Resilience and Rebounding from Crises with John Haldon
Episode 17 - July 5, 2020
John Haldon (Princeton University) talks to Merle and Lee about how states and societies react to systemic crises through the lens of resilience studies. After an introductory discussion about the concept of resilience, they speak about how the Byzantine Empire survived massive political, economic, and military losses during the seventh century and was able to reconfigure its governance to meet new realities. Haldon also discusses why he thinks the later sixth and seventh century outbreaks of the Justinianic Plague did not play a significant role in these changes. At the end, Haldon offers some ways resilience research might be useful for thinking about Covid-19 and how historians might help influence policy to build better societies in the future.
Further Reading
- Haldon, John. The Empire That Would Not Die. Harvard University Press, 2016.
- Haldon, John, Lee Mordechai, Timothy P. Newfield, Arlen F. Chase, Adam Izdebski, Piotr Guzowski, Inga Labuhn, and Neil Roberts. “History Meets Palaeoscience: Consilience and Collaboration in Studying Past Societal Responses to Environmental Change.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2018, 201716912.
- Haldon, John, and Arlene Rosen. “Society and Environment in the East Mediterranean ca 300–1800 CE. Problems of Resilience, Adaptation and Transformation. Introductory Essay.” Human Ecology 46, no. 3 (June 1, 2018): 275–90.
- Walker, Brian, and David Salt. Resilience Thinking: Sustaining Ecosystems and People in a Changing World. Island Press, 2006.
Our Guest
John Haldon,
Shelby Cullom Davis ’30 Professor of European History, Emeritus, Princeton University
