Mt.Hamilton Society - Chelsea Follett on The Grim Old Days
About this Event
Chelsea Follett is the author of the new book coming out in mid-October, The Grim Old Days: An Introduction to the Preindustrial Past, which examines the harsh realities of life before industrialization and challenges the romanticization of the past found both among “degrowth” advocates on the far left and those who indulge in feudal nostalgia on the far right.
Here is some advance praise that gives a sense of the book:
“In this engaging and richly documented account of daily life of common people in the past, Follett eviscerates the widely-believed myths of the good old days. Life before industrialization was, as Hobbes once put it, ‘poor, nasty, brutish, and short.’ It was also uncomfortable, disease-ridden, insecure, and painful. Anyone believing the idealization of past days, so common in circles of ‘de-growth,’ should regard this book as mandatory reading.”– Joel Mokyr, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics (2025), Northwestern University“
"In 1954, F. A. Hayek edited Capitalism and the Historians, a book that refuted the myth that capitalism banished a green and pleasant pre-industrial existence. Now comes Chelsea Follett with an even more powerful demolition of capitalism’s critics. Read it and rejoice that the enemies of progress lost their argument against economic freedom.” George Will, Pulitzer Prize–winning columnist, Washington Post
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Chelsea Follett is a Research Fellow at the Cato Institute's Center for Global Liberty & Prosperity working with HumanProgress.org, and the author of the books Centers of Progress (2023) and The Grim Old Days (2026). Her writing has also appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, USA Today, US News & World Report, Newsweek, Forbes, The Hill, Business Insider, National Review, the Washington Examiner, and Reason, among other outlets.
She was named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list for 2018 in the category of Law & Policy. She earned a Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, in Government and English from the College of William & Mary, as well as a Master of Arts in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia, where she focused on international relations and political theory. She also studied abroad at both the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford.
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Please join the Mont Hamilton Society in this 17th year since our founding, to hear and interact with Chelsea Follett on this fascinating and timely topic.
This meeting, including lunch, will be in-person for no more than 24 individuals only. We think you will enjoy the intellectual stimulation, the edification, the camaraderie, and meeting new people.
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From a satisfied Mont Hamilton Society member:
"Thanks as always to you for the fun and engaging lunch discussions you put together regularly - I always enjoy them and the dose of intellectual sanity they provide!" Luke Perkocha, MD, MBA
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About the Mont Hamilton Society - In 1947 Friedrich Hayek, an economist and social philosopher who later won the Nobel Prize, organized a meeting at Mt. Pelerin, a resort in Switzerland. Hayek convened a modest sized group of (39) economists, historians, philosophers and journalists for the purpose of supporting research and discussion on the role of markets vs. government. The Mont Pelerin Society is now a large and prestigious international organization.
In 2009, a group of friends began to meet in San Jose for the purposes of improving their understanding of economic theory, applying it to current events and sharing their understanding with others as well as promoting a joyous sense of camaraderie. In recognition of the example set by the Mont Pelerin Society, they decided to name their group the Mont Hamilton Society. Members understand the realities of the business world, share an interest in economic thinking, and value civil discourse from a variety of perspectives. Faculty and students from the Department of Economics at San Jose State University are frequent guests at Society meetings. In June 2017 the Mont Hamilton Society became the San Jose affiliate chapter of the Bastiat Society, an AIER.org project, hence our name from then till late last year was: Mont Hamilton/Bastiat Society. However AIER decided late in 2024 to discontinue the Bastiat Society program, so we are reverting to our original name: The Mont Hamilton Society and continuing on our own.
There are no membership fees or organizational meetings at this time, but all interested are encouraged to join and participate.
If you would like to be on our invitations list, or know someone else who might like to receive notice of our 7 - 10 luncheon or other events per year, or if you have any questions, please send an email to:
You or your suggested contact(s) will receive an announcement/invitation and a reminder or two for each event as they are scheduled, or a prompt answer to your question/s.
These events are discussions, not standard lectures. To facilitate this, the in-person gatherings before Covid Lockdowns were kept "small," typically 12 - 24 individuals only. Some presentations are video recorded, depending on demand and available resources. Constructive feedback on our events and interest in recordings is welcome, since we are continuing to evolve our meeting formats.
Thank you for your interest.
Agenda
🕑: 11:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Meet & Greet members and Speaker - sample wine that generous members bring.
🕑: 12:00 PM - 12:30 PM
Lunch - your chosen entre
🕑: 12:30 PM - 12:45 PM
Intros - Society, Speaker, Members and Guests
🕑: 12:45 PM - 01:15 PM
Speaker Presentation
🕑: 01:15 PM - 01:30 PM
Q&A
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
USD 55.20
