities of regulation, cooperation, and economic change through time.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"controlling-contagion-by-sheilagh-ogilvie-9780691255569","title":"Controlling Contagion","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHow human institutions—markets, states, communities, religions, guilds, and families—have helped both to control and to exacerbate epidemics throughout history.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHow do societies tackle epidemic disease? In \u003ci\u003eControlling Contagion\u003c\/i\u003e, Sheilagh Ogilvie answers this question by exploring seven centuries of pandemics, from the Black Death to Covid-19. For most of history, infectious diseases have killed many more people than famine or war, and in 2019 they still caused one death in four. Today, we deal with epidemics more successfully than our ancestors managed plague, smallpox, cholera, or influenza. But we use many of the same approaches. Long before scientific medicine, human societies coordinated and innovated in response to biological shocks—sometimes well, sometimes badly.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOgilvie uses historical epidemics to analyse how human societies deal with 'externalities'—situations where my action creates costs or benefits for others beyond those that I myself incur. Social institutions—markets, states, communities, religions, guilds, and families—help us manage the negative externalities of contagion and the positive externalities of social distancing, sanitation, and immunisation. Ogilvie shows how each institution enables us to coordinate, innovate, and inspire each other to limit contagion. But each institution also has weaknesses that can make things worse.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eMarkets shut down voluntarily during every epidemic in history—but they also brought people together, spreading contagion. States mandated quarantines, sanitation, and immunisation—but they also waged war and censored information, exacerbating epidemics. Religions admonished us to avoid infecting our neighbours—but they also preached against science and medical innovations. What decided the outcome, Ogilvie argues, was a temperate state, an adaptable market, and a strong civil society where a diversity of institutions played to their own strengths and checked each other's flaws.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"NewSouth Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46848826245356,"sku":"9780691255569","price":79.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/2542833482434.jpg?v=1759000248"},{"product_id":"the-european-guilds-by-sheilagh-ogilvie-9780691217024","title":"The European Guilds","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA comprehensive analysis of European craft guilds through eight centuries of economic history.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eGuilds ruled many crafts and trades from the Middle Ages to the Industrial Revolution and have always attracted debate and controversy. They were sometimes viewed as efficient institutions that guaranteed quality and skills. But they also excluded competitors, manipulated markets, and blocked innovations.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eDid the advantages of guilds outweigh their costs? Analysing thousands of guilds from 1000 to 1880, \u003cem\u003eThe European Guilds\u003c\/em\u003e answers that question with vivid examples and clear economic reasoning.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSheilagh Ogilvie features the voices of honourable guild masters, underpaid journeymen, exploited apprentices, shady officials, and outraged customers, and follows the stories of the \"vile encroachers\"—women, migrants, Jews, gypsies, bastards, and others—desperate to work but hunted down by the guilds as illicit competitors.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe European Guilds\u003c\/em\u003e analyses the toxic complicity between guild members and political elites and shows how privileged institutions and exclusive networks prey on prosperity and stifle growth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47428249977068,"sku":"9780691217024","price":64.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780691217024.jpg?v=1774497389"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.live\/collections\/sheilagh-ogilvie.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}