when charles dickens visited us in 1840, he was truly blown away by high water pressure on the fourth floor of the hotel he was staying in. nowhere in europe had he experienced that. this technology was doing something to support the life and the growth of the city. philadelphia, throughout the 19th century, was the major industrial city of the united states. all of these industries used water from this system. and it served as a prototype for many american cities, including pittsburgh and new york. man: new york city went to philadelphia and said, "you know, we're thinking of developing a hudson river water supply -- what do you suggest we do?" and they said, "we've had "a lot of problems on the schuylkill. "don't go to the hudson river. go to the upland and work by gravity." and that's what new york city did. they first went to the hudson highlands, but 150 years later, it went to the delaware highlands. and really diverted the water that normally went to philadelphia to new york city. i don't think they anticipated that. narrator: the majority of new york city's drinking water come

. >> in the 1800's, charles dickens wrote a novel about his trip to america called "martin chuzzelwit." he mentioned his exposure to newspapers. we know that the "new york times" is biased. we know that the "economist" is biased. "wall street journal" is now horribly bias. we kind of adjust our lenses here when you read online and you do not know the person is, it is difficult to know whether it is legitimate or not. newspapers eventually disappear and are no longer published in print, so they are just competing with everyone else. how do we establish -- how do we know -- how to newspapers establish credibility? i saw this news reporter who put a piece on youtube about gavin newsom just walking away. so how did these organizations establish credibility? how are people able to see the problems with bias that will never come up? there is also a problem with advertisers, backers. a millionaire putting $500,000 or $1 million into a newspaper, and he will expect something in return. he may not want his coverage to be negative. so there are all these things. i wondered if anybody had any ge

. >> and then to thing we don't need a face lift and then 50 years later you have charles dickens writing the christmas carol which is an attack on that kind of fatalism. what is the difference? in the middle of the 19th century, the modern economic miracle begins. for 2000 years, the average human being lives not like a roman slave. a condition that comparable to livestock. one-room with a lot of other people and animals. couldn't read, and no medical care, inadequate food, , etc.. by the time dickens comes along in the hundred days hungry forties, that is another possibility. and then so productive in in no longer necessary but in then with the inevitability of what was accomplished the cut is there was a finite number of resources to people began to appreciate the fact you could include the resources by becoming more productive. >> host: what happened to that never before you have a sustained rise of productivity? just or the of benefit, productivity is the amount that is produced per worker. so what it means if a country has high productivity it means they take the same resources, as

need to be quite so fatalist but we can actually try to change >> guest: 50 years later you have charles dickens writing a christmas carol, which is an attack on that kind of fatalism. so what was the difference? well, in the middle of the 19th century, the modern economic miracle begins and what does that mean? it means that for 2,000 years the average human being lived like a roman slave in material conditions that comparable to livestock lived in one-room with a lot of other people and animals couldn't read, eight bad and inadequate food, you know, etc.. okay? and by the time that dickens comes along in the so-called hungry forties, he is writing about another possibility in other words and economy that is so abundant, so productive that that old, you know, life sentence most people is no longer necessary. >> host: but of course one of the things that change moving away from this vision of the inevitability that when the population got bigger resources got exhausted because there's a finite limited number of resources people began to abridge the fact that you could actually increase the resou

. >> guest: and 50 years later you have charles dickens writing "the christmas carol" which is an attack on that kind of fatalism, okay? what was the difference? well, in the middle of the 19th century, the modern economic miracle begins. and what does that mean? it means that for 2,000 years, the average human being lived like a roman slave, you know, in material conditions that comparable to livestock, okay? lived in one room, with a lot of other people and animals. couldn't read. no medical care. ate bad. and inadequate food, you know, et cetera, okay? and by -- you know, by the time that dickens comes along, in the so-called hungry '40s, dickens is writing about another possibility. in other words, you know, an economy, you know, that's so abundant, so productive that old, you know, life sentence of people is no longer necessary. >> host: of course, one of the things that changed was move away from this malfeasant vision and the inevitability that when the population got bigger resources got limited because there was a finite number of resources and people began to appreciate the fac

nasar, why start with jane austen and charles dickens?>> it's not an exik textbook or a series of pore -- portraits, but a story of an idea that is so new that jane austen never entertained it. >> what does that mean? >> the idea that the bottom nine-tenths of humanity could ever have lives weren't just on earth to drudge their way through life in poverty and misery. .. >> had many one set of clothes, no education, potatoes were too much of a luxury, and you had no hope, no one thought, no one -- even someone like jane austen who was liberal, sophisticated, compassionate, observant, no one thought that your children or children's children would ever live any differently. and no authority, including the great political economists, said anything different. so what does charles dickens have to do with modern or contemporary political thought? >> guest: okay. well, only a generation later when charles dickens comes on the scene, he has the imagination to think, yes, it is, it may be possible for humans to overcome scarcity and to take their o

. >> reporter: in those dusty account books, you'll find orders for charles dickens, buffalo bill codyd 7th. >> he got very big. >> reporter: yes, he did. >> which is probably good for his tailor because he kept us busy. (laughing). >> reporter: this is a henry pool suit. >> yes indeed. we made this in 1936. >> reporter: for winston chump hill, of course. >> he ordered right up until 1929. and then there was the wall street crash. i fear that he lost a lot of money. he ordered... his orders went down and down. in fact, the orders he did give us, he didn't pay for them. >> reporter: queen elizabeth has been a more reliable customer. pool and company has the prestigious royal warrant to make the uniforms for the walking grooms who escort the queen's gold state coach. >> the gold lace on here. >> reporter: keith levitt will spend four weeks sewing each uniform by hand. >> they're being made in much the same way that they were 130-odd years ago. there are 14 stitches to the inch holding the gold lace in place. the place... the lace, of course, is 2.5% gold. >> reporter: some things here ha