The year that has just ended was personally very difficult for me. First, in April my wife developed a very serious medical condition—it was really touch-and-go, and she ended up spending ten days in the hospital. Thankfully, we survived this challenge and now she is back to normal.

Next came my turn. My heart indicators had been becoming increasingly dire over the past few years. I switched to paleo diet 12 years ago, with immediate and lasting health benefits. It is now clear to me that without this change, I would have this surgery much earlier (or died). The effect lasted for about ten years, but then my genetics started to catch up with me. I have a terrible history of cardiovascular disease in my family. Both my parents had heart problems. My paternal grandfather and younger brother died from a heart attack.

In any case, as I went through a series of tests last July it became clear that I would need a coronary bypass surgery. As my cardiologist said, “Peter, you are a ticking bomb.” It all happened very fast. A week after the stress test I had an angiogram procedure, and a week after that my chest was opened up and the heart rewired (re-piped?).

In light of the recent assassination of the health insurance CEO Brian Thompson, I must say that I have no complaints about how my wife and I were treated by our insurance. American medicine is not perfect—it’s really weak on prevention and you need to acquire a lot of medical knowledge yourself if you want to get the full benefit from the system. We went through three cardiologists before settling on the one we have now (who is excellent). But American medicine shines when you have an acute life-threatening problem, such as an incipient heart attack. I didn’t need to wait three months for my operation. My surgeon had done three thousand (3,000, Carl!) bypass surgeries before mine. And our insurance paid for everything.

It’s been five months since the surgery. I feel 95% recovered (although that last 5% is taking a long time…) I am back to normal work-wise. But all these medical problems set me back by at least three months. In particular, I was planning to finish my current book, The Great Holocene Transformation, by the end of summer—instead the first complete draft was only ready for peer review by December 1.

But this book is now on track. I’ve already received good comments from a bunch of colleagues, and am now working on the final draft. The book will go into production by January 31 (inshallah; after last year I am keenly aware of the frailty of human life…). I have all technical specialists lined up, so I expect a publication date in May or June. The GHT will be, of course, published by my boutique imprint, Beresta Books. I actually received an offer from a good academic press to publish it, but decided to stick with Beresta. There is really no advantage for me of publishing with an academic press, while the disadvantage is that it would take a year longer to get it out.

In other Beresta Books news, The Seshat History of Moralizing Religion is finally nearing publication. This book, of which I am one of the editors, took a long time. But that is normal for edited multi-author books. Formal peer review also took time. As off today, the book has been copy-edited, typeset, and galleys checked, so that it is ready for the indexer. We also have a cover (which I really like).

Despite all the health challenges, I managed to squeeze some good travel in 2024. I went to Kenya for my annual African pilgrimage. This time I decided to go solo, which worked quite well. I was also lucky to see the famous Serengeti migration. The trip was fantastic.

In November I was in Turkey for the Neolithic Congress, which included a field trip to a bunch of archaeological sites, including the famous Göbekli Tepe.

Finally, in December I was in Hong Kong for the Asian Economic History Conference, plus a few other events. I took a couple of days off to travel to Macao and Hangzhou. Lots of impressions; perhaps I will write about them in a future post.

This post is about my personal doings, but, as we all are aware, 2024 was a pivotal year in world history. I was tempted to write many blog posts on events as they unfolded, but it would have to happen at the expense of finishing the GHT on time. The GHT won. Fortunately, all those thoughts don’t have an expiration date. Cliodynamics is about the long run, rather than day-to-day human strivings. Inshallah, I will have more opportunity to comment on the developing trends in 2025. Meanwhile, as a substitute for regular blogging, here are three popular articles that I published last year:

The deep historical forces that explain Trump’s win (the Guardian)

Trump and the Triumph of America’s New Elite (Businessweek)

Nero-Moments: How Collapse of Social Trust Leads to State Breakdown (Starling Insights)

I wish all of us a happy 2025—health, prosperity, and peace.