I have had just over a week now to recover from the Economic History Society's annual conference, which we hosted in Belfast on 5-7 April. We had 261 registered delegates, presenting 152 papers in 46 sessions and two plenary lectures over three days. I think the conference was outstanding, which is all down to the excellent organisational skills of the EHS's administrative secretary, Maureen Galbraith, supported by our small army of postgraduate students. Thanks to all!

Palgrave Macmillan hosted a reception at the conference to celebrate over 12,000 ebook downloads of An Economist's Guide to Economic History. ​It was an opportunity for the book's contributors and readers to come together and think about what next in our quest to Make Economic History Great Again. We had some great suggestions for additional chapters for the second edition. And we also got some interesting ideas on how to make this website useful for colleagues using the book in their teaching.

One idea, which Matthias and I very much share, is to generate, and curate, teaching-ready audiovisual economic history material. Something I do in my own teaching is let the authors I am discussing speak about their own work in the form of a short video snippet. For senior academics I am usually able to find something good online, which I can then edit down to size; there are many great podcasts and videos involving economic historians out there to use (for example, the EHS films its plenary lectures). But this is more difficult to do for junior scholars. And so we will now embark on a campaign to encourage colleagues to generate new audiovisual material, starting with the contributors to the book!

While on the subject of videos, we have another book promo video for you. If you recall, we hosted our book launch in Belfast back in January, and Econ Films covered the day for us. They have just completed a video reportage of the events of the day. Enjoy!

​Chris.

Invitation: Celebratory Reception for An Economic's Guide to Economic History
Venue: Publishers' exhibition area, Economic History Society, Belfast
Time: 18:15-19:00, Friday 5 April

Queen's University Belfast is proudly hosting the 2019 conference of the Economic History Society, and delegates will soon be arriving at Belfast's two airports. ​The full conference programme is available over at the EHS website. 

I am particularly excited about two our keynote lectures. Our very own Graham Brownlow will provide delegates with a local flavour in his plenary lecture on Friday, which is entitled 'Back to the Failure(s)? DeLorean and Northern Ireland’s Other Troubles'. Meanwhile, Gavin Wright's Tawney lecture on Sunday is entitled 'Slavery and Anglo-American Capitalism Revisited'.

As always, there are a number of interesting fringe events at the conference, including a poster session, book launches and museum visits. Among them, I am very pleased to announce that Palgrave Macmillan will be hosting a celebratory reception for An Economist's Guide to Economic History. After all, we have a lot to celebrate: the book has been downloaded more than 11,000 times since December! The reception will take place in the publishers' exhibition area of the conference venue, between 18:15 and 19:00 on Friday 5 April. Wine will be served, and all are welcome!

As many of the book's contributors will be present, we will try and use the opportunity to talk about next steps in our mission to Make Economic History Great Again (MEHGA). In particular, how can we make it even easier for economists to engage with economic history? How can we use this website to enhance the contents of the book? And what additional material should we commission for the next edition of the book? 

I look forward to welcoming you all to Belfast!

​Chris.