Are We Living in the Middle of an Industrial Revolution

Abstract

funny. Historians do not appear to be as funny as economists. But at times one can find a good characterization of what historians do. A good metaphor of what economic history is about is contained in a nice anecdote I read not long ago about a tour guide in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where a group of visitors was shown one of the famous but idealized pictures of George Washington made by Gilbert Stuart. A skeptical member of the group remarked that surely this picture bore but little resemblance to the real Washington. “Well, ” said the guide, “maybe that is not what he looked like then, but that surely is what he looks like now. ” This in a nutshell is what historians do: they interpret the