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A Bubble That Broke the World
by Garet GarrettThe burden of Europe's private debt to this country is now greater than the burden of her war debt; and the war debt, with arrears of interest, is greater than it was the day the peace was signed. And it is not Europe alone. Debt was the economic terror of the world when the war ended. How to pay it was the colossal problem. -from "Cosmology of the Bubble" The names of the players are different, but these cautionary essays about massive national debt-written in the long wake of World War I and as the Great Depression was starting to make its horrible power fully known-are still fully applicable today. A powerful libertarian voice of the early 20th century, Garet Garrett, writing originally in the Saturday Evening Post, warned about the extension of American credit to a Europe staggering under a massive debt leftover from the financing of World War I... a situation echoed, if reversed, today as the overextended United States continues her rampant borrowing. Collected in book form, Garrett's writings are a cry for a retreat from financial insanity, a clear-eyed look at a complicated and little understood era of financial history, and perhaps an ominous warning for today.
A Buccaneer at Heart
by Stephanie Laurens<P>Unexpected love-plus passion, intrigue, and danger-challenge our hero to embrace his true nature. <P>#1 New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Laurens continues THE ADVENTURERS QUARTET, a riveting blend of Regency-era high seas adventure, a mystery shrouded in the heat of tropical jungles, and the passionate romances of four couples and their unexpected journeys into love. <P>After a decade of captaining diplomatic voyages for Frobisher Shipping, alongside covert missions for the Crown, Captain Robert Frobisher decides that establishing a home-with hearth and wife-should be his next challenge. But an unexpected mission intervenes. Although Robert sees himself as a conservative businessman-cum-diplomat and this mission is far from his usual sphere, it nevertheless falls within the scope of his abilities. As matters are urgent, he agrees to depart for West Africa forthwith. <P>To Robert, his way forward is clear: Get to Freetown, determine the location of a slavers' camp, return to London with the information, and then proceed to find himself a wife. Already in Freetown, Miss Aileen Hopkins is set on finding her younger brother Will, a naval lieutenant who has mysteriously disappeared. Find Will and rescue him; determined and resolute, Aileen is not about to allow anyone to turn her from her path. <P>But all too quickly, that path grows dark and dangerous. And then Robert Frobisher appears and attempts to divert her in more ways than one. Accustomed to managing diplomats and bureaucrats, Robert discovers that manipulating a twenty-seven-year-old spinster lies outside his area of expertise. Prodded by an insistent need to protect Aileen, he realizes that joining forces with her is the surest path to meeting all the challenges before him-completing his mission, keeping her safe, and securing the woman he wants as his wife. But the villains strike and disrupt their careful plans-leaving Robert and Aileen no choice but to attempt a last throw of the dice to complete his mission and further her brother's rescue. <P>Compelled to protect those weaker than themselves and bring retribution to a heartless enemy, they plunge into the jungle with only their talents and inner strengths to aid them-and with the courage of their hearts as their guide. The first voyage is one of exploration, the second one of discovery. The third journey brings maturity, while the fourth is a voyage of second chances. Continue the journey and follow the adventure, the mystery, and the romances to the cataclysmic end. <P><b>A New York Times Bestseller</b>
A Buccaneer at Heart: The Adventurers Quartet (The Adventurers Quartet #2)
by Stephanie LaurensOnly from #1 New York Times bestselling author STEPHANIE LAURENS, the second story of THE ADVENTURERS QUARTET, where Regency-era intrigue, danger, romance and passion abound.A secret mission… After a decade leading diplomatic voyages and covert missions for the Crown, Captain Robert Frobisher decides that establishing a home—with hearth and wife—should be his next challenge. But when an urgent summons arrives, Robert puts his wishes aside and agrees to set sail immediately. His goal is clear: get to Freetown, determine the location of a slavers’ camp and return to London with the information. A distracting complication… In Freetown, Miss Aileen Hopkins is determined to find her brother Will, a naval lieutenant who has mysteriously disappeared, and she will not allow anyone to turn her from her path. But all too quickly, that path grows dark and dangerous. And then Robert Frobisher appears and attempts to divert her in more ways than one. An unexpected alliance… Joining forces with Aileen, Robert vows to complete his mission and secure the woman he wants as his wife. Compelled to protect the innocent and bring retribution to a heartless enemy, they plunge into the jungle with only each other to rely on, and with the courage of their hearts as their guide. Follow THE ADVENTURERS as they continue their voyages across the high seas to the riveting and triumphant conclusion.Originally published in 2016
A Bucket of Sunshine: Life on a Cold War Canberra Squadron
by Mike BrookeA Bucket of Sunshine - a term used for the use of a nuclear bomb - is a firsthand insight into life in the mid-1960s on a RAF Canberra nuclear-armed squadron in West Germany on the frontline in the Cold War. Mike Brookes describes not only the technical aspect of the aircraft and its nuclear and conventional roles and weapons, but also majors on the low-level flying that went with the job of being ready to go to war at less than three minutes notice. Brooke tells his story warts and all, with many amusing overtones, in what was an extremely serious business when the world was standing on the brink of nuclear conflict. The English-Electric Canberra was a first-generation jet-powered light bomber manufactured in large numbers in the 1950s. The Canberra could fly at a higher altitude than any other bomber through the 1950s and set a world altitude record of 70,310 feet. Due to its ability to evade early interceptors and providing a significant performance advancement over piston-engine bombers, the Canberra was a popular export product and served with many nations. Although jet powered, the Canberra design philosophy was very much in the Mosquito mould, providing room for a substantial bomb load, fitting two of the most powerful engines available, and wrapping it in the most compant and aerodynamic package possible. Rather than devote space and weight to defensive armament, the Canberra was designed to fly fast and high enough to avoid air-to-air combat entirely.
A Buckeye Titan
by William E. SmithHere is a panorama of life as it was lived and witnessed by one Ohio citizen, his family, and his friends, from 1816-1876. From the diary and correspondence of John H. James of Urbana, Ohio, and from contemporary manuscripts, periodicals, and newspapers, William E. and Ophia D. Smith have created an authentic picture of the times. A Buckeye Titan is not so much a biography of a man as it is an exposition of the contribution of his manuscripts to American history in general and to Ohio history in particular. The point of view presented is that of the protagonist and his friends.Cincinnati and Louisville are seen when slow-moving, square-rigged barges and primate boats propelled by “elastic vigor” crowded their landings, and when stately floating castles received and discharged passengers and cargoes upon their busy rivers. Lexington, Athens of the West, is portrayed as it was in the lush days of Horace Holley. The sophistication of New Orleans, Philadelphia, and New York sets off the awkward adolescence of such Mid-Western towns as Columbus, Dayton, Urbana, and Indianapolis. Against a background of devious politics and frenzied finance, the Mad River and Lake Erie Rail Road begins in Sandusky and stubbornly fights its way to Springfield. Whigs and Loco Focos engage in a titanic struggle of the establishment of a second banking system.Civil War days are graphically drawn. The tumultuous conflict of opinion, the graft and corruption, the political chicanery in the raising of troops and in the promotion of officers and men, the strength and the weakness of the Northern fighting forces and their leaders—all are here.Statesmen and politicians, reformers and scholars, authors and artists, actors and actresses, soldiers, travelers, bankers and merchants, founders of the first Swedenborgian college in the world, and plain everyday people, as well as intimate glimpses of distinguished characters, appear in these pages.
A Buddhist Sensibility: Aesthetic Education at Tibet's Mindröling Monastery (Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University)
by Dominique TownsendFounded in 1676 during a cosmopolitan early modern period, Mindröling monastery became a key site for Buddhist education and a Tibetan civilizational center. Its founders sought to systematize and institutionalize a worldview rooted in Buddhist philosophy, engaging with contemporaries from across Tibetan Buddhist schools while crystallizing what it meant to be part of their own Nyingma school. At the monastery, ritual performance, meditation, renunciation, and training in the skills of a bureaucrat or member of the literati went hand in hand. Studying at Mindröling entailed training the senses and cultivating the objects of the senses through poetry, ritual music, monastic dance, visual arts, and incense production, as well as medicine and astrology.Dominique Townsend investigates the ritual, artistic, and cultural practices inculcated at Mindröling to demonstrate how early modern Tibetans integrated Buddhist and worldly activities through training in aesthetics. Considering laypeople as well as monastics and women as well as men, A Buddhist Sensibility sheds new light on the forms of knowledge valued in early modern Tibetan societies, especially among the ruling classes. Townsend traces how tastes, values, and sensibilities were cultivated and spread, showing what it meant for a person, lay or monastic, to be deemed well educated. Combining historical and literary analysis with fieldwork in Tibetan Buddhist communities, this book reveals how monastic institutions work as centers of cultural production beyond the boundaries of what is conventionally deemed Buddhist.
A Buffalo in the House: The True Story of a Man, an Animal, and the American West
by R. D. RosenFrom a #1 New York Times–bestselling author, &“a heartwarming tale of bonding between people and animals&” (Booklist). A sprawling suburban house in Santa Fe is not the kind of home where a buffalo normally roams, but Veryl Goodnight and Roger Brooks are not your ordinary animal lovers. Over a hundred years after Veryl&’s ancestors, Charles and Mary Ann Goodnight, hand-raised two baby buffalo to help save the species from extinction, the sculptor and her husband adopt an orphaned buffalo calf of their own. Against a backdrop of the American West, A Buffalo in the House tells the story of a household situation beyond any sitcom writer&’s wildest dreams. Charlie has no idea he&’s a buffalo and Roger has no idea just how strong the bond between man and buffalo can be. In the historical shadow of the near-extermination of a majestic and misunderstood animal, Roger sets out to save just one buffalo—in a true story featuring &“one of the most memorable characters in recent nature writing&” (Publishers Weekly). &“More than a touching man-beast buddy tale . . . lovingly chronicles the history of an embattled species and its importance in the American West.&” —Entertainment Weekly &“Moving proof of the restorative powers of man&’s relationship with nature.&” —People
A Bull in China: Investing Profitably in the World's Greatest Market
by Jim RogersIf the twentieth century was the American century, then the twenty-first century belongs to China. Now the one and only Jim Rogers shows how any investor can get in on the ground floor of "the greatest economic boom since Englandâ ²s Industrial Revolution. " In this indispensable new book, one of the worldâ ²s most successful investors, Jim Rogers, brings his unerring investment acumen to bear on this huge and unruly land now being opened to the world and exploding in potential. Rogers didnâ ²t just...
A Bungalow for Two
by Carole Gift PagePEACE, QUIET AND...LOVE?Sculptor Frannie Rowlands figured some time alone at the windswept shore was all she needed to recover from a creative slump-and from her father’s and sisters’ weddings. But when a near disaster brought her handsome neighbor to the rescue, Frannie realized that solitude wasn’t the only thing that was good for the soul....At his tranquil beach house, Scott Winslow discovered he could live the simple life he craved. Now the reclusive billionaire had unexpectedly found something else there: a woman who had no idea who he was, a woman who might be able to love the real Scott-if only she would let herself....
A Burdensome Experiment: Race, Labor, and Schools in New Orleans after Katrina (Atelier: Ethnographic Inquiry in the Twenty-First Century #18)
by Christien Philmarc TompkinsA free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans public school board fired nearly 7,500 teachers and employees. In the decade that followed, the city created the first urban public school system in the United States to be entirely contracted out to private management. Veteran educators, collectively referred to as the "backbone" of the city's Black middle class, were replaced by younger, less experienced, white teachers who lacked historical ties to the city. In A Burdensome Experiment, Christien Philmarc Tompkins argues that the privatization of New Orleans schools has made educators into a new kind of racialized worker. As school districts across the nation backslide on school integration, Tompkins asks, who exactly deserves to teach our children? The struggle over this question exposes the inherent antiblackness of charter school systems and the unequal burdens of school choice.
A Burglar's Fate: The Pinkerton Files, Volume 3
by David LuchukThe Pinkerton Files is based on the new audio series starring Battlestar Galactica 's Michael Hogan. It sets the real cases of America's first private detective in a world of radical inventions driving a bitterly divided nation toward civil war.Agency founder Allan Pinkerton senses a conspiracy mounting against him, his sons and his operatives. Every step they take toward solving three seemingly disconnected cases draws them further into a conflict that will be their downfall. If Allan allows them to become embroiled in the war, they will never find their way out.A Burglar's Fate opens with a bank robbery in a frontier town, a tiny case Allan would normally not take on except that his Agency is falling to pieces. One of his agents has to be rescued from a botched undercover assignment while another disappears into the political intrigue of the capital. His son risks being arrested again to follow clues only he can understand. As the case unravels, Allan faces pressure from the White House to do the one thing he has resisted all along: join the war effort.
A Burnable Book: A Novel
by Bruce HolsingerIn Chaucer's London, betrayal, murder, royal intrigue, mystery, and dangerous politics swirl around the existence of a prophetic book that foretells the deaths of England's kings. Bruce Holsinger's A Burnable Book is an irresistible historical thriller reminiscent of the classics An Instance of the Fingerpost, The Name of the Rose, and The Crimson Petal and the White.London, 1385. Surrounded by ruthless courtiers—including his powerful uncle, John of Gaunt, and Gaunt's artful mistress, Katherine Swynford—England's young, still untested king, Richard II, is in mortal peril, and the danger is only beginning. Songs are heard across London—catchy verses said to originate from an ancient book that prophesies the end of England's kings—and among the book's predictions is Richard's assassination.Only a few powerful men know that the cryptic lines derive from a "burnable book," a seditious work that threatens the stability of the realm. To find the manuscript, wily bureaucrat Geoffrey Chaucer turns to fellow poet John Gower, a professional trader in information with connections high and low. Gower discovers that the book and incriminating evidence about its author have fallen into the unwitting hands of innocents, who will be drawn into a labyrinthine conspiracy that reaches from the king's court to London's slums and stews—and potentially implicates his own son. As the intrigue deepens, it becomes clear that Gower, a man with secrets of his own, may be the last hope to save a king from a terrible fate.Medieval scholar Bruce Holsinger draws on his vast knowledge of the period to add colorful, authentic detail—on everything from poetry and bookbinding to court intrigues and brothels—to this highly entertaining and brilliantly constructed epic literary mystery that brings medieval England gloriously to life.
A Burning House: Redeeming American Evangelicalism by Examining Its History, Mission, and Message
by Brandon WashingtonDespite the civil rights progress he fought for and saw on the horizon in the 1950s and '60s, Martin Luther King Jr.—increasingly concerned by America's moral vision, admitted—"I've come to believe that we are integrating into a burning house."In A Burning House, Brandon Washington contends that American Evangelicalism is a house ablaze: burning in the destructive fires of discrimination and injustice. The stain of segregation remains prevalent, not only in our national institutions, but also in our churches, and this has long tarnished the witness of Christianity and hampered our progress toward a Christ-like vision of Shalom—peace, justice, and wholeness—in the world. Common doctrine may unite black and white evangelicals, but rifts such as social ethics and cultural influences still separate us.Throughout this challenging but reconciliatory book, Washington gives a historical and theological appraisal of American evangelicalism to understand how we came to be where we are and what our response should be. Instead of calling the movement to become something new, he challenges it to live into what it has always been in Christ and strive for deliberate and sacrificial integration—the unity of believers of all ethnicities.A Burning House is a rallying call to a waning movement whose most public leaders have often turned a blind eye to, or even justified, the sin of racism—a movement whose theology is sometimes compromised by a secular anthropology. This is a call to both white and black evangelicals to better understand our past so that we can better embrace the unifying and comprehensive message of the gospel we preach.
A Burning Sea: The Third Instalment In Theodore Brun's Viking Epic, The Wanderer Chronicles (The Wanderer Chronicles #3)
by Theodore BrunErlan Aurvandil has turned his back on the past and his native Northern lands, taking a perilous journey to the greatest city in the world, Constantinople. But as his voyage ends, Erlan is brutally betrayed, captured and enslaved by a powerful Byzantine general. Meanwhile, Lilla Sviggarsdottir, Queen of Svealand, has lost her husband and with him, her father's kingdom. Her life in danger, Lilla escapes to find Erlan, the one man who can save her, following his trail to the very gates of Constantinople. But corruption infests the city, and a dark tide is rising against the Emperor from within his own court. As the shadows darken and whispers of war begin to strengthen, Erlan's fate becomes intertwined with that of the city. Are they both doomed to fall, or can freedom be won in the blood of battle?
A Burnt-Out Case: A Burnt-out Case, The Captain And The Enemy, The Comedians, And The Man Within (Virago Modern Classics #Vol. 14)
by Graham GreeneA famous architect struggling with a crisis of faith escapes to a leper colony in the Congo, in Graham Greene&’s &“greatest novel&” (Time). Querry is a world-renowned architect noted for his magnificent churches, each designed not for the glory of God, but for the satisfaction of self. Suddenly infected with indifference, he has abandoned his pursuit of pleasure. Now he has reached the end of desire at the end of the world—a colony of lepers in the remote jungles of Africa. Here, under the guidance of Doctor Colin, a fellow atheist, Querry&’s consideration of the sick could be something close to a cure for his own suffering. So too, it first seems, could a local plantation owner&’s lonely and abused wife—Querry&’s unlikely confessor. But when Querry reluctantly agrees to build a hospital and his good intentions brand him a modern-day saint, all the intrusive and dangerous piety of civilization returns. And this time it could be inescapable. From &“the ultimate chronicler of twentieth-century man&’s consciousness and anxiety&” comes Graham Greene&’s celebrated novel about the consequences of conviction, the sickness of the soul, and the tenuous endurance of the human spirit (William Golding).
A Burracombe Christmas
by Lilian HarryA short story to whisk you away on a festive trip to the Devonshire village where life is full of surprisesSteal a glimpse at the past lives and loves of your favourite villagers in this captivating Burracombe short story. Autumn 1918 has brought young Alice Whiddon to the Tozer's farm to work as a maid. Alice soon falls in love with the little village and with life on the farm. But that's not all she's falling for. Youngest son, Ted Tozer is half promised to young Ivy Prowse, daughter of a neighbouring farmer, yet Alice and Ted feel a powerful bond forming.But while the first peacetime Christmas in years beckons, romance must wait as influenza comes to the farm and threatens to bring tragedy with it, just as the Tozer's eldest son Joe returns from the front to Burracombe and his sweetheart, Dottie. As Alice and the family wait and hope for the new year to bring long-awaited joy and peace, no one knows whether the bells will peal in sorrow or in celebration as the year turns.
A Busca: Um Romance Medieval
by Kathryn Le VequeUm amor perdido e um amor encontrado 1298 d. C. - Lady Diamantha de Bocage Edlington perdeu o marido na Batalha de Falkirk. De luto, ela não se encontra preparada para a visita de sir Cortez de Bretagne, comandante da guarnição do rei Edward no castelo de Sherborne. Moreno e impetuoso por sua herança espanhola, Cortez é um cavaleiro com boa aparência, sensual e de temperamento difícil. Ele também viera em uma missão. Cortez foi o último homem que viu o marido de Diamantha vivo e prometeu ao moribundo que cuidaria da esposa dele. Portanto, ele chegou para reivindicá-la. Horrorizada, Diamantha luta para aceitar o que de Bretagne está lhe dizendo mas, em seu coração, o ressentimento e o ódio se agitam: o cadáver de Robert Edlington havia sido deixado nos campos de Falkirk e de Bretagne, como o último homem a vê-lo, é culpado. Assim sendo, antes de Diamantha se tornar a esposa de Bretagne, ela exige que ele retorne para encontrar o corpo de Robert e que o leve para casa para um enterro adequado. E, assim, começa a Grande Busca de encontrar o corpo de Robert Edlington… Junte-se a Diamantha e Cortez em sua grande viagem a partir dos campos de Dorset até os terrenos sagrados de Falkirk, uma jornada na qual eles descobrem coisas incríveis e terríveis sobre o mundo e sobre o seu país, e um a respeito do outro. Das cinzas da dor surge uma fênix de grande paixão, e os laços criados entre Diamantha e Cortez nunca poderão ser rompidos.
A Business History of India: Enterprise and the Emergence of Capitalism from 1700
by Tirthankar RoyIn recent decades, private investment has led an economic resurgence in India. But this is not the first time the region has witnessed impressive business growth. There have been many similar stories over the past 300 years. India’s economic history shows that capital was relatively expensive. How, then, did capitalism flourish in the region? How did companies and entrepreneurs deal with the shortage of key resources? Has there been a common pattern in responses to these issues over the centuries? Through detailed case studies of firms, entrepreneurs, and business commodities, Tirthankar Roy answers these questions. Roy bridges the approaches of business and economic history, illustrating the development of a distinctive regional capitalism. On each occasion of growth, connections with the global economy helped firms and entrepreneurs better manage risks. Making these deep connections between India’s economic past and present shows why history matters in its remaking of capitalism today.
A Business History of Latin America (Routledge International Studies in Business History)
by Marcelo Bucheli Andrea Lluch Martín Monsalve ZanattiThis edited volume constitutes the first available comprehensive business history of Latin America available in English. It offers a unique synthesis of the development of capitalism in Latin America that takes into consideration the complexities of each country, while simultaneously understanding broader commonalities. With chapters written by a group of internationally renowned senior scholars with a long trajectory in business historical research, the volume is divided into two major areas. First, the development of capitalism in some of the major economies of the region (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru) through the lens of management strategic decisions and entrepreneurial activity. And second, the long-term evolution of factors affecting the region’s particular evolution of capitalism and business systems. They include the rise of environmentally sustainable businesses; the impact of crime on entrepreneurial activity; the evolution of family firms, the changing strategies of multinational corporations in the region; the evolution of business groups; the role of female entrepreneurs; and the challenges for conducting business in a region with poor infrastructure. This insightful collection serves both as a straightforward introduction for those looking for a broad understanding of the region and for those interested in conducting comparative studies between Latin America and other areas of the world. It will be of direct appeal to researchers and advanced students of business and economic history and international business in particular.
A Business History of Soy: Japan’s Modernization and the Rise of Soy as a Global Commodity (Routledge International Studies in Business History)
by Midori HiragaThis is a business history of soy that reveals how Japanese imperial and military institutions and financial-mercantile-industrial interests created a role for soy as a versatile raw material and global commodity beginning in the 19th century, even before the Western world recognized this “oilseed.” Originating in the rich food cultures of Asia, soy is praised as the “magic bean.” About 360 million tons are produced in the world today, and it is traded globally to become food, feed, and fuel. It is the second largest source of vegetable oil in the world, and soy meal is an essential feed without which the modern livestock industries could not exist. Its dominance today is often accounted for in terms of its versatile nature. This book, however, argues that soy was transformed into a versatile industrial raw material and global commodity through the political-economic strategies of state and business actors engaged in the development of the capitalist world-economy. By studying little-known Japanese historical documents and corporate records, and focusing on the less-researched vegetable oil and industrial uses of soy, this book provides a better understanding of how this traditional Asian food was transformed into a global commodity embedded in contradictions. Promoted as a healthy and sustainable food source, soy is also a destructive cash crop whose cultivation and use have played a significant role in the current climate crisis. Based on this case of soy, the book provides a structural understanding of broader food and agriculture systems in the history of capitalism, making it of interest to students at an advanced level, academics, and researchers in the fields of business history, corporate governance, Japanese business, as well as the political economy of food and agriculture.Chapters 2, 3, and the Conclusion of this book are freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.
A Business of Some Heat: The United Nations Force in Cyprus Before and During the 1974 Turkish Invasion
by Brigadier Francis HennThe island of Cyprus, long troubled by inter-communal strife, exploded onto the world stage with the Athens-inspired coup against President Makarios and Turkey's invasion that followed. This resulted in the partition of the Island, which was policed by UNFICYP under the most testing conditions. These dramatic events are described here for the first time in this book which examines the political and military background, the Greek and Turkish forces and the make-up and operations of the multi-national UN Force. The difficult situation was further complicated by the Yom Kippur War and the rapid despatch of a significant part of UNFICYP to Egypt.
A Business of State: Commerce, Politics, and the Birth of the East India Company (Harvard historical studies #188)
by Rupali Mishra MishraAt the height of its power around 1800, the English East India Company controlled half of the world’s trade and deployed a vast network of political influencers at home and abroad. Yet the story of the Company’s beginnings in the early seventeenth century has remained largely untold. Rupali Mishra’s account of the East India Company’s formative years sheds new light on one of the most powerful corporations in the history of the world. From its birth in 1600, the East India Company lay at the heart of English political and economic life. The Company’s fortunes were determined by the leading figures of the Stuart era, from the monarch and his privy counselors to an extended cast of eminent courtiers and powerful merchants. Drawing on a host of overlooked and underutilized sources, Mishra reconstructs the inner life of the Company, laying bare the era’s fierce struggles to define the difference between public and private interests and the use and abuse of power. Unlike traditional accounts, which portray the Company as a private entity that came to assume the powers of a state, Mishra’s history makes clear that, from its inception, the East India Company was embedded within—and inseparable from—the state. A Business of State illuminates how the East India Company quickly came to inhabit such a unique role in England’s commercial and political ambitions. It also offers critical insights into the rise of the early modern English state and the expansion and development of its nascent empire.
A Buss from Lafayette
by Dorothea JensenFourteen-year-old Clara Hargraves lives on a farm in Hopkinton, a small New Hampshire town, during the early 19th century. She has a couple of big problems. First of all, she has a stepmother, Priscilla, who used to be her spinster schoolteacher aunt. Clara resents that her late mother's older sister has not only married her father but is about to have a baby. To make matters worse, "Prissy Priscilla" keeps trying to make the rambunctious, clever, and witty Clara act like a proper young lady. Secondly, Clara has red hair, making her a target for teasing by a handsome older boy, Dickon Weeks, and by her pretty seventeen-year-old Dread Cousin Hetty. Clara, however, has a secret plan she hopes will change this. During the last week of June, 1825, Clara's town is abuzz because the famous General Lafayette is about to visit their state during his farewell tour of America. In those eventful seven days, Clara learns a lot about her family, Hetty, Dickon, herself, and about Lafayette. She comes to understand the huge and vital role the young French aristocrat played in America's Revolutionary War and to see that her problems might not be quite so terrible after all.
A CONSPIRAÇÃO PARA SALVAR SÓCRATES
by Paul Levinson Vasco BentoUma jovem académica recebe um fragmento de um diálogo que refere um encontro entre Sócrates e um estrangeiro, que o visitou na prisão antes de beber a cicuta. Este propõe-lhe resgatá-lo e deixar um clone no seu lugar. Outras personagens entram também em contacto com esse diálogo , entre eles um inventor que criou uma cadeira para viajar no tempo. Irá Sócrates ser salvo? Quem vai sobreviver àquela corrida contra o tempo?
A Cabinet of Byzantine Curiosities: Strange Tales and Surprising Facts from History's Most Orthodox Empire
by Anthony KaldellisWeird, decadent, degenerate, racially mixed, superstitious, theocratic, effeminate, and even hyper-literate, Byzantium has long been regarded by many as one big curiosity. According to Voltaire, it represented "a worthless collection of miracles, a disgrace for the human mind"; for Hegel, it was "a disgusting picture of imbecility." A Cabinet of Byzantine Curiosities will churn up these old prejudices, while also stimulating a deeper interest among readers in one of history's most interesting civilizations. Many of the zanier tales and trivia that are collected here revolve around the political and religious life of Byzantium. Thus, stories of saints, relics, and their miracles-from the hilarious to the revolting-abound. Byzantine bureaucracy (whence the adjective "Byzantine"), court scandals, and elaborate penal code are world famous. And what would Byzantium be without its eunuchs, whose ambiguous gender produced odd and risible outcomes in different contexts? The book also contains sections on daily life that are equally eye-opening, including food (from aphrodisiacs to fermented fish sauce), games such as polo and acrobatics, and obnoxious views of foreigners and others (e.g., Germans, Catholics, Arabs, dwarves). But lest we overlook Byzantium's more honorable contributions to civilization, also included are some of the marvels of Byzantine science and technology, from the military (flamethrowers and hand grenades) to the theatrical ("elevator" thrones, roaring mechanical lions) and medical (catheters and cures, some bizarre). This vast assortment of historical anomaly and absurdity sheds vital light on one of history's most obscure and orthodox empires.