Thiago Krause

What if AI just makes us work harder? Employees have reported increased momentum, but also a feeling of having more to do

“I don’t mean to suggest that AI is useless or trivial, but there is a long history of time-saving digital technologies that at best make us more productive yet overwhelmed — and at worst, just make us feel overwhelmed.”

And once a friend - Arne Bialuschewski - told me he found some records on pirates who had attacked Brazil in the Bermudas archives! I guess I have an excuse to visit one day…

Never heard of it, I’m curious now

Great archive, even better city! I’d love to go back, although I mainly need to look at the Chambre records.

A PIG! Well, that seems like the best story ever.

Oh, there are a couple I really dislike! Brazilian archives are often very... peculiar, and not in a good way.

I was procastinating a while back and listed all archives I've worked in person.
I think my favorite archives are the Archives nationales de France, the British National Archives, and the Torre do Tombo (but I still need to visit a few more).
What are yours, #skystorians?

On Monday, at 1 PM, we welcome Casey Schmitt to our Ships & Seafaring Talk, where she will present her book "The Predatory Sea", a full-length study of the entangled history of captivity and colonialism using Spanish, French and English archives. Sign up here: www.eventbrite.com/e/ships-seaf...

French always does, I concede that.

I agree - my translator is arguing for Ancien Régime, but I don’t see the point.

Both "Ancien Régime" and "Old Regime" show up in Anglophone historiography. Which do you prefer, #skystorians?

Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Program 2026–2027 - IICSI The International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation (IICSI) invites applications for one (1) twelve-month residential postdoctoral fellowship position to be held at the University of Gue...

Come spend a year with great colleagues in Guelph (Ontario, Canada)

improvisationinstitute.ca/about-iicsi/...

It really makes me wonder about other fields (or about these guys). LLMs can do transcription, yes, they can fake academic writing, yes, but I still can’t see a LLM-generated paper making past peer-review in any halfway decent history journal.

Now I’m curious…

I finally read Menz’s “O Senhor da Morte” this weekend and strongly recommend it… I like some of Tâmis Parron’s articles, such as “The British Empire and the Suppression of the Slave Trade to Brazil” (JWH, 2018)… But I must stop because I should be reading more stuff right now. 😜

I’m reading @svenbeckert.bsky.social’s new tome, worth reading for a global framework; I recently returned to Zahedieh’s great “The Capital and the Colonies,” but you know it better than me; I liked Shovlin’s “Trading with the Enemy” and Barth’s “The Currency of Empire”…

Hey historians, what are your favorite readings on political economy? Bonus points for anything that also related to cross-cultural trade, war, and violence.

Thanks!🗃️

Image of a book jacket for Beyond the Ocean: France and the Atlantic World from the Crusades to the Age of Revolutions by Christopher Hodson and Brett Rushforth.

Full book jacket just dropped, and we're pretty happy with it. Huge thanks to @cecilefromont.bsky.social, @soccerpolitics.bsky.social, Alice, and Andrés for your generous words! #earlymodern #BeyondTheOcean global.oup.com/academic/pro...

Do send me a pdf, please, low!

Foi idiossincrático, admito!

EM é early modern, não coube no post! Tou lendo o Beckert. É uma atualização legal (estou na parte I ainda) do Wallerstein e Braudel, uma síntese bem organizada - mas ainda um tanto anglocentrica, supervalorizando Barbados (por mais que seja importante!).

(Chart 1: “Sugar Prices at Amsterdam, 1609–1763”): Line chart of annual average sugar prices in Amsterdam (y-axis: groten per pound; x-axis: years 1609–1763) for multiple origins and grades: Brazil White (highest series), São Tomé, Barbados, Caribbean & Surinamese aggregate, Martinique, Saint-Domingue, and dashed “powder/refined” series (Martinique Powder, Saint-Domingue Powder, East Indian Powder). Brazil White is very high and volatile in the 1620s–1650s (peaks above 30 groten), then reappears lower (roughly 9–13) in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries; raw Caribbean series cluster mostly around 4–9 groten when present, while powder/refined series sit above the raw lines and rise sharply in the 1750s–1760s. Shaded background bands mark major conflict periods (Dutch Brazil 1630–54; Nine Years’ War 1689–97; War of Spanish Succession 1702–13; War of Austrian Succession 1744–48; Seven Years’ War 1756–63), and line breaks indicate years with no surviving quotations.

(Chart: “Sugar Prices at Amsterdam, 1664–1763”): Line chart of annual average sugar prices in Amsterdam (y-axis: groten per pound, roughly 2–20; x-axis: 1664–1763) with separate series for Brazil White (highest line), São Tomé, Caribbean & Surinamese (aggregate), Barbados, Martinique, Saint-Domingue, and dashed refined/powder grades (Martinique Powder, Saint-Domingue Powder, East Indian Powder). Brazil White is very high in the mid-1660s (around 16–19 groten), then mostly around 10–13 when quoted (with long gaps), and rises again in the 1750s. Barbados and the Caribbean/Surinamese aggregate sit lower (generally about 5–9), with a clear dip in the early 1720s. Martinique and Saint-Domingue begin only in 1719 and cluster around 4–6 through the 1720s–1730s, then rise in the 1740s and especially the 1750s. Powder/refined series appear mainly after 1750 and run above the raw Martinique and Saint-Domingue lines, reaching the mid-teens by the early 1760s. Shaded background bands mark major wars (Franco-Dutch War 1672–78, Nine Years’ War 1689–97, War of Spanish Succession 1702–13, War of Austrian Succession 1744–48, Seven Years’ War 1756–63); vertical dashed markers label key moments (Rampjaar, Methuen, Law/SSB, Aix-la-Chapelle). Line breaks indicate years with no surviving quotations.

Looking at EM sugar prices across multiple periods is fascinating, even though my series is incomplete. The collapse after Barbados enters the picture makes every other change look like peanuts. I knew that (and the literature has known it for ages), but it is still wild to see it plotted.

I’d like to bring you here in person next time!

But I finally transcribed and translated one of the documents of the Lima pardos case that is available online and some from Archivio Storico de Propaganda Fide on the extraordinary case of Lourenço da Silva de Mendonça to discuss them with my students next week. Looking forward to it!

One of my favorite classes to teach in my HIS 3000 course on slavery is a discussion of how to think about early opposition to slavery and an intellectual history of the enslaved. I always assign @kbgraubart.bsky.social's awesome WMQ article and the famous Quaker Germantown petition from 1688...

The Edge of Mathematics Terence Tao, the legendary mathematician, explains the promise of generative AI.

“AI tools are like taking a helicopter to drop you off at the site. You miss all the benefits of the journey itself. You just get right to the destination, which actually was only just a part of the value of solving these problems.”

I don’t think you did, thanks! Will be on the look out for her work!

War, crop failures, fleets that didn't sail, etc.

I wasn't familiar with this paper, thanks!