Sheilagh Ogilvie

How human institutions—markets, states, communities, religions, guilds, and families—have helped both to control and to exacerbate epidemics throughout history. How do societies tackle epidemic disease? In Controlling Contagion, 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,...

A comprehensive analysis of European craft guilds through eight centuries of economic history. Guilds 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. Did the advantages of...