Economic history Books

Book SynopsisThe dreaming paths of Aboriginal nations across Australia formed major ceremonial routes along which goods and knowledge flowed. These became the trade routes that criss-crossed Australia and transported religion and cultural values. This book highlights the valuable contribution Aboriginal people made in assisting European explorers, surveyors and stockmen to open the country for colonisation, and explores the interface between Aboriginal possession of the Australian continent and European colonisation and appropriation. Instead of positing a radical disjunction between cultural competencies, Dale Kerwin considers how European colonisation of Australia appropriated Aboriginal competence in terms of the landscape: by tapping into culinary and medicinal knowledge, water and resource knowledge, hunting, food collecting and path-finding. As a consequence of this assistance, Aboriginal dreaming paths and trading routes also became the routes and roads of colonisers. Indeed, the European colonisation of Australia owes much of its success to the deliberate process of Aboriginal land management practices. Dale Kerwin provides a social science context for the broader study of Aboriginal trading routes by setting out an historic interpretation of the Aboriginal/European contact period. His book scrutinises arguments about nomadic and primitive societies, as well as Romantic views of culture and affluence. These circumstances and outcomes are juxtaposed with evidence that indicates that Aboriginal societies are substantially sedentary and highly developed, capable of functional differentiation and foresight -- attributes previously only granted to the European settlers. The hunter-gatherer image of Aboriginal society is rejected by providing evidence of crop cultivation and land management, as well as social arrangements that made best use of a hostile environment. This book is essential reading for all those who seek to have a better knowledge of Australia and its first people: it inscribes Aboriginal people firmly in the body of Australian history.Table of ContentsCommon Sense & Common Nonsense; Coming of the Aliens; Only the Learned Can Read; Maps, Travel & Trade as a Cultural Process; To Travel is to Learn; Misrepresentation of the Grand Narrative -- 'Walk Softly on the Landscape'; Index.

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Book Synopsis'This wise and lucid guide to pluralism in economics embodies the values of its cause. Generous, open-minded, fair, accurate and accessible: John Harvey's new book is a fine achievement that every economics major should read.'- James K. Galbraith, The University of Texas at Austin, USJohn Harvey's accessible book provides a non-technical yet rigorous introduction to various schools of thought in economics. Premised on the idea that economic thinking has been stunted by the almost complete rejection of anything outside the mainstream, the author hopes that this volume will open readers' minds and lead them in new and productive directions. In his exploration of Neoclassical, Marxist, Austrian, Post Keynesian, Institutionalist, New Institutionalist and Feminist schools of thought, unique features of each approach are highlighted, complemented by discussions of methodology, world views, popular themes, and current activities. Accurate and impartial, every chapter covering a heterodox school of thought has been vetted by an acknowledged expert in that field. Though written for use in undergraduate courses, this guide will no doubt offer a great deal to any scholar wishing to gain a fresh perspective and greater understanding of the variety and breadth of current economic thinking.Trade ReviewFifty years ago I used Robert L. Heilbroner's The Worldly Philosophers to get students excited about economics. Today I would use John T. Harvey's Contending Perspectives in Economics. The book is beautifully written and full of insights into who economists are and why they think the way they do. --Paul D. Bush, California State UniversityEconomics is a mess. Oppositional clans (''schools''), pseudo-science, corruption of various kinds and relentless disdain for the real-world predominate. If you are thinking of entering this war-zone, then reading John Harvey's Contending Perspectives in Economics is your best bet for retaining your intellectual health. --Edward Fullbrook, University of the West of England, UKI just finished reading the book! I feel like I learned so much from it, and not just in terms of the information itself. As I read, it stimulated so much thought I found myself writing many pages on things I'd never even thought about! --Marcus Schiebold, Economics Undergraduate Student, University of North TexasTable of ContentsContents: 1. Introduction 2. Economics as a scientific discipline 3. Neoclassical economics 4. Marxism 5. Austrian economics 6. Post Keynesian economics 7. Institutionalism 8. New Institutionalism 9. Feminist economics 10. Ecological Economics 11. Conclusions Index

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Book SynopsisA non-Eurocentric, sweeping look at the material conditions and events that created capitalismTrade Review'A fundamental rethinking of the origins of capitalism and the emergence of Western domination by the interactive relations with the non-European world. Highly Recommended.' -- CHOICE'A fascinating tour de force that will surely be debated in the fields of history, sociology, Marxism and International Relations for years to come' -- Justin Rosenberg, Professor in International Relations at the University of Sussex'An excellent book' -- Professor John M. Hobson, University of Sheffield'This rigorously argued book presents a compelling challenge to standard narratives of capitalist modernity. The authors combine theoretical sophistication and a wide-ranging account of extra-European histories to provide a superb - and provocative - alternative' -- Gurminder K Bhambra, author of Connected Sociologies'A superb account which successfully transcends a false dichotomy. Drawing on the best aspects of Historical Sociology and International Relations, and within a rigorous Marxist framework, the authors offer a challenge to all existing explanations of the rise of the West to world dominance' -- Neil Davidson, author of How Revolutionary Were the Bourgeois Revolutions?'There is much talk these days of Big History, yet the advocates invariably stop short of talking about capitalism. With their bold and wide-ranging treatment, Anievas and Nişancıoğlu now place the origins of capitalism at the very centre of the agenda' -- Geoff Eley, Karl Pohrt Distinguished University Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Michigan'An excellent, inventive and fascinating piece of scholarship' -- Tony Mckenna, Marx & Philosophy Review of Books'A work of towering scholarly erudition combined with deep political insights that must be reckoned with' -- Louis Proyect'Provocative and brilliant ... An enormous contribution to redressing the one-sided debates about the origins of capitalism and the West's conquest of the planet ... Their book should be read by anyone hoping to understand as well as challenge Eurocentrism, imperialism, and the capitalist system as a whole' -- International Socialist Review'Provides an important introduction to a truly global history of the origins of capitalism which recognises the vital inputs and roles of a range of non-European societies' -- Review of African Political EconomyTable of ContentsList of Figures Acknowledgements Introduction 1. The Transition Debate: Theories and Critique 2. Rethinking the Origins of Capitalism: The Theory of Uneven and Combined Development 3. The Long Thirteenth Century: Structural Crisis, Conjunctural Catastrophe 4. The Ottoman-Habsburg Rivalry over the Long Sixteenth Century 5. The Atlantic Sources of European Capitalism, Territorial Sovereignty and the Modern Self 6. The ‘Classical’ Bourgeois Revolutions in the History of Uneven and Combined Development 7. Combined Encounters: Dutch Colonisation in South-East Asia and the Contradictions of ‘Free Labour’ 8. Origins of the Great Divergence over the Longue Durée: Rethinking the ‘Rise of the West’ Conclusion Notes Index

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Book SynopsisWeaving together vivid history and economic analysis, this book makes for a gripping narrative.

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Book SynopsisWhat makes countries rich? What makes countries poor? Europe''s Growth Champion: Insights from the Economic Rise of Poland seeks to answer these questions, and many more, through a study of one of the biggest, and least heard about, economic success stories. Over the last twenty-five years Poland has transitioned from a perennially backward, poor, and peripheral country to unexpectedly join the ranks of the world''s high income countries. Europe''s Growth Champion is about the lessons learned from Poland''s remarkable experience, the conditions that keep countries poor, and the challenges that countries need to face in order to grow. It defines a new growth model that Poland and its Eastern European peers need to adopt to grow and catch up with their Western counterparts. Poland''s economic rise emphasizes the importance of the fundamental sources of growth- institutions, culture, ideas, and leaders- in economic development. It demonstrates that a shift from an extractive society, wherTrade ReviewThe clarity of the author's reasoning is in fact one of the book's greatest merits * Guzowski, Piotr, EH.Net *Poland's economic success over the last three decades is nothing short of remarkable. This insightful book shows how Poland owes its success to its ability to build broadly inclusive economic institutions, and traces the roots of ability to build broadly inclusive economic institutions, and traces the roots of this institutional transformation to the country's history, to its political transition driven by its middle class, to the anchor that the European Union provided, and to good political leadership. A must read for anybody who wants to understand the process of economic reform, especially today when we are witnessing the rise of an authoritarian government in Poland threatening to reverse some of these achievements. * Daron Acemoglu, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US *An ambitious and successful effort at explaining the evolution of Poland from feudalismto communism and to today' success story. Full of insights, with deep lessons about development in general. A pleasure to read. * Olivier Blanchard, Peterson Institute, US, former Chief Economist of the IMF *This highly readable book provides a comprehensive and novel explanation of Poland's rise to the ranks of high-income economies over the course of a single generation. The book will be essential reading for economists and economic policy-makers, including those in Poland, who face the daunting task of creating and implementing a new economic model for the future. * Dale Jorgenson, Harvard University, US *Based on comprehensive comparative research and rich personal experience, Piatkowski wrote a unique book on the post-communist transformation to a market-based, democratic and civic society. This is a tour de force on socio- socioeconomicchanges in Poland-a country that almost 30 years ago initiated the historic process of transition and was the most successful economy to cope with its immense challenges. Piatkowski persuasively explains how this happened and what is the likely future not only for Poland, but also for the whole post-communist region and Europe. * Grzegorz W. Kolodko *Most countries in the world are trapped in poverty or middle-income status. However, a country's destiny can change. Piatkowski analyzes Poland's recent success of ascending from a relatively poor to a high-income country in a generation's time. The book provides both inspiration and useful lessons for countries still struggling to change the fate of their nations. * Justin Yifu Lin, Peking University, China, former Chief Economist of the World Bank *What did Poland do to become the most successful European economy in the past thirty years? This brilliant and original book answers the question and rekindles the debate on whether successful economic development is driven by good institutions, good policies, lucky geography . . . or all three. * Branko Milanovic, Graduate Center City University of New York, US *No country did better than Poland after the fall of communism. This book dissects not just the specific policies that made this successful transition possible, but also its deeper roots in culture, institutions, and ideas-providing some surprising answers along the way. Piatkowski has written a deeply hopeful book that shows the way forward for Poland and other similarly situated economies. * Dani Rodrik, Harvard University, US *A new book on Poland's success, Europe's Growth Champion, by Marcin Piatkowski, highlights a paradox. What outsiders saw, and Poles bemoaned, in 1989 was indeed dreadful, a destitute country with dire infrastructure, pitiful wages, clapped-out industry and bankrupt public finances. But the deeper legacy of communism, the book argues, was a positive one. . . . Mr Piatkowski's arguments deserve careful consideration. The question of why some countries get rich and others stay poor is the most important economic puzzle of our times, and one that economists themselves struggle to solve. * Edward Lucas, The Times *A deep, surprising and cleverly written book about Europe's untold success story. * Tim Harford, author of Fifty Inventions That Shaped The Modern Economy and The Undercover Economist *Europe's Growth Champion is an in-depth analysis of why and how Poland has managed to build a competitive and inclusive market economy just within one generation. Marcin Piatowski's careful and theoretically sound analysis of what has and has not worked in Poland is a great guide for any reformer-and the reassurance that market reforms can deliver if correctly designed and implemented. * Sergei Guriev, Chief Economist, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development *"Poland has entered its true Golden Age," writes Marcin Piatowski in this lucid and stimulating account of Poland's transformation. * Tony Barber, Financial Times *Today, many take Poland's postcommunist economic success for granted, but that was never true. Piatkowski underscores how extractive Poland's old economic system was and how harmful its old elite. He shows convincingly that Poland's transformation proves that success is possible also where rent seeking is deeply entrenched. But it requires a real shock that breaks the old system and its ruling class. New institutions as well as a different culture are needed and they can be built. * Anders Åslund, Atlantic Council, Washington, DC *One of the main reasons why countries in Central and Eastern Europe are poorer than Western European countries is because they often reverse important reforms. Poland is no exception in this regard, this time around despite an enviable economic and social performance since the transition and the historically unparalleled anchoring that the European Union provides. This book not only provides an excellent analysis of the fundamental factors that brought about this unprecedented growth spurt in Poland, but it also offers a strong hope that these factors will be robust enough to prevent reform reversals and keep Poland on its rapid convergence trajectory. I can only hope that the author is right about this. A must read for economists, policymakers and politicians in the region. * Istvan Szekely, Director, European Commission, DG ECFIN *Piatkowski's book provides the most thorough analysis so far of the reasons behind Poland's economic successes since it embarked on the transition to the market economy. Blending advanced economic analysis together with a deep historical perspective, this book is a great example of how contemporary economic methods can deliver very fruitful insights and enlighten policy debates. * Prof. Gerard Roland, E. Morris Cox Professor of Economics and Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley *Europe's Growth Champion. Insights from the Economic Rise of Poland is a groundbreaking analysis, a pioneering work on post-communist development in Poland and in Central and Eastern Europe, and a crucial guide to understanding how to achieve developmental success in the post-communist context. It should be read by anyone who is interested in development and postcommunist economic transition in Poland and beyond, or in root causes, institutional arrangements, state policies and other factors of contemporary development successes. * Andrzej Bolesta, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, Europe-Asia Studies *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1: Fundamental Sources of Growth: Institutions, Culture and Ideas 2: From Black Death to black hole 3: What the Black Death was to Western Europe, Communism was to Central and Eastern Europe 4: Poland's Transition Success Story 5: Drivers of Poland's Successful Transition 6: Fundamental Sources of Poland's Growth: The Role of Institutions 7: The Role of Culture, Ideas, and Leadership 8: Will Poland's Success Continue? Projections, Scenarios, and Risks 9: The New Growth Model for Central and Eastern Europe: "The Warsaw Consensus" 10: Conclusions and the Way Forward

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Book SynopsisThis timely book studies the economic theories of credit cycles and disturbances in the 20th century, presenting a nuanced view of the role of finance in the economy after the financial crash of 2008. Focusing on the work of economists from Marx onwards, Jan Toporowski moves beyond conventional monetary theory to offer an insightful critical alternative to current financial macroeconomics. The book features an extended discussion of Marx's approach to credit and finance, new insights to Minsky's ideas and a reconsideration of the financial theories of Kalecki and Steindl. Economic researchers and postgraduate students seeking to extend their knowledge of critical approaches to finance will find this an invaluable read, as well as practitioners and policy makers who seek to understand financial instability and unstable markets. This will also be an insightful read for economic historians looking to understand the nuances of different key economic theories and their practical applications. This timely book studies the economic theories of credit cycles and disturbances in the 20th century, presenting a nuanced view of the role of finance in the economy after the financial crash of 2008.Trade Review'Jan Toporowski provides a provocative guide to a dissenting tradition in macroeconomics where monetary and financial institutions are just as fundamental to the market economy's performance as real factors - endowments, tastes, technology, etc. Along his route from Marx to Minsky we naturally encounter the likes of Keynes and Kalecki, but also, more surprisingly, proto-monetarists like Fisher, Hawtrey, and Henry Simons. Whatever our own views, Toporowski forces us to look at today's macroeconomics in a refreshingly new light: highly recommended.' --David Laidler, University of Western Ontario, US'Professor Jan Toporowski offers us a brilliant piece of scholarship combining history of money and credit theories ranging over heterodox economists from Marx and Luxemburg to mainstream but radical economists such as Keynes and Minsky. It is a here and now explanation of our problems.' --Lord Meghnad Desai, London School of Economics, UKTable of ContentsContents: PART I: CAPITALISM AND FINANCIAL CRISIS 1. Marx and the Monetary Business Cycle 2. Marx and the Emergence of Debt Markets 3. Rosa Luxemburg and the Marxists on Finance PART II: CRITICAL THEORIES OF FINANCE IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: UNSTABLE MONEY AND FINANCE 4. Ralph Hawtrey and the Monetary Business Cycle 5. Irving Fisher and Debt Deflation 6. John Maynard Keynes’s Financial Theory of Under-Investment I: Towards Doubt 7. John Maynard Keynes’s Financial Theory of Under-Investment II: Towards Uncertainty PART III: CRITICAL THEORIES OF FINANCE IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: CORPORATE DEBT AND CRISIS 8. The Principle Of Increasing Risk: Marek Breit 9. The Principle Of Increasing Risk: Michal Kalecki 10. The Principle of Increasing Risk: Josef Steindl and Michal Kalecki on Profits and Finance 11. The Kalecki-Steindl theory of financial fragility PART IV: CRITICAL THEORIES OF FINANCE IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: THE FINANCIAL INSTABILITY HYPOTHESIS 12. The Monetary Theory of Kalecki and Minsky 13. From Money to Minsky: Henry Simons 14. The Financial Instability Hypothesis Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisA sobering excavation of how deeply nineteenth-century American banks were entwined with the institution of slavery. It's now widely understood that the fullest expression of nineteenth-century American capitalism was found in the structures of chattel slavery. It's also understood that almost every other institution and aspect of life then was at least entangled withand often profited fromslavery's perpetuation. Yet as Sharon Ann Murphy shows in her powerful and unprecedented book, the centrality of enslaved labor to banking in the antebellum United States is far greater than previously thought. Banking on Slavery sheds light on precisely how the financial relationships between banks and slaveholders worked across the nineteenth-century South. Murphy argues that the rapid spread of slavery in the South during the 1820s and '30s depended significantly upon southern banks' willingness to financialize enslaved lives, with the use of enslaved individuals as loan collateral proving cTrade Review"Murphy’s meticulously researched and clearly written study examines the role of banks in what she terms the concomitant 'financialization' of human property and the southwestern expansion of plantation economies in the mid-19th-century South. . . . The lives of enslaved persons caught in the web of the capitalist marketplace haunt the pages of Murphy's excellent work." * Choice *“A tremendous accomplishment. We cannot fully understand the history of banking in the United States without reckoning with Murphy’s important findings. Banking on Slavery sets the stage for new understandings of the history of capitalism and its relation to slavery.” * Claire Priest, author of Credit Nation: Property Laws and Institutions in Early America *"In a pathbreaking account of the way Americans financed slavery, Murphy connects the vast sweep of that tragedy to the banking that made it possible. Detail by dollar detail, she exposes the structures that transmuted enslaved people into assets and collateral, building white wealth all the while. A powerful--and chilling--book." -- Christine Desan, author of Making Money: Coin, Currency, and the Coming of Capitalism"More surprising has been the lack of historical analysis of the banking firms and financial practices that underwrote the expansion of slavery in the antebellum United States. In her groundbreaking new book, Banking on Slavery, historian Sharon Ann Murphy corrects this glaring omission." * Sean Vanatta, Wharton Initiative on Financial Policy and Regulation *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Introduction: Banking in the Nation’s Largest Slave Market Part I: Financing Southwestern Expansion through the 1810s 1 The Limits of Early Bank Financing of Slavery 2 Adapting Slave Financing to the Needs of the Frontier South during the Nation’s First Boom and Bust Part II: Financing an Empire of Slavery in the 1820s and 1830s 3 Old South Banks and Frontier Finance 4 Pushing Financial Boundaries with Traditional Banks 5 Reimagining Banking for a Slave Economy Part III: The Collateral Damage of the Panics of 1837 and 1839 6 Foreclosing (or Not) on Delinquent Slaveholders 7 Escaping Debt: Bankruptcy, Fraud, and Going to Texas 8 When Banks Fail 9 From Commercial Banking to Private Finance Epilogue: Banks, Debt, Emancipation, Reparations, and Memory Acknowledgments Abbreviations Notes Index

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Book SynopsisMoney provides a unique and illuminating perspective on the Middle Ages. In much of medieval Europe the central meaning of money was a prescribed unit of precious metal but in practice precious metal did not necessarily change hands and indeed coinage was very often in short supply. Money had economic, institutional, social, and cultural dimensions which developed the legacy of antiquity and set the scene for modern developments including the rise of capitalism and finance as well as a moralized discourse on the proper and improper uses of money. In its many forms - coin, metal, commodity, and concept - money played a central role in shaping the character of medieval society and, in turn, offers a vivid reflection of the distinctive features of medieval civilization. Drawing upon a wealth of visual and textual sources, A Cultural History of Money in the Medieval Age presents essays that examine key cultural case studies of the period on the themes of technologies, ideas, ritualTable of ContentsList of Illustrations Notes on Contributors Series Preface, Bill Maurer, University of California Irvine, USA Introduction: Approaching Medieval Money, Rory Naismith, University of Cambridge, UK 1. Money and its Technologies: The “Principles of Minting” in the Middle Ages, Oliver Volckart, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK 2. Money and its Ideas: Payment Methods in the Middle Ages, Laurent Feller, University of Paris 1 - Panthéon-Sorbonne, France 3. Money, Ritual, and Religion: Economic Value between Theology and Administration, Giacomo Todeschini, Italy 4. Money and the Everyday: Whose Currency? Richard Kelleher, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK 5. Money, Art, and Representation: The Powerful and Pragmatic Faces of Medieval Coinage, Rebecca R. Darley, Birkbeck, University of London, UK 6. Money and its Interpretation: Attitudes to Money in the Societas Christiana, Svein H. Gullbekk, Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo, Norway 7. Money and the Issues of the Age: The Plurality of Money, Rory Naismith, University of Cambridge, UK Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisFor a long time, everything revolved around bread. Providing more than half of people's daily calories, bread was the life-source of Europe for centuries. In the middle of 19th century, a third of household expenditure was spent on bread. Why, then, does it only account for 0.8% of expenditure and just 12% of daily calories today?In this book, Peter Scholliers delves into the history of bread to map out its defining moments and people. From the price revolution of the 1890s that led to affordable and pure white bread, to the taste revolution of the 1990s that ushered in healthy brown bread, he studies consumers, bakers and governments to explain how and why this food that once powered an entire continent has fallen by the wayside, and what this means for the modern age.From prices and consumption to legislation and technology, Scholliers shows how the history of bread has been shaped by subtle cultural shifts as well as top-down decisions from ruling bodies. From theTrade ReviewBread, a name that tastes ancient and "natural". But bread does not exist in nature. Since it was invented it has been a symbol of innovation and creativity. Bread is the perfect food, designed by humans for humans. After millennia, it continues to hold the secret of humanity. * Massimo Montanari, Professor of Medieval History, Bologna University, Italy *In a masterful and lively study, as rigorous as it is graceful, Scholliers insists on the essential : bread is at the core of public and private life, as much a political and social as a nutritional and gastronomical object, a powerful force of and for life, yet also a reminder of its fragility. * Steven Laurence Kaplan, Goldwin Smith Professor emeritus of European History, Cornell University, USA *Bread was, for centuries, the staple of most Europeans’ diets. Here Peter Scholliers weaves together economic and medical histories, the daily lives of workers, the histories of technology and consumption, to demonstrate how a simple item like a loaf of bread can trace historical change in all its complexity. * Rachel Rich, Reader in Modern European History, Leeds Beckett University, UK *Table of ContentsIntroduction Part I: The Consumer 1. Eating Bread 2. Types of Bread 3. Prices and Purchasing power 4. Acquiring Bread: Baking, Buying and Stealing 5. Calories, Kilos and Grams 6. Bad bread: Fraud, Additives and Riots Part II: The Baker 7. Artisanal Baking 8. Technology and Hygiene 9. The Factories 10. Wages, Costs and Profits 11. Image, Status and Wealth 12. Politics, Strikes and Consultations Part III: The Government 13. Grain Policy 14. Price Control 15. Fraud on the Track 16. School and Education 17. Committees, Councils, Institutes and Agencies Conclusion: Good Bread Glossary Bibliography Appendices Index

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Book SynopsisThe United States has just gone through the worst economic crisis in a generation. Why wasn't there more protest, as there was in other countries? During the United States' last great era of free-market policies, before World War II, economic crises were always accompanied by unrest. The history of capitalism, the economist Joseph Schumpeter warned in 1942, is studded with violent bursts and catastrophes. In The End of Protest, Alasdair Roberts explains how, in the modern age, governments learned to unleash market forces while also avoiding protest about the market's failures.Roberts argues that in the last three decades, the two countries that led the free-market revolutionthe United States and Britainhave invented new strategies for dealing with unrest over free market policies. The organizing capacity of unions has been undermined so that it is harder to mobilize discontent. The mobilizing potential of new information technologies has also been checked. Police forceTrade Review"Kudos to Cornell University Press for launching the series in order to engage the broader public about matters of the moment, such as the question of dissent."-Critical Margins

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewWinner of the 2016 Douglass C. North Research Award, Society for Institutional and Organizational Economics (SIOE) Shortlisted for the 2016 Ralph Waldo Emerson Award, Phi Beta Kappa Society One of Flavorwire's 10 Must-Read Academic Books for 2015 One of HistoryBuff.com's 10 Can't-Miss History Books of 2015 "Superb."--Armand Marie Leroi, New York Times "In the late fourth century B.C., Aristotle and his students collected the constitutions of more than 150 [...] city-states. The scholar who would today follow in Aristotle's footsteps has to deal with a far more formidable mass of data. Few of today's scholars control more of this data, or write about it more insightfully, than Josiah Ober. [T]hose willing to put in the effort will learn much from the deep meditations of an expert historian and political philosopher."--James Romm, Wall Street Journal "[T]his could turn out to be Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire for classical Greece."--Jonathan Sturgeon, Flavorwire "Ober marshals a wealth of new data to make the case for a much different view of Greek history ... there was something distinct about the Greek world, he argues. What set the Greeks apart, he says, was their choice of a particular kind of order--and the cultural attitudes that went with it. Citizen self-government. Equality of standing among persons. Fair and open institutions. These ideas, unusual in history, were well developed in the Greek world, Ober notes. If we care about them, he says, we should pay attention."--Marc Parry, Chronicle of Higher Education "[Ober's] central argument is that the achievements of Greek civilization were rooted in its prosperity, and that was the result of a rough economic and political equality... [He] ranges over a half millennium of Greek history, from the 8th to the 3rd centuries BCE, seeking the roots of Greek "efflorescence"--its material and cultural flourishing... [The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece] is rife with parallels to the present."--Brian Bethune, Macleans "An attractive, informative, and timely picture of Greece from Homer to Aristotle... It's an absorbing story full of excitement, drama and hope."--Evaggelos Valiantos, Huffington Post "A sharp and insightful economic history."--Daisy Dunn, History Today [The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece] is by far [Ober's] most ambitious work to date, a magisterial tour of the successes and failures of various city-states throughout the Greek world from the archaic through the Hellenistic periods... The thrust of the book is not just provocative but persuasive."--Adriaan Lanni, The New Rambler "This book is a groundbreaking examination of what Ober (political science, Stanford) calls the 'efflorescence' of ancient Greece, which, divided into some 1,100 city-states as it was, developed a unified, dominant culture."--Choice "His narrative history of Greek efflorescence is engaging and full of insights."--Richard Seaford, Literary Review "A thought-provoking book with great depth. As the great political theorists of the modern era have always known, the ancient Greek experience provides immense empirical material to mine for insights into political science: how we design rules of politics to secure human freedom and well-being. We ignore the experience of classical civilization to our own disadvantage."--Jason Sorens, The American Conservative "This challenging book is like no other history of the ancient world... [Ober] produces some engaging and striking analyses of familiar historical episodes."--American Historical Review "Intriguing... [Y]ou can think of this book as how an economist might think about ancient Greece."--Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution "[Ober's] work will be of interest to anyone who is serious about the history of political economy, or who wants to know more about the relationship between democracy, economic growth, and human flourishing, whether in the ancient or modern world... The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece ... will richly reward a serious lay reader. One of its most appealing qualities is its multidisciplinary approach, which is the fruit of Ober's extensive and generously acknowledged collaboration with scholars from around the world as well as with his Stanford colleagues in a number of fields, including the sciences. In this respect, it points in a direction that future humanities scholars will need to go if they, too, wish to flourish."--David Wharton, Weekly Standard "A fresh and vigorous account about the roots of democracy."--Brian A. Pavlac, Canadian Journal of HistoryTable of ContentsList of Images and Tables xi Preface xiii Acknowledgments xxi Abbreviations xxv 1 The Efflorescence of Classical Greece 1 2 Ants around a Pond: An Ecology of City-States 21 3 Political Animals: A Theory of Decentralized Cooperation 45 4 Wealthy Hellas: Measuring Efflorescence 71 5 Explaining Hellas' Wealth: Fair Rules and Competition 101 6 Citizens and Specialization before 550 BCE 123 7 From Tyranny to Democracy, 550-465 BCE 157 8 Golden Age of Empire, 478-404 BCE 191 9 Disorder and Growth, 403-340 BCE 223 10 Political Fall, 359-334 BCE 261 11 Creative Destruction and Immortality 293 Appendix I: Regions of the Greek World: Population, Size, Fame 317 Appendix II: King, City, and Elite Game, Josiah Ober and Barry Weingast 321 Notes 329 Bibliography 367 Index 401

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Book SynopsisAlmost since the event itself in 1757, the English East India Company''s victory over the forces of the nawab of Bengal and the territorial acquisitions that followed has been perceived as the moment when the British Empire in India was born. Examining the Company''s political and intellectual history in the century prior to this supposed transformation, The Company-State rethinks this narrative and the nature of the early East India Company itself. In this book, Philip J. Stern reveals the history of a corporation concerned not simply with the bottom line but also with the science of colonial governance. Stern demonstrates how Company leadership wrestled with typical early modern problems of political authority, such as the mutual obligations of subjects and rulers; the relationships among law, economy, and sound civil and colonial society; the constitution of civic institutions ranging from tax collection and religious practice to diplomacy and warmaking; and the nature of jurisdiction and sovereignty over people, territory, and the sea. Their ideas emerged from abstract ideological, historical, and philosophical principles and from the real-world entanglements of East India Company employees and governors with a host of allies, rivals, and polyglot populations in their overseas plantations. As the Company shaped this colonial polity, it also confronted shifting definitions of state and sovereignty across Eurasia that ultimately laid the groundwork for the Company''s incorporation into the British empire and state through the eighteenth century.Challenging traditional distinctions between the commercial and imperial eras in British India, as well as a colonial Atlantic world and a trading world of Asia, The Company-State offers a unique perspective on the fragmented nature of state, sovereignty, and empire in the early modern world.Trade ReviewWith great skill, Stern has extracted from the archives a cogent and highly engaging narrative of events that even participants found highly tremendously confusing. He deftly conveys the world of the East India company, marshaling striking visual materials and wonderfully evocative quotations from a wide array of Company documents. * Radical History Review *A thought-provoking reinterpretation that will compel us to reexamine assumptions about colonial companies in general. * H-Net *In a work of deep erudition and striking originality Philip Stern deftly demolishes many of the categories by which we try to organize our work: are states and companies really different animals, were the early modern Atlantic and Indian Oceans distinct worlds, what, if anything, was new about the post-Plassey British Indian empire? We are politely but firmly directed back to the drawing board. * P. J. Marshall, King's College London *In The Company-State, Philip Stern has made an important contribution not only to studies of empire, but to early modern history in general. This is an important and innovative reconsideration of the East India Company as a political actor in the first phase of its career. This incisively crafted book will be widely read, cited, and debated. * Sanjay Subrahmanyam, University of California, Los Angeles *A bracing re-thinking of the early modern East India Company and its role in shaping English practices of empire, governance, 'trade,' and polity, Philip Stern's book will replace all previous studies on the topic. * Kathleen Wilson, Stony Brook University *Table of ContentsIntroduction: "A State in the Disguise of a Merchant" ; Part I: Foundations ; Chapter 1 "Planning & Peopling Your Colony": Building a Company-State ; Chapter 2 "A Sort of Republic for the Management of Trade": The Jurisdiction of a Company-State ; Chapter 3 "A Politie of Civill and Military Power": Diplomacy, War, and Expansion ; Chapter 4 "Politicall Science and Martiall Prudence": Political Thought and Political Economy ; Chapter 5 "The Most Sure and Profitable Sort of Merchandice": Protestantism and Piety ; Part II: Transformations ; Chapter 6 "Great Warrs Leave Behind them Long Tales": Crisis and Response in Asia after 1688 ; Chapter 7 Auspicio Regis et Senatus Angliae": Crisis and Response in Britain after 1688 ; Chapter 8 "The Day of Small Things": Civic Governance in the New Century ; Chapter 9 "A Sword in One Hand & Money in the Other": Old Patterns, New Rivals ; Conclusion "A Great and Famous Superstructure" ; Abbreviations ; Glossary ; Notes ; Index

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Book SynopsisSchumpeter made his mark as the prophet of incessant change. Drawing on all of Schumpeter’s writings, including many intimate diaries and letters never before used, this biography paints the full portrait of a magnetic figure who aspired to become the world’s greatest economist, lover, and horseman—and admitted to failure only with the horses.Trade ReviewThis well-paced and beautifully written book explains not only Schumpeter's work but also the fast-changing phenomenon of modern capitalism. McCraw brings out Schumpeter's energy and charisma as well as the power of his ideas, quite skillfully linking the economist's colorful and adventurous personal life with the development of his views. This book is a fine tribute to a great thinker. -- Harold James, Princeton UniversityA welcome book—a truly penetrating biography of the most influential theorist of finance capitalism. -- Edmund S. Phelps, 2006 Nobel Laureate in EconomicsA most compelling portrait of a complex man who has had a profound influence on how we think about entrepreneurship. -- Amar Bhidé, Columbia University[Schumpeter's] private life was no less fascinating than his public message. In Prophet of Innovation, Thomas McCraw--emeritus professor of history at the Harvard Business School--artfully weaves the two together. -- Dan Seligman * Wall Street Journal *In this biography, Pulitzer Prize winner McCraw neatly divides his emphasis between Schumpeter's professional and personal life. He portrays his subject as a somewhat self-absorbed insatiable scholar not entirely comfortable with his contemporaries, which might explain marriages and affairs with much older and younger women, as well as his affinity with students and often-strained relations with colleagues of his own generation. McGraw lucidly addresses Schumpeter's economic theories through an examination of his letters, lectures, addresses, articles, and major works...[An] insightful and highly readable biography. -- Lawrence R. Maxted * Library Journal (starred review) *[A] persuasive and eloquent biography. -- Jay Hancock * Baltimore Sun *Much honored as an economic prophet, Joseph Schumpeter has had to wait half a century after his death for this splendid full-dress biography covering his ideas, life, and times...[This is] a fat, learned biography by Thomas McCraw, one of America's most respected business historians, the author of a Pulitzer prize-winning history of the rise of regulation. He has found the perfect subject in Schumpeter. He succeeds in getting inside the economist's head, explaining not just what he thought but why he thought it. Beyond this, he also succeeds in painting a portrait of his times. Fin de siècle Vienna, Weimar Germany, Harvard University before and after the first world war: all come to life on these pages. * The Economist *Prophet of Innovation: Joseph Schumpeter and Creative Destruction is a well-written and entrancing look at one of the twentieth century's most important economic and political thinkers. McCraw's book may rightly take its place as one of the two or three best biographies of an economist ever written...[It] is so splendid because it succeeds on so many different levels. If the book were simply an account of the Harvard economics department, it would stand as a lasting and significant contribution to the history of economic thought. Alternatively, it is one of the best treatments of what it was like for European intellectuals to migrate to the United States. Or are you interested in why Austria fell apart during the 1920s, and how someone with as little real world experience as Schumpeter became Minister of Finance? The book is also a love story, and an account of how a possibly dysfunctional man can nonetheless find romantic happiness after repeated failures and tragedies. Last but not least it is an intellectual history...Every year there are three or four non-fiction books that have to be read, and this is one of them. -- Tyler Cowen * American.com *McCraw...frames his narrative confidently and writes beautifully...Best of all, McCraw is an extremely good interpreter of Schumpeter's published work. -- David Warsh * economicprincipals.com *An extraordinary new biography. Prophet of Innovation by Thomas K. McCraw chronicles the life of one of the 20th century's most original and insightful scholars...Like his contemporary and frequent rival John Maynard Keynes, Schumpeter makes for a rich biographical subject. Keynes received the treatment he deserved from Lord Robert Skidelsky's magisterial multi-volume biography. McCraw's effort, similarly, is worthy of Schumpeter. -- Nick Schulz * National Review *McCraw's triumph is to tell...readers quite as much as we need to know about Schumpeter in a lucid and well-paced narrative, while also supplying, for more rigorous scholars, no fewer than two hundred pages of endnotes...McCraw successfully passes off the life of a professor of economics as a story that fully complements its undoubted intellectual significance with a tantalizing human interest. -- Peter Clarke * London Review of Books *McCraw doesn't get lost in the baroque details of Schumpeter's story--how many economists ever fought a duel?--or in the arcana of his theories, achieving a balance that his brilliant and restless subject rarely did in life. * New Yorker *A thinker as multifaceted as Schumpeter demands much of a biographer, and in Prophet of Innovation: Joseph Schumpeter and Creative Destruction, Thomas McCraw delivers...McCraw not only excels at conveying the innovation and excitement in Schumpeter's work, he keeps readers riveted to the story of the economist's life, and some of the twists are almost novelistic...[An] outstanding biography. -- Daniel McCarthy * American Conservative *It's no small feat to make a jaunty read out of the life of an economist dead more than 50 years, and Thomas K. McCraw has done just that in his impressive new biography of Joseph Schumpeter. -- Kevin R. Kosar * Weekly Standard *[Schumpeter] deserves more recognition and McCraw's book is to be welcomed on that account. -- Pat McArdle * Irish Times *Prophet of Innovation is an immensely entertaining read. -- Marisa Morrison * Washington Times *Although Schumpeter died in 1950, McCraw is right to insist that his contributions to our understanding of the economies in which we live are still vital today. -- Peter Timlin * Harvard Magazine *Books on the lives of the great economists might not, at first blush, set the blood coursing. Yet Robert Skidelsky's masterly three-volume biography of John Maynard Keynes proved how engrossing such a life could be. It is high praise to say that Thomas McCraw's biography of Joseph Schumpeter, Prophet of Innovation, has some of the same quality and appeal...McCraw, who has written the definitive biography of his subject, supplies many testimonials to Schumpeter's genius and influence from both his day and our own. -- Robin Blackburn * The Nation *[McCraw] has written an impressive and thoughtful biography of one of the most significant economists of the 20th century. Although widely regarded as a man of no small ego, Schumpeter can justifiably lay claim to effecting considerable scholarly debate in a wide range of academic backgrounds. Schumpeter’s analysis of economic development and business cycles, his notion of the process and significance of creative destruction, and his views on entrepreneurial activities continue to influence generations of economists and social scientists. McCraw’s thorough, insightful biography draws on an array of public and private papers to explain Schumpeter’s scholarly development and increasing sway, from his early years in Vienna to Bonn and later to his tenure at Harvard. This engaging scholarly work provides substance and context and is well worth a close read by both students and faculty. -- T.E. Sullivan * Choice *McCraw’s book on Schumpeter is an absorbing read, with short chapters, lots of personal detail and historical scene setting, and an important anti-Galbraithian economic theme. -- Deirdre McCloskey * Reason *An excellent, thorough and smoothly written biography of Joseph Schumpeter, the greatest economist of the 20th century. Too bad most politicos--and economists--don't fully grasp his insights. -- Steve Forbes * Forbes *Those seeking some escape from the deluge of "Keynes the Comeback Kid" will enjoy a refresher on that other brilliant economist of his generation, Joseph Schumpeter. Thomas K. McCraw's brilliant biography of the economist who best understood the turbulence of markets and "creative destruction" is all the more relevant as a credit crisis-induced recession unfolds. This biography is the clearest and most comprehensive guide to Schumpeter's life and work and the turbulence of his time which has, like the classic business cycle, come round again. -- Bill Jamieson * The Spectator *It's the lively and penetrating prose of the book itself that make its appearance in paperback a cause for rejoicing. Reading it is certainly time well-invested. -- Abraham Benrubi * openlettersmonthly.com *Although he died 60 years ago, Schumpeter's ideas about capitalism still resonate, including the belief that no business, no matter how successful, should assume it will be around forever. * Worth *As Thomas McCraw’s comprehensive and well-written biography convincingly shows, Schumpeter succeeded in becoming the ‘prophet of innovation’ by pioneering the vision of a superproductive world of continuing competitive struggle in a nexus of more or less open financial and economic markets. It’s never easy to make economics come alive on the page, particularly for readers not steeped in the discipline, but McCraw does his best to balance rigor and accessibility. He gives careful attention to the various elements of Schumpeter’s life, focusing, naturally, on his work… McCraw’s biography is a major step toward Schumpeter’s restoration in the pantheon of modern economists. -- Victor Zarnowitz * Conference Board Review *Table of Contents* Preface * Part I: L'Enfant Terrible, 1883--1926: Innovation and Economics * Prologue: Who He Was and What He Did *1. Leaving Home *2. Shaping His Character *3. Learning Economics *4. Moving Out *5. Career Takeoff *6. War and Politics *7. Gran Rifiuto *8. Annie *9. Heartbreak * Part II: The Adult, 1926--1939: Capitalism and Society * Prologue: What He Had Learned *10. New Intellectual Directions *11. Policy and Entrepreneurship *12. Between Two Worlds *13. Harvard *14. Suffering and Solace * Part III: The Sage, 1939--1950: Innovation, Capitalism, and History * Prologue: How and Why He Embraced History *15. Business Cycles, Business History *16. Letters from Europe *17. To Leave Harvard? *18. Against the Grain *19. The Courage of Her Convictions *20. Alienation *21. Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy *22. War and Perplexity *23. Introspection *24. Honors and Resurgence *25. Toward the Mixed Economy *26. History of Economic Analysis *27. A Principle of Indeterminateness *28. L'Envoi * Epilogue: The Legacy * Notes * Acknowledgments * Illustration Credits * Index

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Book SynopsisHow top traders made huge profits during the most momentous market events of the past century Financial and commodity markets are characterized by periodic crashes and upside explosions. In retrospect, the reasons behind these abrupt movements often seem very clear, but generally few people understand what''s happening at the time. Top traders and investors like George Soros or Jesse Livermore have stood apart from the crowd and capitalized on their unique insights to capture huge profits. Engaging and informative, The Greatest Trades of All Time chronicles how a select few traders anticipated market eruptions?from the 1929 stock market crash to the 2008 subprime mortgage meltdown?and positioned themselves to excel while a majority of others failed. Along the way, author Vincent Veneziani describes the economic and financial forces that led to each market cataclysm and how theseindividuals perceived what was happening beforehand and why they decided to place big bets, Table of ContentsAcknowledgments xiii About the Author xv Introduction xvii Chapter 1 J. Kyle Bass: Timing is Everything 1 The Back Story 1 A Few Definitions 2 Bass Asks Why 4 Learning from the Past 6 Shorting Subprime Loans 7 The Best Position 8 The Effects of Abuse 11 Who Was Watching? 13 Re-creating Bass’s Trading Strategies 17 Bass’s Top Traits 17 Chapter 2 James Chanos: The Real King of Enron 21 Enter Enron 21 Really Looking at Enron 23 The Best Position 26 Recreating Chanos’s Trading Strategies 28 A More Recent Example 28 Chanos’s Top Traits 30 Chapter 3 Paul Tudor Jones II: Legendary Global Macro Trader 31 Following a Genius 31 The Path of Greatness 32 Starting Out 33 Knowing All the Markets 35 Global Macro Trading 36 Elliot Wave Theory 38 More Keys to Jones’s Success 40 Success beyond Trading 43 Recreating Jones’s Trading Strategies 43 Jones’s Top Traits 44 Chapter 4 John Templeton: Legendary Mutual Fund Manager 47 What Made Templeton Famous 47 Templeton’s Life before Investing 49 Educational Aspirations 50 The Married Life 52 Templeton’s Big Move 53 Back to New York 54 Looking to the Future, and the Templeton Growth Fund 55 Templeton’s Second Marriage and Fund 56 The Bahamas 57 Recreating Templeton’s Trading Strategies 58 Templeton’s Top Traits 59 Chapter 5 Jesse Livermore: Legendary Speculator 61 Livermore’s History 61 At Home in New York 63 Fame and Fortune 63 The Panic of 1907 64 The Crash of 1929 65 Livermore’s Tragic End 66 An Example of Livermore’s Influence Today 68 Recreating Livermore’s Trading Strategies 69 Livermore’s Top Traits 69 Chapter 6 John Paulson: The Greatest Trade of All Time 73 Paulson’s Early Career 73 Paulson & Co. 74 The Greatest Trade 74 Recreating Paulson’s Trading Strategies 79 Paulson’s Top Traits 81 Chapter 7 George Soros: From Humble Beginnings to World Trader 83 Soros’s Famous Trades 84 The Hardships of a Trading Genius 87 Going to School in London 88 Work in New York 90 Joining the Big Leagues 91 Finding Himself 93 Crashing from Success 95 A New Protégé 97 Onto the World Stage 98 The Backlash 100 A Conflicted Mind 101 A New Era 101 Recreating Soros’s Trading Strategies 102 Soros’s Top Traits 103 Chapter 8 David Einhorn: A Company’s Worst Nightmare 105 Allied is Not an Ally 105 Lucky Lehman 108 The Great Beyond 110 Recreating Einhorn’s Trading Strategies 111 Einhorn’s Top Traits 112 Chapter 9 Martin Schwartz: From Amateur to Superstar 115 Start Small, Go Big 115 Trading Like a Rock Star 117 Winding Down 118 Recreating Schwartz’s Trading Strategies 120 Schwartz’s Top Traits 121 Chapter 10 John Arnold: Master of Energy 123 Success at Enron 123 Centaurus Energy 124 The Explosion 126 Recreating Arnold’s Trading Strategies 127 Crude Oil 127 Natural Gas 128 Arnold’s Top Traits 130 Chapter 11 More Great Trades: Phillip Falcone, David Tepper, Andrew Hall, Greg Lippmann 131 Phillip Falcone 131 Recreating Falcone’s Trading Strategies 134 David Tepper 135 Recreating Tepper’s Trading Strategies 136 Andrew Hall 138 Recreating Hall’s Trading Strategies 139 Greg Lippmann 141 Recreating Lippmann’s Trading Strategies 143 In Summary 144 Notes 147 Glossary 149 References 151 Helpful Web Sites 157 Index 161

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Book SynopsisFrom colonial history to the present, Americans have passionately, even violently, debated the nature and the character of money. The author provides a deep history and a penetrating analysis of American thinking about money and the ways that this ambivalence unexpectedly intertwines with race.Trade Review"Michael O'Malley's new book is a magnificent piece of scholarship on a topic that is at once timely and surprising. He shows our twin national obsessions - money and race - dancing together across economic policy reports, the pages of literary fiction, the stage, the screen, and the airwaves. I recommend this book wholeheartedly." (Benjamin Reiss, Emory University)"

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisIn the 1840s, La Crosse, Wisconsin, was barely more than a trading post nestled on the banks of the Mississippi River. But by 1900 the sleepy frontier town had become a thriving city. Hinterland Dreams tracks the growth of this community and shows that government institutions and policies were as important as landscapes and urban boosters in determining the small Midwestern city''s success. The businessmen and -women of La Crosse worked hard to attract government support during the nineteenth century. Federal, state, and municipal officials passed laws, issued rulings, provided resources, vested aldermen with financial and regulatory power, and created a lasting legal foundation that transformed the city and its economy. As historian Eric J. Morser demonstrates, the development of La Crosse and other small cities linked rural people to the wider world and provided large cities like Chicago with the lumber and other raw materials needed to grow even larger. He emphasizes the rTrade Review"An enjoyable and innovative look into the forging of American individualism and exceptionalism." * Urban History *"From the perspective of a small city in the Midwest, Morser impressively contributes to our understanding of how the 'hinterland dreams' of a small city could affect regional development." * Journal of American History *"Good history occasionally intersects with good storytelling to create a remarkable result. This book is one such happy achievement. . . . Fascinating . . . Highly recommended." * Choice *"Hinterland Dreams is a clearly written, well organized, and thoroughly researched work. Urban history has focused on the giants like Chicago. Smaller cities have largely been neglected until now. By examining La Crosse, Wisconsin, Morser breaks new ground and offers a needed reminder of the importance of government in urban development." * Jon C. Teaford, Purdue University *Table of ContentsPrologue: Professor Turner's Audience Part I. Paving the Way Chapter One. Red Bird's Tale Chapter Two. A Story of Settlement Chapter Three. Politics and Pine Part II. Boosting Municipal Power Chapter Four. Iron Tracks to the City Chapter Five. "The Most Necessary Reformes" Part III. New Economic Voices Chapter Six. From White Beaver to Working Man Chapter Seven. Fredericka's World Conclusion. "A City of Bustling Trade" Notes Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisFor the appendixes mentioned in the book, Click Here.In this innovative and ambitious global history, distinguished economic historian Amiya Kumar Bagchi critically analyzes the processes leading to the rise of the West since the sixteenth century to its current position as the most prosperous and powerful group of nations in the world. Integrating the history of armed conflict with the history of competition for trade, investment, and markets, Bagchi explores the human consequences for people both within and outside the region. He characterizes the emergence and operation of capitalism as a system driven by wars over resources and markets rather than one that genuinely operates on the principle of free markets. In tracing this history, he also charts what happened to the people who came under its sway during the last five centuries. Bagchi thus broadens our understanding of the nature and history of capitalism and challenges the fetishism of commodities that limits the perspective of most economic historians. The book also challenges the Eurocentrism that still underlies the conceptual framework of many mainstream historians, joining earlier narratives that chronicle the history of human beings as living persons rather than as puppets serving the abstract cause of economic growth. His unflinching examination of the human costs of developmentnot only in the colonial periphery but in the core nationsincludes not only economic processes and issues of inequality within and among nations but also the intertwining of economics and war-making on a world scale. The book also contributes to our knowledge of how and in what sequence human health has been shaped by public health care, sanitation, modern medicine, income levels and nutrition. Written with extraordinary range and depth, Perilous Passage will change the ways in which we think about many of the largest issues in world history and development.Trade ReviewA good deal that we have seen before is still or again relevant to today's global capitalism, and Bagchi usefully reminds us of how many of these parallels are harrowing rather than hopeful; one hopes this book will reach the people who believe the stories Bagchi debunks and enrich a vital set of debates. -- Kenneth L. Pomeranz, University of Chicago * Economic and Political Weekly *Explores the numerous ways the armed ascendancy of European capital has impacted the human development of the nonwhite dependencies of Europe and the Europeans themselves. Discusses human development and capitalist growth; capitalist competition and human development in Europe; the world beyond Europe in the age of the emergence of European dominance; and the antisystemic struggles, wars, and challenges to global capital. * Journal of Economic Literature *This stimulating synthesis . . . has an excellent bibliography, incorporates recent specialist work in global economic history, and is genuinely erudite. A valuable reference for all world historians . . . Highly recommended. * CHOICE *A hard-headed examination in facts and figures of how capitalism has insidiously but inexorably destroyed human happiness and ravaged our ecological system. . . . A compelling and thoughtful account with the lucidity of argument of someone compressing the essence of a lifetime's research into a philosophical framework. * The Statesman *Magisterial. . . . [Bagchi] presents a comprehensive comparative picture of the historical economic development of China, India, and Japan, and their relation to what happened in Europe and North America. It is hard to suggest another work that does this in as small a space, so clearly, and based on such extensive acquaintance with the empirical literature. . . . It is refreshing to have Bagchi’s voice added to the rather small list of important works on the origins and development of the modern world. . . . One can only hope that the book will have a wide international reading public. -- Immanuel Wallerstein, Fernand Braudel Center, Yale University * Monthly Review *Bagchi has written a great book, a history of human development as he calls it, which offers a fascinating account of global capitalism as it evolved over a period of four centuries. . . . Writing a 'grand history' as Bagchi has done will inevitably create controversy . . . but this does not in any way diminish the significance of this monumental history of the human costs of economic growth. * Development and Change *An ambitious work that essays to rethink the extent to which the transition to capitalism did not accomplish significant human development until well into the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. . . . Bagchi's 'human development' frame is one that stimulates and appropriately outrages. * Journal of World History *An impressive book that, in the tradition of world systems analysis and dependency theory, challenges Eurocentric understandings of capitalism. . . . This book makes an important contribution to that struggle. * Science & Society *[Bagchi] challenges Eurocentric views on the rise of capitalism and argues that Europeans gained a decisive advantage over China and India thanks only to the maturing of the machine-based Industrial Revolution in the nineteenth century. * International Review Of Social History *Amiya Kumar Bagchi's Perilous Passage is a book that deserves our attention in this historical moment. It is born of our moment and offers us crucial intellectual resources in our attempts to understand the beast we must confront. Perilous Passage is a global history and in many respects perhaps one of the first truly global histories of our epoch to appear. . . . Bagchi's Perilous Passage is a weapon in the intellectual arsenal of social justice activists everywhere. . . . Perilous Passage may contribute to the development of a newer kind of understanding that will allow us to begin undoing the layers of injustice, ecological destruction, and human immiseration such ascendancy has created. * Labour *A combative and spirited book telling the story of the economic emergence of the contemporary world in a radically different way from the standard accounts. It will not end debates, but begin them in a robust way, which surely is the function of fine 'alternative history.' -- Amartya Sen, Harvard UniversityTable of ContentsPart I: Conceptual Issues: Human Development and Capitalist Growth Chapter 1: The History of Human Development as the Subject of History Chapter 2: The Construction of the European Miracle Chapter 3: Profit Seeking under Actually Existing Capitalism and Human Development Part II: Capitalist Competition and Human Development in Europe Chapter 4: Combat for Dominance Among the Western European Countries Since the Sixteenth Century Chapter 5: Population Growth and Mortality Between the Sixteenth and Nineteenth Centuries: A First Look Chapter 6: The Netherlands: Rise and Fall of a Hegemonic Power Chapter 7: The Delayed Transition of Europe and North America to a Low-Mortality Regime Chapter 8: Literacy in Western Europe Since the Sixteenth Century Part III: Non-European Peoples in the Age of Emergence of European Dominance Chapter 9: Economic Development and the Quality of Life in China Between the Sixteenth and Eighteenth Centuries Chapter 10: India under Mughal Rule and After Chapter 11: Conducting Trade in Asia Before and After the European Advent Chapter 12: Reconsidering Japanese Exceptionalism Chapter 13: Capitalist Competition, Colonialism, and the Physical Well-Being of Non-European Peoples Chapter 14: The Civilizing Mission and Racialization: From the Native Americans to the Asians Chapter 15: The Civilizing Mission in Lands Taken by the European Settlers from the Original Inhabitants Chapter 16: Intercontinental Resource Flows Sustaining the Ascent of the European Powers Chapter 17: Colonial Tribute and Profits, 1870s Onward Chapter 18: Demographic Disasters in the Colonies and Semi-Colonies in the High Noon of European Colonialism Part IV: The Twentieth Century: Anti-Systematic Struggles, Wars, and Challenges to Global Capital Chapter 19: Setting the Stage for Megawars Chapter 20: Revolution, Nazism, Japanese Militarism and the Second World War Chapter 21: Imperialism and Wars in the Late Twentieth Century Chapter 22: Capitalism and Uneven Development in the Twentieth Century Chapter 23: Destruction and Renewal in the Global Order of Imperialism and Neoliberalism Chapter 24: Contradictions, Challenges, and Resistance

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewWinner of the 2016 Douglass C. North Research Award, Society for Institutional and Organizational Economics (SIOE) Shortlisted for the 2016 Ralph Waldo Emerson Award, Phi Beta Kappa Society One of Flavorwire's 10 Must-Read Academic Books for 2015 One of HistoryBuff.com's 10 Can't-Miss History Books of 2015 "Superb."--Armand Marie Leroi, New York Times "In the late fourth century B.C., Aristotle and his students collected the constitutions of more than 150 [...] city-states. The scholar who would today follow in Aristotle's footsteps has to deal with a far more formidable mass of data. Few of today's scholars control more of this data, or write about it more insightfully, than Josiah Ober. [T]hose willing to put in the effort will learn much from the deep meditations of an expert historian and political philosopher."--James Romm, Wall Street Journal "[T]his could turn out to be Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire for classical Greece."--Jonathan Sturgeon, Flavorwire "Ober marshals a wealth of new data to make the case for a much different view of Greek history ... there was something distinct about the Greek world, he argues. What set the Greeks apart, he says, was their choice of a particular kind of order--and the cultural attitudes that went with it. Citizen self-government. Equality of standing among persons. Fair and open institutions. These ideas, unusual in history, were well developed in the Greek world, Ober notes. If we care about them, he says, we should pay attention."--Marc Parry, Chronicle of Higher Education "[Ober's] central argument is that the achievements of Greek civilization were rooted in its prosperity, and that was the result of a rough economic and political equality... [He] ranges over a half millennium of Greek history, from the 8th to the 3rd centuries BCE, seeking the roots of Greek "efflorescence"--its material and cultural flourishing... [The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece] is rife with parallels to the present."--Brian Bethune, Macleans "An attractive, informative, and timely picture of Greece from Homer to Aristotle... It's an absorbing story full of excitement, drama and hope."--Evaggelos Valiantos, Huffington Post "A sharp and insightful economic history."--Daisy Dunn, History Today [The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece] is by far [Ober's] most ambitious work to date, a magisterial tour of the successes and failures of various city-states throughout the Greek world from the archaic through the Hellenistic periods... The thrust of the book is not just provocative but persuasive."--Adriaan Lanni, The New Rambler "This book is a groundbreaking examination of what Ober (political science, Stanford) calls the 'efflorescence' of ancient Greece, which, divided into some 1,100 city-states as it was, developed a unified, dominant culture."--Choice "His narrative history of Greek efflorescence is engaging and full of insights."--Richard Seaford, Literary Review "A thought-provoking book with great depth. As the great political theorists of the modern era have always known, the ancient Greek experience provides immense empirical material to mine for insights into political science: how we design rules of politics to secure human freedom and well-being. We ignore the experience of classical civilization to our own disadvantage."--Jason Sorens, The American Conservative "This challenging book is like no other history of the ancient world... [Ober] produces some engaging and striking analyses of familiar historical episodes."--American Historical Review "Intriguing... [Y]ou can think of this book as how an economist might think about ancient Greece."--Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution "[Ober's] work will be of interest to anyone who is serious about the history of political economy, or who wants to know more about the relationship between democracy, economic growth, and human flourishing, whether in the ancient or modern world... The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece ... will richly reward a serious lay reader. One of its most appealing qualities is its multidisciplinary approach, which is the fruit of Ober's extensive and generously acknowledged collaboration with scholars from around the world as well as with his Stanford colleagues in a number of fields, including the sciences. In this respect, it points in a direction that future humanities scholars will need to go if they, too, wish to flourish."--David Wharton, Weekly Standard "A fresh and vigorous account about the roots of democracy."--Brian A. Pavlac, Canadian Journal of HistoryTable of ContentsList of Images and Tables xi Preface xiii Acknowledgments xxi Abbreviations xxv 1 The Efflorescence of Classical Greece 1 2 Ants around a Pond: An Ecology of City-States 21 3 Political Animals: A Theory of Decentralized Cooperation 45 4 Wealthy Hellas: Measuring Efflorescence 71 5 Explaining Hellas' Wealth: Fair Rules and Competition 101 6 Citizens and Specialization before 550 BCE 123 7 From Tyranny to Democracy, 550-465 BCE 157 8 Golden Age of Empire, 478-404 BCE 191 9 Disorder and Growth, 403-340 BCE 223 10 Political Fall, 359-334 BCE 261 11 Creative Destruction and Immortality 293 Appendix I: Regions of the Greek World: Population, Size, Fame 317 Appendix II: King, City, and Elite Game, Josiah Ober and Barry Weingast 321 Notes 329 Bibliography 367 Index 401

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Book SynopsisWhat can we learn from East Asian and European countries that have fostered enduring cultures of thrift over the past two centuries? This title tells how other nations aggressively encouraged their citizens to save by means of special savings institutions and savings campaigns.Trade Review"Garon makes a powerful case that savings isn't about culture. It's policy... You'll think about savings policies differently after [you] pick up a copy of Beyond Our Means."--Christopher Farrell, economics editor of Marketplace Money "Professor Garon offers brilliant scholarship, engaging reading, and some practical insights for dealing with our current financial crisis worldwide. An insightful and provocative book that ... will be a unique and important volume for historians, policymakers, and the general public."--Claude Ury, San Francisco Book Review "How the Anglo-world came to live 'beyond their means ... while the world saves' is the big question of Sheldon Garon's fascinating book. It could not be more timely. Readers who worry that it might be too technical, do not fear. This is a history of flesh and blood, as Garon reclaims the topic from the economists. Facts and figures are surrounded by real people and rich illustrations that convey how passionate societies came to be about saving. Postal saving has never been so sexy."--Frank Trentmann, BBC History Magazine "Garon's policy recommendations could help shift the national trend towards saving more and position Americans towards greater financial health."--Worth "[O]ne of the world's leading authorities on the history of saving."--Joshua Rothman, Boston Globe "[A] fascinating new book... Garon believes the tide can turn, and offers some levelheaded policy suggestions for how America can restore a lasting balance between spending and saving."--Larry Cox, King Features Weekly Service "[A] very important book for critics of capitalism... Garon explains in an ambitious book that roams across centuries and continents ... why much of Europe and Asia embraced, and stuck with, a savings culture while the US first adopted and then abandoned one. It's intriguing social history."--Stephen Matchett, Australian "Garon's story is interesting and informative when focused on the history of small saving and is a recommended read."--Thomas F. Cargill, Pacific Affairs "This book is a model for how historians might re-engage with matters of economy and business using the insights and tools developed during the cultural turn."--American Historical Review "This book is a model for how historians might re-engage with matters of economy and business using the insights and tools developed during the cultural turn."--Kenneth Lipartito, American Historical Review "Garon has provided an account that shows, as with the study of consumption, the limitations of economic understandings of this routine aspect of human behaviour. It is doubtful that there will now be a scholarly turn to savings on a level equal to the outpouring of work on consumer society that has occurred over the last thirty years. But should there be so, then Beyond Our Means would be an excellent place to start."--Matthew Hilton, Social History "Transnational history at its most compelling, Beyond Our Means reveals why some nations save so much and others so little."--World Book Industry "Beyond Our Means is a big book that is very engagingly written, and it deserves a wide general readership. It concerns modern international history in general, though it grows out of work in Japanese history... The kind of constructive reaching out to wider audiences shown in this book is a model for scholars in the various fields of Japan studies."--Mark Metzler, Journal of Japanese Studies "[A] historian of modern Japan, driven by his concerns for America's financial future, has devoted years of research to writing a global history of saving, and he has produced a superb book... [A] timely history book of great contemporary relevance [that] has already embarked on a journey in new directions for public policy and global historical studies."--Elya J. Zhang, Reviews in American HistoryTable of ContentsIntroduction 1 Chapter 1: The Origins of Saving in the Western World 17 Chapter 2: Organizing Thrift in the Age of Nation-States 48 Chapter 3: America the Exceptional 84 Chapter 4: Japanese Traditions of Diligence and Thrift 120 Chapter 5: Saving for the New Japan 143 Chapter 6: Mobilizing for the Great War 168 Chapter 7: Save Now, Buy Later: World War II and Beyond 194 Chapter 8: "Luxury is the Enemy": Japan in Peace and War 221 Chapter 9: Postwar Japan's National Salvation 255 Chapter 10. Exporting Thrift, or the Myth of "Asian Values" 292 Chapter 11. "There IS Money. Spend It": America since 1945 317 Chapter 12. Keep on Saving? Questions for the Twenty-fi rst Century 356 Acknowledgments 377 Appendix 381 Abbreviations 383 Notes 385 Selected Bibliography 435 Index 449

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Book SynopsisShows that changes in the intellectual and social environment and the institutional background in which knowledge was generated and disseminated brought about the Industrial Revolution, followed by sustained economic growth and continuing technological change.Trade ReviewOne of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2003 Winner of the 2003 Don K. Price Award "For most economists, Mr. Mokyr included, the Industrial Revolution is categorically different from everything that preceded it... [He] suggests that, over time, growth will win out, if only because the power of certain ideas is greater than the resistance to them. So much the better."--Nic Schulz, Wall Street Journal "[A] masterful addition to literatures of economic history and economic growth. The product of a lifetime of scholarly study and reflection, Mokyr's book plainly did not spring full-blown from the head of Zeus. It merits a wide readership."--William F. Shughart II, EH.Net "The Gifts of Athena is an impressive study that clearly reveals Mokyr's mastery of a large literature on industrialization and economic growth... Joel Mokyr has long concerned himself with big questions and making connections that delineate historical processes in new and interesting ways. The Gifts of Athena with its special emphasis on the centrality of the 'knowledge economy,' amply testifies to his stature as a leading historian of the Industrial Revolution."--Merritt Roe Smith, Isis "[A] fascinating, magisterial investigation into the wellsprings of modern economic growth and improved living standards... The Gifts of Athena is a big-idea history book, a complex tale that interweaves science, technology, economics, sociology, and political science... This is one that will stand the test of time."--Christopher Farrell, Business Week "Mokyr argues that knowledge is the key to understanding many of the most important developments in the past two centuries. The book is impressively wide ranging in its scope, containing a vast array of information and ideas... I would hesitate to say the Mokyr has solved the problems of why the industrial revolution happened, but he would appear to have advanced the story a long way. This book is a fascinating integration of intellectual and economic history"--Roger E. Backhouse, American Historical Review "Situated firmly at the intersection of several disciplines--the history of science and technology, economic history, and economics--this fascinating and stimulating book explores the relationships among the expansion of knowledge, technological change, and economic growth since the 18th century."--Choice "Joel Mokyr, as one of the most important economic historians of our time, has written an instructive book about the knowledge-based origins of the rise and the future persistence of the Western World... This book should be read not only by scholars, but also by politicians!"--Helmut Braun, Journal of European Economic HistoryTable of ContentsPreface xi Chapter 1: Technology and the Problem of Human Knowledge 1 Chapter 2: The Industrial Enlightenment: The Taproot of Economic Progress 28 Chapter 3: the Industrial Revolution and Beyond 78 Chapter 4: Technology and the Factory System 119 Chapter 5: Knowledge, Health, and th Household 163 Chapter 6: the Political Economy of Knowledge: Innovation and Resistance in Economic History 218 Chapter 7: Institutions, Knowledge, and Economic Growth 284 References 299 Index 339

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Book SynopsisBy helping readers understand the financial history of this period and the way banking shaped the society in which ordinary Americans lived and worked, this book broadens and deepens our knowledge of the Early American Republic.Trade ReviewThis is a brisk, well-researched tour of how the American finance and banking sector got its start.—Financial HistoryMurphy has provided what should be the go-to source for anyone looking to understand the differences among savings banks, investment banks, and commercial banks in pre-Civil War America; to know what it meant for banks to provide discounts on commercial paper; and to know what terms like fractional reserve, independent treasury, bimetallism, shinplasters, wildcat banks, and bills of exchange meant.—Civil War Book ReviewMurphy has written what this financial historian considers a sound and reliable introductory or companion text to early American banking that is both engaging and easy-to-read, and at the same time broadly consistent with recent economic research on the topics covered.—EH.netIt [Other People's Money] does much to further our understanding of an important feature of international capital markets, and it raises crucial policy issues.—EH.NetThe strengths of this work are numerous. In addition to narrating some intriguing vignettes on Abigail Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Herman Melville, this book contains a fascinating array of cartoons and images of credit instruments, many of which are drawn from the author’s extensive personal collection. Murphy’s writing is also straightforward; her analysis, insightful.—Common-PlaceI recommend Other People’s Money highly to anyone seeking a brief but accurate introduction to this fascinating era in banking and monetary history.—Business History ReviewOther People’s Money is a beautifully written book on “how banking worked in the early American Republic.” Part of Johns Hopkins University Press’s How Things Worked series, the target audience for this book is undergraduates studying U.S. history or economic history. The book condenses a large literature from American history and economic history as well as contemporary material from periodicals and novels into an interdisciplinary narrative of the political battles over money and banking from the early Republic to the Civil War. Murphy’s book shows that the politics of money shaped how money worked.—Jane Knodell, University of Vermont, Enterprise and SocietyIt is difficult to overstate the quality of Murphy's work. Other People's Money is an outstanding contribution that brilliantly accomplishes the herculean task of digesting the complexities of banking in the early republic. Moreover, Murphy manages to convey these points clearly in immensely readable prose. Helpful for both the layperson and the scholar, this book deserves a place on syllabi and the bookshelves of anyone with an interest in capitalism during this period. Murphy reminds the reader that the story of American banking has a long and complex history, and this erudite study does an excellent job of explaining that complexity in accessible terms.—Aaron L. Chin, University of New Hampshire, American Nineteenth Century HistoryThe real strength of Other People's Money can be found in its clear explanation of early American banking. Murphy makes a complex topic simple, but her treatment is anything but simplistic . . . Because of the book's engaging and lively discussions, I suspect that if it is assigned in classrooms Other People's Money will inspire more than a few students to dive more deeply into the complex and fascinating world of early American banking history.—Andrew J. B. Fagal, Princeton University, Journal of American HistoryTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsPrologue. How the Bank War Worked1. How Money Worked2. How Banks Worked3. How Panics Worked4. Experiments in Money and Banking5. How Civil War Finance WorkedConclusion. Andrew Jackson, Other People's Money, and the Creation of the Federal ReserveEpilogue. Why Is Andrew Jackson Harriet Tubman on the $20 Bill?NotesSuggested Further ReadingIndex

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisA sweeping history of early American trade and the foundation of the American economyTrade ReviewRecipient of The Society of Colonial Wars in the State of New York’s 69th Annual Distinguished Book Award“Thomas Truxes demonstrates that trade was the essential element in the success of Britain’s American colonies—and of their revolution. He weaves together contemporary opinion and modern analysis in highly readable prose, always with the telling detail.”—Karen Ordahl Kupperman, author of Pocahontas and the English Boys“A dazzling tour de force of erudition and empirical heft. This is an indispensable and extraordinary work, immediately the authority in the field.”—Trevor Burnard, University of Hull“We could have no better guide than Truxes explaining incisively how American colonial merchants enriched their communities through licit and illicit trade, and how this enrichment was the product of slavery and the slave trade.”—Nicholas Canny, author of Imagining Ireland’s Pasts“Sailing across four centuries and comprehending multiple perspectives, Thomas Truxes offers us a fascinating new understanding of a complex development that subjugated black laborers, strengthened white enterprisers and inhabitants, and ultimately facilitated an uneasy independence.”—David Hancock, University of Michigan

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"A well-written, scholarly dissection that should be required reading for all graduate courses (and perhaps some advanced undergraduate) in macroeconomics or monetary economics." * Choice *"With lucid precision, Mehrling traces the history of how Fed policy makers became biased toward 'excessive elasticity'. . . . Mehrling saves the best for the end, where he describes the Fed's battle to save the system with an alphabet soup of lending programs."---James Pressley, Bloomberg News"An important book about the new Fed."---Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution"In The New Lombard Street, Perry Mehrling . . . provides a lucid account of how the system worked when it was working—and of the growing role assumed by the Fed in an era of global economic volatility and 'credit-fueled bubbles.'"---Glenn C. Altschuler, Tulsa World"[A] fantastic book."---Rortybomb, Mike Konczal blog"Important. . . . Mehrling's new book tries to do just what Bagehot did: to give an account both of how and why the Fed acted when it reinvented the rules in the middle of a financial crisis, and of what the implications for future monetary policy will be."---Harold James, Central Banking Journal"This is an excellent and accessible analysis for anyone wishing to understand the origins of the financial crisis and how the Fed came to respond as it did."---Larry Hatheway, Business Economist"The book can be read as an important contribution in the ongoing debate on the future of central banks. In terms of monetary policy thinking, this book is another contribution to the increasing awareness that central banks, perhaps lured by seeming success of inflation targeting, in the years before 2008 did not manage to strike the right balance between monetary and financial stability."---Lars Fredrik Øksendal, Enterprise & Society

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Book SynopsisAn account of the golden trade of the Moors, and a source book on Saharan trade routes, caravan organization and Sudanese history. The author covers anthropology and economic geography as well as history, as he examines and explores the hot little towns, sharp traders and the brutal rulers. He seeks to encourage and inspire a generation of scholars to discover more about parts of Africa still surprisingly little known to the outside world.

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Book SynopsisThis book attempts to make accessible to students, scholars, and the lay public annotated, up-to-date information regarding the major coinages of the Greco-Roman world. An international group of experts has been asked to treat their areas of expertise, and the result is a broadly illustrated introduction to the subject.Trade Review"As Metcalf notes (xvii), it is over 100 years since the last single volume guide to Greek coinage was produced, and there has never been an equivalent work for Rome. This new handbook is, therefore, long overdue and hugely welcome. All involved are to be congratulated and, while in a project as broad as this there are inevitably some omissions, we now have something where there was nothing, and for that we should be very gratefulEL. It is much to be hoped that students of the history of all periods will find their way to this rich new resource." --Andrew Meadows, Bryn Mawr Classical Review "This book represents an unprecedented innovation in numismatic literature and is becoming widely regarded as the best introduction to classical ancient coins. It is far more than a guide written solely for collectors. Instead, it was written to serve also as an introduction for graduate or post-doctoral students in the ancient cultures who seek training in classical numismatics. As a work in the renowned Oxford Handbooks series, this volume was written to offer an authoritative and annotated state-of-the-art survey of current thinking and research in the subject area. However, it is just that focus that makes it such a valuable text for serious collectors of ancient coins." -- Roger Kuntz, Rochester Numismatic AssociationTable of ContentsPreface ; Abbreviations ; Introduction, William E. Metcalf ; 1. The Substance of Coinage: The Role of Scientific Analysis in Ancient Numismatics, Matthew Ponting ; Archaic and Classical Greek Coinage ; 2. The Monetary Background of Early Coinage, John H. Kroll ; 3. Asia Minor to the Ionian Revolt, Koray Konuk ; 4. The Coinage of the Persian Empire, Michael Alram ; 5. The Coinage of Athens, 6th - 1st century B.C., Peter van Alfen ; 6. Aegina, the Cyclades and Crete, Kenneth Sheedy ; 7. The Coinage of Italy, N. K. Rutter ; 8. The Coinage of Sicily, Wolfgang Fischer-Bossert ; 9. Greece and the Balkans to 360 B.C., Selene Psoma ; The Hellenistic World ; 10. Royal Hellenistic Coinages from Alexander to Mithridates, Francois de Callatay ; 11. The Hellenistic World: The Cities of Mainland Greece and Asia Minor, Richard Ashton ; 12. The Coinage of the Ptolemies, Catharine C. Lorber ; 13. The Seleucids, Arthur Houghton ; 14. Greek Coinages of Palestine, Oren Tal ; 15. The Coinage of the Parthians, Fabrizio Sinisi ; The Roman World ; 16. Early Roman Coinage and its Italian Context, Andrew Burnett ; 17. The Denarius Coinage of the Roman Republic, Bernhard E. Woytek ; 18. The Julio-Claudians, Rienhold Wolters ; 19. Ancient Spain, Pere P. Ripolles ; 20. Flavian Coinage, Ian Carradice ; 21. The Coinage of the Provinces through Hadrian, Michel Amandry ; 22. Trajan and Hadrian, Martin Beckmann ; 23. Antonine Coinage, Liv Mariah Yarrow ; 24. The Provinces after Commodus, RAnn Johnston ; 25. Syria in the Roman Period, 64 B.C. - A.D. 260, Kevin Butcher ; 26. Roman Coinages of Palestine, Haim Gitler ; 27. The Severans, Richard Abdy ; 28. From Gordian III to the Gallic Empire (A.D. 238-74), Roger Bland ; 29. The Later Third Century, Sylviane Estiot ; 30. The Coinage of Roman Egypt, Angelo Geissen ; 31. Tetrarchy and the House of Constantine, Richard Abdy ; 32. The Coinage of the Later Roman Empire, A.D. 364-498, Sam Moorhead ; 33. The Transformation of the West, Alan M. Stahl ; Appendix 1: Marks of value on later Roman coins, Roger Bland ; Appendix 2: The earliest Christian symbols on Roman coins, Richard Abdy ; Indices ; a. Mints ; b. Persons ; c. General

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Book SynopsisTimely, compelling, and certain to be controversiala deeply researched study that reveals how companies and policy makers are hindering innovation-led growth Conventional wisdom holds that Western economies are on the threshold of fast-and-furious technological development. Fredrik Erixon and Bjorn Weigel refute this idea, bringing together a vast array of data and case studies to tell a very different story. With expertise spanning academia and the business world, Erixon and Weigel illustrate how innovation is being hampered by existing government regulations and corporate practices. Capitalism, they argue, has lost its mojo. Assessing the experiences of global companies, including Nokia, Uber, IBM, and Apple, the authors explore three key themes: declining economic dynamism in Western economies; growing corporate reluctance to contest markets and innovate; and excessive regulation limiting the diffusion of innovation. At a time of low growth, high unemployment, and increasing income inequality, innovation-led growth is more necessary than ever. This book unequivocally details the obstacles hindering our future prosperity.Trade Review"Fredrik Erixon and Björn Weigel make a thought-provoking and refreshingly non-ideological argument that a bleak future lies ahead unless capitalism undergoes a shake-up."—Matthew Rees, Wall Street Journal"Erixon and Weigel know how to make their case seductive and entertaining. They describe the four horsemen of capitalist decline riding down innovation before it has any chance of reaching the wider world . . . liberally sprinkled with colourful examples . . . nourished with statistics. . . . The book is eloquent in laying out its thesis."—Peggy Hollinger, Financial Times"Faceless owners, risk-averse managers, globalisers and regulators are the villains of this book that challenges the idea that we are in an age of endless innovation. On the contrary, the authors point out, many innovations are more fun than fundamental."—Andrew Hill, "Best Books of 2016: Business," Financial Times"For a serious book of its kind on economics, one that attempts to bridge the divide between think-tank land and the general reader, The Innovation Illusion is unusually clear and leavened with popular culture references. The Smiths and James Joyce are both quoted. . . . This is an important book that diagnoses the extent of the economic problem and prescribes a strong dose of disruption."—Iain Martin, TimesEconomic stagnation afflicts the developed world, and the puzzle of slow productivity growth is the leading economic question of our age. Erixon and Weigel have developed a profoundly original and multi-faceted explanation rooted in the dead weight of corporate bureaucracy, with its striving for short-term profits and avoidance of risk, as well as government-created regulatory complexity and policy uncertainty. The book is concise, lively, full of examples, and deeply researched from sources that span economics and management science."Economic stagnation afflicts the developed world, and the puzzle of slow productivity growth is the leading economic question of our age. Erixon and Weigel have developed a profoundly original and multi-faceted explanation rooted in the dead weight of corporate bureaucracy, with its striving for short-term profits and avoidance of risk, as well as government-created regulatory complexity and policy uncertainty. The book is concise, lively, full of examples, and deeply researched from sources that span economics and management science."—Robert J. Gordon, Stanley G. Harris Professor in the Social Sciences, Northwestern University, and author of The Rise and Fall of American Growth Innovation is the life blood of the modern economy and our economies seem to be a litre or two short. This highly accessible book argues convincingly that the problems we are having with R&D is not the ‘R’ part, it is the ‘D’ part. We are not lacking invention, we are lacking the policy and competitive environment needed to turn new science into new, economically useful product and processes. This is an important and insightful read for all those concerned by big-picture economic problems."A very well written account of how corporate bureaucracy, rent-seeking and regulation are slowing the pace of innovation."—John Kay, Financial Times and author of Other People’s Money"Today's hidebound capitalism is throttling not just the west’s economic growth, but even the aspirations of its people. If dynamism is to be regained, argues this thought-provoking book, we must reject the rentier capitalism that masquerades as the real thing. This argument for a more dynamic market economy is not just challenging; it is also of huge importance."—Martin Wolf, Financial Times

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Book SynopsisIncorporating theoretical and quantitative history, this book examines a specific model of historical change and, more generally, investigates the utility of the dynamical systems approach in historical applications. It is of interest to practitioners of economic history, historical sociology, complexity studies, and demography.Trade Review"This book is an audacious and ambitious attempt to promote the viewpoint that historical progression runs according to certain regular patterns... I am fascinated by this book, particularly by the theoretical framework which is laid out in the introductory and concluding chapters... [T]he main strength of the book lies in its scope, reminiscent of the broad perspectives of classical economists. It is the type of scholarship which proves that historical narrative can be fascinating."--Harry Kitsikopoulos, EH.net "Those who are interested in grand social theories will want to read and reflect. I suspect that there will be many who then will rebut."--Brian J. L. Berry, American Journal of Sociology "Turchin and Nefedov have set a very ambitious task for themselves... [T]hey should be applauded for producing a work of very broad historical sweep and reminding us that developing general laws--or more plausibly, general tendencies--of historical dynamics remains a tantalizing proposition."--David S. Jacks, Australian Economic History Review "[T]he standard of historical scholarship is excellent and opens the floor to interesting challenges for further empirical explorations."--Laura Panza, Economic RecordTable of ContentsTable of Units and Currencies ix Chapter 1: Introduction: The Theoretical Background 1 1.1 Development of Ideas about Demographic Cycles 1 1.2 A Synthetic Theory of Secular Cycles 6 1.3 Variations and Extensions 21 1.4 Empirical Approaches 29 Chapter 2: Medieval England: The Plantagenet Cycle (1150-1485) 35 2.1 Overview of the Cycle 35 2.2 The Expansion Phase (1150-1260) 47 2.3 Stagflation (1260-1315) 49 2.4 Crisis (1315-1400) 58 2.5 Depression (1400-1485) 69 2.6 Conclusion 77 Chapter 3: Early Modern England: The Tudor-Stuart Cycle (1485-1730) 81 3.1 Overview of the Cycle 81 3.2 Expansion (1485-1580) 87 3.3 Stagflation (1580-1640) 91 3.4 Crisis (1640-60) 97 3.5 Depression (1660-1730) 101 3.6 Conclusion 107 Appendix to Chapter 3 108 Chapter 4: Medieval France: The Capetian Cycle (1150-1450) 111 4.1 Overview of the Cycle 111 4.2 Expansion (1150-1250) 115 4.3 Stagflation (1250-1315) 117 4.4 Crisis (1315-65) 121 4.5 Depression (1365-1450) 129 4.6 Conclusion: "A Near Perfect Multi-secular Cycle" 141 Chapter 5: Early Modern France: The Valois Cycle (1450-1660) 143 5.1 Overview 143 5.2 Expansion (1450-1520) 147 5.3 Stagflation (1520-70) 149 5.4 Crisis (1570-1600) 153 5.5 A Case Study: The Norman Nobility 156 5.6 Depression (1600-1660) 169 5.7 Conclusion 174 Chapter 6: Rome: The Republican Cycle (350-30 BCE) 176 6.1 Overview of the Cycle 176 6.2 An Unusually Long Expansion (350-180 BCE) 185 6.3 Stagflation (180-130 BCE) 189 6.4 The Late Republican Crisis (130-30 BCE) 201 6.5 The End of the Disintegrative Trend 205 6.6 Conclusion 208 Chapter 7: Rome: The Principate Cycle (30 BCE-285 CE) 211 7.1 Overview of the Cycle 211 7.2 Expansion (27 BCE-96 CE) 224 7.3 Stagflation (96-165 CE) 229 7.4 Crisis (165-97 CE) 233 7.5 Depression (197-285 CE) 236 7.6 Conclusion 238 Chapter 8: Russia: The Muscovy Cycle (1460-1620) 240 8.1 The Fifteenth-Century Crisis 240 8.2 Expansion (1460-1530) 241 8.3 Stagflation (1530-65) 244 8.4 Crisis (1565-1615) 252 8.5 Conclusion 258 Chapter 9: Russia: The Romanov Cycle (1620-1922) 261 9.1 Expansion (1620-1800) 261 9.2 Stagflation (1800-1905) 274 9.3 Crisis (1905-22) 287 9.4 Conclusion 299 Chapter 10: General Conclusions 303 10.1 Population Numbers 303 10.2 Elite Dynamics 304 10.3 The State 306 10.4 Sociopolitical Instability 307 10.5 Are There General Laws of Historical Dynamics? 311 Acknowledgments 315 References Cited 317 Index 341

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Book Synopsis"[A] magnificent history of money and finance."--New York Times Book Review "Convincingly makes the case that finance is a change-maker of change-makers."--Financial Times In the aftermath of recent financial crises, it's easy to see finance as a wrecking ball: something that destroys fortunes and jobs, and undermines governments and banks. In MoTrade ReviewHonorable Mention for the 2017 Ralph Gomory Prize, Business History Conference One of Financial Times (FT.com) Best Economics Books of 2016 One of Bloomberg's Best Books of 2016 "It is a fascinating thesis, brilliantly illuminated by scores of vivid examples, generously illustrated with a wealth of pictures, comprehensive in its geographical and temporal scope, and in my view almost entirely convincing."--Felix Martin, New York Times Book Review "In Money Changes Everything, Mr. Goetzmann draws on objects in Yale's extensive historical collections to tell his exciting story... His excitement with such artifacts is palpable."--Edward Chancellor, Wall Street Journal "[A]n accessible survey that does a fine job of reallocating past, present, and future."--Kirkus "Let me say simply that everyone who is curious about the history of finance will be richly rewarded by reading this book."--Linda Jubin, Investing.com "Money Changes Everything is ... A tactile and visual history. It is rich with illustrations, and often reported from ground level as Goetzmann travels to dusty European archives or to sites of historical financial significance... Goetzmann's careful, brick-by-brick approach to financial history convincingly makes the case that finance is a change-maker of change-makers."--Pietra Rivoli, Financial Times "In the fallout from the Great Recession, it's been commonplace to vilify those working in the financial-services industry. But Goetzmann argues that finance is a worthwhile endeavor, beyond just earning a ton of money: Its innovations have made the growth of human civilization possible."--Bourree Lam, TheAtlantic.com "Full of fascinating nuggets and extremely well researched."--Tim Harford, Undercover Economist "A remarkable work of synthesis and scholarship, the book affords a deep perspective to anyone trying to grapple with current problems in the role of finance and financial regulation in a civilized society."--Elie Canetti, Finance & Development "Its strength is the effort it makes to set money not only in its economic context, but also in its wider social and cultural setting."--Warwick Lightfoot, Financial World "[A] fascinating book."--Martin Wolf, Financial Times "[A] magnificent history of money and finance."--Minneapolis Star Tribune "Money Changes Everything is a treasure, unequalled in scope, unparalleled in depth of insight... This is a must-read for anyone in finance or who wants to find out what it's about."--Financial Post "A most pertinent and brave publication... This hefty, worthy book, really is a historical eye-opener."--David Marx Book Reviews "A panoramic historical sweep packed with interesting nuggets... All very enjoyable, and I'd say essential for anyone interested in financial history."--Enlightened Economist "Money Changes Everything is altogether a splendid book."--Mark Gamin, D&O Diary Blog "Rigorously researched and extremely enjoyable to read, Money Changes Everything enhances investors' understanding of contemporary markets."--Bruce Grantier, Financial Analysts Journal "William Goetzmann's Money Changes Everything is a thorough look at finance and world history, a 5,000-year journey that demonstrates the pivotal role of free market capitalism in building nations and serving human interests."--Washington Free Beacon "Goetzmann offers an extraordinarily wide-ranging and thorough investigation of financial activity from earliest times to the present day, and his enthusiasm for the subject and his lively writing style make the topic much more engaging than one might expect. The immense breadth of his research means that every reader, no matter how expert in history or finance, will learn much... The book has something for everyone."--Peter Acton, Australian Book Review "The book is replete with fascinating historical tales and figures, including an option payoff diagram developed by Henri Lefevre in the mid-1800s. Well-written and engaging, Goetzmann's book is a wonderful resource for those interested in learning more about the historical role of finance and its potential for addressing future challenges."--Choice "Goetzmann weaves his expertise in finance, architecture, archaeology, sinology, and art history into a wonderfully rich tapestry. Goetzmann's enthusiasm for his topic is infectious... Goetzmann has written a wonderfully erudite book in a way which is accessible to a wide audience. This book should be compulsory reading for all finance professionals and anyone with an interest in economics, finance, or history. If you want to understand how money changes everything, then Goeztmann's magnum opus is a must-read."--John D Turner, Economic History Review "This fascinating book rehabilitates finance by examining its 5,000 years of history."--Martin Wolf, Financial TimesTable of ContentsAcknowledgments vii Introduction 1 Part I From Cuneiform to Classical Civilization 15 1 Finance and Writing 19 2 Finance and Urbanism 31 3 Financial Architecture 46 4 Mesopotamian Twilight 65 5 Athenian Finance 73 6 Monetary Revolution 92 7 Roman Finance 103 Part II The Financial Legacy of China 137 8 China's First Financial World 143 9 Unity and Bureaucracy 167 10 Financial Divergence 194 Part III The European Crucible 203 11 The Temple and Finance 207 12 Venice 221 13 Fibonacci and Finance 238 14 Immortal Bonds 249 15 The Discovery of Chance 258 16 Efficient Markets 276 17 Europe, Inc. 289 18 Corporations and Exploration 305 19 A Projecting Age 320 20 A Bubble in France 347 21 According to Hoyle 363 22 Securitization and Debt 382 Part IV The Emergence of Global Markets 401 23 Marx and Markets 405 24 China's Financiers 423 25 The Russian Bear 443 26 Keynes to the Rescue 454 27 The New Financial World 467 28 Re-Engineering the Future 493 29 Post-War Theory 504 Conclusion 519 Notes 523 Bibliography 541 Illustration Credits 555 Index 557

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Book SynopsisConsidering silk as a major force of cross-cultural interaction, this book examines the integration of silk production and consumption into various cultures in the pre-modern world. Silk has long been a global commodity that, because of its exceptional qualities, high value and relative portability, came to be traded over very long distances. Similarly, the silk industry - from sericulture to the weaving of cloth - was one of the most important fields of production in the medieval and early modern world. The production and consumption of silks spread from China to Japan and Korea and travelled westward as far as India, Persia and theByzantine Empire, Europe, Africa and the Americas. As contributors to this book demonstrate, in this process of diffusion silk fostered technological innovation and allowed new forms of organization of labour to emerge. Its consumption constantly reshaped social hierarchies, gender roles, aesthetic and visual cultures,as well as rituals and representations of power. Threads of Global Desire is the first attempt at considering a global history of silk in the pre-modern era. The book examines the role of silk production and use in various cultures and its relation to everyday and regulatory practices. It considers silk as a major force of cross cultural interaction through technological exchange and trade in finished and semi-finished goods. Silks mediated design and a taste for luxuries and were part of gifting practices in diplomatic and private contexts. Silk manufacturing also fostered thecirculation of skilled craftsmen, connecting different centres and regions across continents and linking the countryside to urban production. DAGMAR SCHÄFER is Director of Department 3 'Artefacts, Action, and Knowledge'at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin and Professor h.c. of the History of Technology at the Technical University, Berlin. GIORGIO RIELLO is Professor of Global History and Culture at the University of Warwick. He has published extensively on the history of material culture and trade in early modern Europe and Asia and in particular on textiles and fashion. LUCA MOLA is Professor of Early Modern Europe: History of the Renaissance and the Mediterranean in a World Perspective at the European University Institute in Fiesole. Contributors: JOSÉ L. GASCH-TOMAS, SURAIYA FAROQHI, KAROLINA HUTKOVA, FUJITA KAYOKO, BEN MARSH, RUDOLPHMATTHEE, LESLEY ELLIS MILLER, DAVID MITCHELL, LUCA MOLA, LISA MONNAS, AMANDA PHILLIPS, GIORGIO RIELLO, DAGMAR SCHÄFER, ANGELA SHENGTrade ReviewErudite...fascinating [and] well worth reading...as an exercise in comparative history and material culture. * ANGLICAN AND EPISCOPAL REVIEW *Recommended. * CHOICE *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Silk in the Pre- Modern World - Luca Molà and Giorgio Riello and Dagmar Schäfer Power and Silk: The Central State and Localities in State-owned Manufacture during the Ming Reign (1368-1644), - Dagmar Schäfer Why Velvet? Localised Textile Innovation in Ming China, - Angela Sheng The Dutch East India Company and Asian Raw Silk: From Iran to Bengal via China and Vietnam - Rudi Matthee The Localisation of the Global: Ottoman Silk Textiles and Markets, 1500-1790 - Amanda Phillips Ottoman Silks and their Markets at the Borders of the Empire, c. 1500-1800 - Suraiya Faroqhi A Study in Contrasts: Silk Consumption in Italy and England during the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries - Lisa Monnas What d'ye lack Ladies? Hoods, Ribbands, very fine silk stockings: The Silk Trades in Restoration London - David M. Mitchell From Design Studio to Marketplace: Products, Agents and Methods of Distribution in the Lyons Silk Manufactures, 1660-1789 - Lesley Ellis Miller The Manila Galleon and the Reception of Chinese Silk in New Spain, c. 1550-1650 - José L. Gasch-Tomás 'The Honour of the Thing': Silk Culture in Eighteenth-Century Pennsylvania - Ben Marsh A Global Transfer of Silk Reeling Technologies: The English East India Company and the Bengal Silk Industry - Changing Silk Culture in Early Modern Japan: On Foreign Trade and the Development of 'National' Fashion, from the Sixteenth to Nineteenth Century - Fujita Kayoko Textile Spheres: Silk in a Global and Comparative Context - Giorgio Riello Glossary Bibliography Notes on Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisThis volume contains papers presented at the Third Quinquennial Conference on Ukrainian Economics. It contains 14 essays dealing with the one thousand years of Ukrainian economic history prior to World War I. The contributions are divided into three parts, covering the periods of Kievan Rus', the 16th and 17th centuries, and the 19th century.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Winner of the Immanuel Wallerstein Memorial Book Award, Political Economy of the World-System Section of the American Sociological Association""Roos has given us a thought-provoking book that will repay the investment of any reader with an interest in sovereign debt."---Michael Reddell, Central Banking Journal"[A] fresh and painstakingly researched approach that raises vital questions for economists, political scientists and policymakers."---Aleksandr V. Gevorkyan, LSE Review of Books"[A] timely and thoroughly researched book—destined to become an obligatory reference in the field."---Veronica Santarosa, Journal of Economic History"[I've] been reading Why Not Default? at an excruciating pace for the best reason: every page or so I get inspired some subtheme or footnote and go off chasing it down."---Quinn Slobodian"Roos makes a powerful and provocative argument." * Survival: Global Politics and Strategy *"A fantastic contribution to the growing literature on sovereign debt. . . . Why Not Default? will be a mandatory reference for scholars working on financialization, debt, and structural power."---José Tomás Labarca, Finance and Society"[Why Not Default?] does a great service . . . by synthesizing a huge amount of detailed information about these crises in one place, and by clarifying the interlocking effects of a host of social, economic and political changes over the past century."---Shaina Potts, Antipode

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Shortlisted for the EGOS Book Award, European Group for Organizational Studies""Jacoby brilliantly illustrates the Sisyphean character of labor’s exertions on the tilted terrain of finance. Yet, equally importantly, he wisely shows how unions began learning to fight on a battlefield likely to become even more decisive in coming years. Anyone who seeks to understand labor’s present predicament or fight those future battles simply must read this indispensable book."---Joseph A. McMartin, Labour History"A must read for labor, management, and finance scholars and their students. . . . At a time when financialization, extreme inequality, and calls for ‘accountable capitalism’ are center stage, Jacoby’s book is timely. He offers a landscape of historical examples of labor’s financial strategies, what has worked and what hasn’t, and why it is so difficult to change deeply embedded government rules and corporate norms that favor the rich and powerful. His research is painstaking and impeccable—bringing to life his inside stories of union shareholder campaigns and political struggles over financial regulation."---Rosemary Batt, Industrial and Labor Relations Review"Jacoby’s book is an impressive and vital addition to the history of organised labour. By also getting readers to think about the question of what modern financialization has wrought, it has much broader relevance. It deserves a wide readership."---Jeff Borland, Economic Record"Jacoby focuses on explaining his source material, rather than belaboring broad lessons. This will make the book of interest to employment relations practitioners and to academics across multiple disciplines. But, several general themes emerge . . . labor’s role (both as handmaid and as critic) in the shareholder revolution and financialization. . . . the ubiquity of feuds and bedfellows in strategic campaigning. . . . Jacoby demonstrates how these webs of ownership and employment intermediation, often identified as a barrier to traditional worker bargaining power, also offer new sources of worker leverage. Beyond these core themes, Jacoby litters the book with insights that could fill a whole shelf of future dissertations."---Nathan Wilmers, Perspectives on Work"Readers of this book will encounter numerous lessons of value."---Laura J. Owen, Economic History Association"Jacoby’s account offers a wealth of detail. . . . All of this material is organized into a coherent and compelling argument, and it will benefit those interested in corporate governance, the history of corporate social responsibility, and the role firms play in mediating economic inequality."---Bruce G. Carruthers, Administrative Science Quarterly"[Jacoby] documents, with remarkable clarity, the processes which led to the union movement changing its strategic direction towards financialisation, and in doing so more or less abandoning its historical priorities. . . . My strong recommendation is to read and follow the book in its entirety, and with care and attention to detail."---Gaby Ramia, Labour & Industry"[Labor in the Age of Finance] is clearheaded. . . . Jacoby recognizes that there are still broad structural political and economic forces arrayed against a real resurgence of unions."---Neil Fligstein, Contemporary Sociology"[A] fine book. . . .This smart and sober volume is unsurpassed as a starting point for anyone who seeks to understand both the urgent necessity and the enormous difficulty of making financial markets more accountable to the common good."---Joseph A. Mccartin, Finance & Development"Jacoby’s book provides a major contribution to the literature in political economy of corporate governance and labor."---Thibault Darcillon, Competition & Change"By connecting two bodies of scholarship that do not often draw illumination from one another—labor and financial history—Jacoby succeeds in shedding light on a critical episode in the American union movement’s ongoing efforts to reinvent itself for the twenty-first century."---Max Fraser, Political Science Quarterly"Sanford Jacoby has achieved a truly rare feat: taking a narrow, specialized, and somewhat obscure topic and shaping it into a magisterial narrative that provides true understanding of the players and the drama involved. Labor in the Age of Finance is a tour de force that captures the labor movement’s efforts to muddle through during the ascendance of corporate finance without losing its way."---Matt Bodie, Jotwell"Sanford Jacoby has produced a series of highly important books that trace the evolution of the modern corporation in the United States, its employment practices, and examined the consequences for organized labour and working people."---Peter Gahan, Journal of Industrial Relations"Excellent."---Matthew Soener, International Journal of Comparative Sociology"Jacoby’s analysis . . . will prove helpful for labor advocates as much as for historians and social scientists interested in labor’s place in an economy dominated by finance capitalism."---Jeffrey Helgeson, Journal of American History

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Book SynopsisA groundbreaking account of British and French efforts to channel their eighteenth-century geopolitical rivalry into peaceful commercial competitionTrade Review“Shovlin challenges the conventional perception of unbridled Franco-British rivalry and aggression in the 18th century by giving greater emphasis to the cumulative process by which diplomats negotiated and merchants lobbied to cut cross-channel tariffs and pursue other means of enabling free trade.”—Christopher Silvester, Financial Times“A highly original account. . . . With skill, Shovlin challenges the conventional understanding of Franco-British rivalry and belligerence in the eighteenth-century in emphasising the process by which diplomats negotiated, and merchants lobbied, to cut tariffs and in turn to facilitate free trade.”—Paul Ridgway, Africa Ports & Ships“Original, thought-provoking, and deeply researched. Shovlin topples textbook oppositions of war and peace, rivalry and collaboration, and protection and free trade.”—Lauren Benton, author of A Search for Sovereignty“Lucid, subtle, and wide-ranging. Trading with the Enemy decisively revises views of eighteenth-century Franco-British relations as a scene of endless war, imperial rivalry, and jealousy of trade. Its recovery of more cooperative and peaceful history provides both lessons for the present and signposts for the future.”—David Armitage, author of Civil Wars: A History in Ideas“A refreshing interpretation. Through his skilful unpacking of the intertwined histories of capitalism and the state, Shovlin shows us once and for all how mythic was the supposed opposition between free trade and protectionism.”—Renaud Morieux, author of The Channel

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Book SynopsisA timely and provocative account of why the euro has failed and why, as a result, the Union will unravel Examining key economic indicators and assessing the situation across Europe, two British journalists assess why the euro has failedand what will happen when the European Union completely unravels. This book is a must-read for anyone who cares about the future of Europeand progressive politics. Larry Elliott and Dan Atkinson correctly predictedthe euro would prove a calamity. They are right today that the euro crisisis far from over. Their demand for a radical change of approach must betaken seriouslyby policy makers and politicians alike.Ed Balls, UK Shadow Chancellor from 2011 to 2015 [The book] offers useful insight into why so many people thought the euro was a good idea in the first place.Harvard Business ReviewTrade Review“Europe Isn’t Working is… entertaining, informative [and] iconoclastic … This is a valuable resource for anyone wishing to ground their arguments against the EU in hard facts, told in an easy to read and engaging fashion.”—Richard Allday, Counterfire -- Richard Allday * Counterfire *

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Book SynopsisThe untold story of how FDR did the unthinkable to save the American economy.Trade Review"Brilliantly told."—Steve Hanke, Forbes“A superb history.”—David Frum“The story is fascinating and the lessons eternal.”—Martin Wolf, Financial Times“American Default is the history of that mighty legal, moral, political and monetary controversy, the effects of which are with us still.”—James Grant, Wall Street Journal“A magnificent piece of scholarship . . . [that] illustrates the benefits of historical distance in evaluating major events.”—Kenneth Rogoff, Project Syndicate“Admirably accessible and illuminating.”—Benn Steil, Financial World

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Book SynopsisFrom nineteenth-century whaling to a multitude of firms pursuing entrepreneurial finance today, venture finance reflects a deep-seated tradition in the deployment of risk capital in the United States. Tom Nicholas’s history of the venture capital industry offers a roller coaster ride through America’s ongoing pursuit of financial gain.Trade Review[An] incisive history of the venture-capital industry. * New Yorker *A detailed, fact-filled account of America’s most celebrated moneymen…It provides a valuable look into their world…Nicholas is at his best when he is charting just how reliant venture capital has been on the government—and just how far the industry has gone to try and shape government policy in its favor. -- Avi Asher-Schapiro * New Republic *An excellent and original economic history of venture capital. -- Tyler Cowen * Marginal Revolution *Though it’s no secret that Pentagon money helped Silicon Valley to develop into a technology hub, Nicholas’s history sheds light on the less explored role of venture capital firms in bringing these new technologies to civilian markets. -- Jamie Martin * Bookforum *Whatever your view of venture capitalists, it’s worth studying where they came from. I had a vague familiarity with the role of U.S. postwar policy in the creation of the species, but I learned a lot more from Nicholas. And I’d never thought about their precursors in the old whaling industry! -- Stephen L. Carter * Bloomberg Opinion *Not only an insightful study of an asset class but a fascinating history which touches on fundamental questions of political economy. VC is distinctive mainly because it offers such a long view of venture capital’s evolution…[It] offers many lessons for attentive readers, explaining not only the present features of the venture landscape but also how we might address some of the widely recognized problems facing the U.S. economy today. -- Julius Krein * American Conservative *A penetrating history of the industry…I enthusiastically recommend it. -- Laurence B. Siegel * Advisor Perspectives *In his extremely interesting, readable, and informative VC, Tom Nicholas tells you most everything you ever wanted to know about the history of venture capital, from the financing of the whaling industry to the present multibillion-dollar venture funds. -- Arthur Rock, Arthur Rock & Co.VC is a captivating book that casts a historical light on the contemporary landscape of venture capital. Nicholas brilliantly explains the surprising origins of the financial practices and organizational structures of the VC industry we know today. -- Toby E. Stuart, Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, and venture partner, Avid Park VenturesRalph Waldo Emerson once called America ‘the country of tomorrow,’ and Nicholas’s book does a great job of showing how venture capital, a rocket fuel for entrepreneurial risk, played a fundamental and unique role in proving Emerson right. -- Mike Maples, Jr., partner, Floodgate

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