Social Science : Customs & Traditions

Niall Ferguson follows the money to tell the human story behind the evolution of finance, from its origins in ancient Mesopotamia to the latest upheavals on what he calls Planet Finance. Bread, cash, dosh, dough, loot, lucre, moolah, readies, the wherewithal: Call it what you like, it matters. To Christians, love of it is the root of all evil. To generals, it’s the sinews of war. To revolutionaries, it’s the chains of labor. But in The Ascent of Money, Niall Ferguson shows that finance is in fact the foundation of human progress. What’s more, he reveals financial history as the essential backstory behind all history. Through Ferguson’s expert lens familiar historical landmarks appear in a new and sharper financial focus. Suddenly, the civilization of the Renaissance looks very different: a boom in the market for art and architecture made possible when Italian bankers adopted Arabic mathematics. The rise of the Dutch republic is reinterpreted as the triumph of the world’s first modern bond market over insolvent Habsburg absolutism. And the origins of the French Revolution are traced back to a stock market bubble caused by a convicted Scot murderer. With the clarity and verve for which he is known, Ferguson elucidates key financial institutions and concepts by showing where they came from. What is money? What do banks do? What’s the difference between a stock and a bond? Why buy insurance or real estate? And what exactly does a hedge fund do?. This is history for the present. Ferguson travels to post-Katrina New Orleans to ask why the free market can’t provide adequate protection against catastrophe. He delves into the origins of the subprime mortgage crisis. Perhaps most important, The Ascent of Money documents how a new financial revolution is propelling the world’s biggest countries, India and China, from poverty to wealth in the space of a single generation—an economic transformation unprecedented in human history. Yet more...

Price: $29.95

This book introduces the basics of Chinese culture. You will discover how to initiate contact, what to expect in meetings, and how to behave there. You will learn the way the Chinese approach negotiations, discover how you can respond to them, and learn how to negotiate a successful conclusion. You will also find out how to socialize for success, how to cope with specific problems of living and working in China, and the best way to treat Chinese visitors to your organization. You are given practical advice throughout on business etiquette, and on how to fit into Chinese cultural expectations in order to achieve your goals. An appendix briefly explains Chinese history, and then considers recent economic, political, and social changes. If you fit any one of the following descriptions, this book will provide valuable help to you in your chosen field: - I am a business person and I am thinking of moving into the China market to buy or sell, or I already buy or sell in China, or I am contemplating investing in China. > br/> - I work for the government and I would like to know more about China, its business practices, and how to deal with the Chinese I meet. - I am a university professor and I teach a course about doing business in China, or the Chinese economy and society, or cross cultural management problems, or law and international negotiating practices. - I am a student and I am studying China, or taking courses about cross cultural management, or doing business in China, or international business studies, or negotiating abroad. For author bio and photo, reviews and a reading sample, go to bosonbooks.com more...

Price: $7.50

In this revised and expanded second edition, taking account of new developments such as Facebook and the iPhone, Charlie Gere charts in detail the history of digital culture, as marked by responses to digital technology in art, music, design, film, litera more...

Price: $31.00

This classic ethnography, now in its second edition, describes the traditional way of life of the Kaluli, a tropical forest people of Papua New Guinea. The book takes as its focus the nostalgic and violent Gisalo ceremony, one of the most remarkable performances in the anthropological literature. Tracking the major symbolic and emotional themes of the ceremony to their sources in everyday Kaluli life, Schieffelin shows how the central values and passions of Kaluli experience are governed by the basic forms of social reciprocity. However, Gisaro reveals that social reciprocity is not limited to the dynamics of transaction, obligation and alliance. It emerges, rather, as a mode of symbolic action and performative form, embodying a cultural scenario which shapes Kaluli emotional experience and moral sensibility and permeates their understanding of the human condition. more...

Price: $69.95

Think of England, and anger hardly springs to mind as its primary national characteristic. Yet in The Angry Island, A. A. Gill argues that, in fact, it is plain old fury that is the wellspring for England's accomplishments. The default setting of England is anger. The English are naturally, congenitally, collectively and singularly livid much of the time. They're incensed, incandescent, splenetic, prickly, touchy, and fractious. They can be mildly annoyed, really annoyed and, most scarily, not remotely annoyed. They sit apart on their half of a damply disappointing little island, nursing and picking at their irritations. The English itch inside their own skins. They feel foreign in their own country and run naked through their own heads. more...

Price: $14.00