by Dr. Ben Schneider (University of Cambridge) The fear that new technologies will cause mass unemployment appears during every wave of transformative innovation. Despite the recurrence of these discussions, including in ongoing debates about the effects of AI, many economists and economic historians, including the Nobel laureate Joel Mokyr, doubt that technology has ever caused large-scale job losses and long-term unemployment. They argue, for example, that similar narratives appeared in the 1960s without an obvious rise in the unemployment rate of rich countries. Moreover, while the Industrial Revolution is commonly mentioned as an instance of technological disruption, there is little quantitative evidence for unemployment caused by new technologies, referred to as “technological unemployment”.  These optimistic views are misleading. “In Technological Unemployment in the British Industrial Revolution: The Destruction of Hand-Spinning” my article in Past & Present no. 270, I systematically analyze job loss and subsequent unemployment in part of the British textile industry during the Industrial Revolution. In the space of a few decades beginning around 1770, new textile machines replaced work that had employed 8% of the British population. There was insufficient new work available in the growing factory districts to replace the lost jobs, and widespread unemployment and underemployment […]

by the Past & Present editorial team We were delighted to learn that Dr. Gianamar Giovannetti-Singh (University of Amsterdam) has won the Royal Historical Society’s Early Career Article Prize 2026 for his article “Colonial world-making and global knowledges at the early modern Cape of Good Hope” (Open Access) which was published in Past & Present no. 268 (August 2025). Awarded annually, the RHS Early Career Article Prize (known between 1898 and 2025 as the Alexander Prize) is for an essay or article based on original historical research, by a doctoral candidate or an early career historian within three years of being awarded a doctorate, published in a journal or an edited collection of essays. Two prizes of £250 each are awarded annually. In their citation the judging panel chaired by Dr Jesús Sanjurjo stated that: “The panel is delighted to award the 2026 Early Career Article Prize to Gianamar Giovannetti-Singh for his brilliant article, ‘Colonial World-Making and Global Knowledges at the Early Modern Cape of Good Hope’. Gianamar presents a sweeping, transoceanic history that fundamentally challenges our understanding of early modern geography and knowledge production. By seamlessly weaving together the ambitions of the Dutch East India Company, the astronomical diplomacy […]