Brian Turner
I am a student of Southeast Asian history, working under Ben Kiernan.
In general my aspiration is to contribute to understanding how pre-industrial economies escape or fail to escape Malthusian traps and how rural societies adapt to resource constraints. My dissertation will be on North Vietnam and the impact of French colonialism on the rural economy.
I have B.S. and M.S. degrees in agricultural economics, from Auburn University and the University of Florida, where I focused on rural development in China in the 1960s-1980s, and the intellectual roots of Maoist development ideas. I worked as an economics lecturer at a state university in Hanoi for five years, during which I discovered and was greatly inspired by the "Great Divergence" debate centered around Kenneth Pomeranz's book. This got me thinking about Vietnam's pre-revolutionary history. Subsequently I have become fascinated by the comparative economic and demographic history of East & SE Asia, Western Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Colonial North America; most of all France and its colonies. I am happy to hear from others who share these interests.
A hobby that springs from a prior job in the children's department of a public library is appreciating great illustration in children's books (usually older ones), and using children's literature to glimpse into American & British history. Fortunately, I have a school aged daughter to force my tastes on.
