Blake Smith
Collegiate Assistant Professor, The University of Chicago
Blake Smith is a collegiate assistant professor at the University of Chicago. His research, focusing on the French East India Company, has appeared in scholarly journals such as French Cultural Studies and the Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, as well as popular media such as The Wire and The Appendix.
Written by Blake Smith
essay
Race and ethnicity
On prejudice
An 18th-century creole slaveholder invented the idea of ‘racial prejudice’ to defend diversity among a slaveowning elite
Blake Smith
idea
Nations and empires
The Madras Observatory: from Jesuit cooperation to British rule
Blake Smith
idea
Global history
For centuries European aristocrats proudly claimed foreign ancestry
Blake Smith
essay
Global history
Revolutionary heroes
If the sultan of Mysore had had a bit more luck, George Washington might be known as the Haider Ali of North America
Blake Smith
idea
History
Before Indiana Jones came Abraham Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron
Blake Smith
essay
Economic history
Slavery as free trade
The 18th-century thinkers behind laissez-faire economics saw slavery as a great example of global free trade
Blake Smith