For a long time guilds have been condemned as a major obstacle to economic progress in the pre-industrial era. This re-examination of the role of guilds in the early modern European economy challenges that view by taking into account fresh research on innovation, technological change and entrepreneurship. Leading economic historians argue that industry before the Industrial Revolution was much more innovative than previous studies have allowed for and explore the different products and production techniques that were launched and developed in this period. Much of this innovation was fostered by the craft guilds that formed the backbone of industrial production before the rise of the steam engine. The book traces the manifold ways in which guilds in a variety of industries in Italy, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Britain helped to create an institutional environment conducive to technological and marketing innovations.

In Science, Patricia Fara rewrites science's past to provide new ways of understanding and questioning our modern technological society. Aiming not just to provide information but to make people think, this unique book explores how science has become so powerful by describing the financial interests and imperial ambitions behind its success.
Sweeping through the centuries from ancient Babylon right up to the latest hi-tech experiments in genetics and particle physics, Fara's book also ranges internationally, challenging notions of European superiority by emphasising the importance of scientific projects based around the world, including revealing discussions of China and the Islamic Empire alongside the more familiar stories about Copernicus's sun-centered astronomy, Newton's gravity, and Darwin's theory of evolution. We see for instance how Muslim leaders encouraged science by building massive libraries, hospitals, and astronomical observatories and we rediscover the significance of medieval Europe--long overlooked--where, surprisingly, religious institutions ensured science's survival, as the learning preserved in monasteries was subsequently developed in new and unique institutions: universities. Instead of focussing on esoteric experiments and abstract theories, she explains how science belongs to the practical world of war, politics and business. And rather than glorifying scientists as idealized heroes, she tells true stories about real people--men (and some women) who needed to earn their living, who made mistakes, and who trampled down their rivals.
Finally, this provocative volume challenges scientific supremacy itself, arguing that science is successful not because it is always indubitably right, but because people have said that it is right. Science dominates modern life, but perhaps the globe will be better off by limiting science's powers and undoing some of its effects.
"Dismantling popular myths, taking a truly global view and dispensing with false idols, Fara's highly readable survey of science's histories is a breath of fresh air. She unerringly pinpoints the defining moods of each age, treating the past with respect and the present with discernment. This wonderfully literate book tells a story that is far, far more interesting than the tidy fictions of hindsight." -- Philip Ball, Consultant Editor of Nature
"It's been a very long time since any reputable historian of science had the desire, the knowledge, or the nerve to undertake a book like this-- an attempt to survey the development of science from Antiquity to the present, notably including non-European materials. Patricia Fara has succeeded: Science is an elegant and compact creative synthesis of the piecemeal researches of generations of academic historians. It deserves the widest possible readership." - Steven Shapin, Professor of the History of Science, Harvard, and author of The Scientific Revolution

Patricia Fara lectures in the History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge and is the Senior Tutor of Clare College. She is the author of numerous books, including Fatal Attraction: Magnetic Mysteries of the Enlightenment and Newton: The Making of Genius. Her writing has appeared in History Today, New Scientist, Nature, The Times and New Statesman, and she writes a regular column on scientific portraits for Endeavour.
Books by the same author Fatal Attraction: Magnetic Mysteries of the Enlightenment by Patricia Fara. Published: 2005 Publisher: Icon Books Price: L9.99 Pandora's Breeches: Women, Science and Power in the Enlightenment by Patricia Fara. Published: 2004 Publisher: Pimlico Price: L12.99 Sex, Botany and Empire; the Stories of Carl Linnaeus and Joseph Banks by Patricia Fara. Published: 2003 Publisher: Icon Books Price: L6.99 Newton: the Making of Genius by Patricia Fara. Published: 2002 Publisher: Macmillan Price: L20 An Entertainment for Angels: Electricity in the Enlightenment by Patricia Fara. Publish

Geeft een uitstekende indruk over hoe het er tijdens de wereldoorlog in Jappenkampen aan toe ging

Weet jij... Wie de snelste verhuizers zijn van onze aarde? Welke plant lijkt op een augurk en welke plant smaakt naar chips? Ga mee op avontuur naar de Waddenzee

The 1960s and ’70s were a time of dramatic upheaval in American universities as a new generation of scholar-activists rejected traditional humanism in favor of a radical ideology that denied esthetic merit and objective truth. In The Victims’ Revolution, critic and scholar Bruce Bawer provides the first true history of this radical movement and a sweeping assessment of its intellectual and cultural fruits.

Once, Bawer argues, the purpose of higher education had been to introduce students to the legacy of Western civilization—“the best that has been thought and said.” The new generation of radical educators sought instead to unmask the West as the perpetrator of global injustice. Age-old values of goodness, truth, and beauty were disparaged as mere weapons in an ongoing struggle of the powerful against the powerless. Shifting the focus of the humanities to the purported victims of Western colonialism, imperialism, and capitalism, the new politicized approach to the humanities gave rise to a series of identity-based programs, including Women’s Studies, Black Studies, Queer Studies, and Chicano Studies. As a result, the serious and objective study of human civilization and culture was replaced by “theoretical” approaches emphasizing group identity, victimhood, and lockstep “progressive” politics.

Twenty-five years ago, Allan Bloom warned against the corruption of the humanities in The Closing of the American Mind. Bawer’s book presents compelling evidence that Bloom and other conservative critics were right to be alarmed. The Victims’ Revolution describes how the new identity-based disciplines came into being, examines their major proponents and texts, and trenchantly critiques their underlying premises. Bawer concludes that the influence of these programs has impoverished our thought, confused our politics, and filled the minds of their impressionable students with politically correct mush. Bawer’s book is must-reading for all those concerned not only about the declining quality of American higher education, but also about the fate of our society at large.

"Failed states" Chomsky writes, are those "that do not protect their citizens from violence and perhaps even destruction, that regard themselves as beyond the reach of domestic or international law, and that suffer from a 'democratic deficit,' having democratic forms but with limited substance." Exploring recent U.S. foreign and domestic policies, Chomsky assesses Washington's escalation of the nuclear risk, the dangerous consequences of the occupation of Iraq; and America's self-exemption from international law. He also examines an American electoral system that frustrates genuine political alternatives, thus impeding any meaningful democracy.

There has been much talk about family values in recent years, but little examination of the economic forces that are exploding family life and limiting the caregiving that families can provide. As Folbre points out in her provocative and insightful new book, every society must confront the problem of balancing self-interested pursuits with care for others--including children, the elderly, and the infirm. Historically, most societies enjoyed an increased supply of care by maintaining strict limits on women's freedom. But as these limits happily and inevitably give way, there are many consequences for those who still need care.

Using the image of "the invisible heart" to evoke the forces of compassion that must temper the forces of self-interest, Folbre argues that if we don't establish a new set of rules defining our mutual responsibilities for caregiving, the penalties suffered by the needy--our very families--will increase. Intensified economic competition may drive altruism and families out of business.

A leading feminist economist, Nancy Folbre writes in a lively, personal style--Molly Ivins cheek-to-cheek with John Kenneth Galbraith--and develops a distinctive approach to the economics of care. Unlike others who praise family values, Folbre acknowledges the complicated relationship between women and altruism. Her book offers new interpretations of such policy issues as welfare reform, school finance, and progressive taxation, and it confronts the challenges of globalization, outlining strategies for developing an economic system that rewards both individual achievement and care for others.

In this book, George Gilder asserts that widespread antagonism toward the current state of Israel springs from, like anti-Semitism everywhere, envy of superior accomplishment. Israel's sudden rise as a world capitalist and technological power, he argues, stems in part from the Jewish "culture of mind" and in part from Judaism itself, which, "perhaps more than any other religion, favors capitalist activity and provides a rigorous moral framework for it." Critics of Israel--in the U.S., in the surrounding countries of the Middle East and in Western European nations that are facing socialist decline--have failed the "Israel Test" because they seek to tear down this country's success rather than emulate it. America's ability and desire to defend Israel will define our future survival as a nation: "If Israel is destroyed," he says, "capitalist Europe will likely die as well, and America, as the epitome of productive and creative capitalism spurred by Jews, will be in jeopardy."

A Moment of Anguish captures the dramatic events leading to the historic separation of Singapore from Malaysia. This book is based on research material drawn from the archives in Singapore. Britain, Australia and the United States. It goes beyond other studies to unravel the hidden story behind this traumatic and controversial episode in Singapore's recent history. Unpublished sources have been put together to recreate key events which bring out the tensions and conflicts of the period - the "snap" election in Singapore in 1963, the controversial participation of the PAP in the Federal elections of 1964, the two race riots in Singapore in 1964, the formation of the Malaysian Solidarity Convention and the secret negotiations for disengagement. Written in an engaging style, the book also offers new insights into the principal personalities of the period and the circumstances under which painful and fateful decisions were made.

In February of 2008, amid the looming global financial crisis, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France asked Nobel Prize-winning economists Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya Sen, along with the distinguished French economist Jean Paul Fitoussi, to establish a commission of leading economists to study whether Gross Domestic Product (GDP)--the most widely used measure of economic activity--is a reliable indicator of economic and social progress. The Commission was given the further task of laying out an agenda for developing better measures.

Mismeasuring Our Lives is the result of this major intellectual effort, one with pressing relevance for anyone engaged in assessing how and whether our economy is serving the needs of our society. The authors offer a sweeping assessment of the limits of GDP as a measurement of the well-being of societies--considering, for example, how GDP overlooks economic inequality (with the result that most people can be worse off even though average income is increasing); and does not factor environmental impacts into economic decisions.

In place of GDP, Mismeasuring Our Lives introduces a bold new array of concepts, from sustainable measures of economic welfare, to measures of savings and wealth, to a "green GDP." At a time when policymakers worldwide are grappling with unprecedented global financial and environmental issues, here is an essential guide to measuring the things that matter.

Now a Broadway play starring Mark Ruffalo, Tony Shalhoub, Danny DeVito, and Jessica Hecht, Miller’s riveting story about family, sacrifice, and the struggle to make peace with the past.

Years after an angry breakup, Victor and Walter Franz are reunited by the death of their father. As they sort through his possessions in an old brownstone attic, the memories evoked by his belongings stir up old hostilities. The Price was nominated for two Tony Awards, including best play.

The best of The Minimalists. 

Simplicity: Essays is The Minimalists' second essay collection, a follow-up to their bestselling Minimalism: Essential Essays. In the two years since the authors quit their six-figure corporate jobs and embraced simpler lives, they have written more than 200 essays on the subject of simple living. Simplicity: Essays serves as a "best of" collection for their most important collaborative writings. 

Misha Glenny's groundbreaking study of global organized crime is now the inspiration for an 8-part AMC crime drama starring James Norton (War and Peace), Juliet Rylance, and David Strathairn. 

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the deregulation of international financial markets in 1989, governments and entrepreneurs alike became intoxicated by dreams of newly opened markets. But no one could have foreseen that the greatest success story to arise from these events would be the worldwide rise of organized crime. Today, it is estimated that illegal trade accounts for one-fifth of the global GDP.

In this fearless and wholly authoritative investigation of the seemingly insatiable demand for illegal wares, veteran reporter Misha Glenny travels across five continents to speak with participants from every level of the global underworld--police, victims, politicians, and even the criminals themselves. What follows is a groundbreaking, propulsive look at an unprecedented phenomenon from a savvy, street-wise guide.

Born and raised on a small Canadian farm, Galbraith began teaching at Harvard during the Depression. He was FDR"s "price czar" during the war and then a senior editor of Fortune before returning to Harvard and to fame as a bestselling writer. Parker shows how, from his early championing of Keynes to his acerbic analysis of America"s "private wealth and public squalor," Galbraith regularly challenged prevailing theories and policies. And his account of Galbraith"s remarkable friendship with John F. Kennedy, whom he served as a close advisor while ambassador to India, is especially relevant for its analysis of the intense, dynamic debates that economists and politicians can have over how America should manage its wealth and power. This masterful chronicle gives color, depth, and meaning to the record of an extraordinary life.

This journalistic pilgrimage seeks out the forgotten people of the Holy Land-its Christians-and shows how their dwindling numbers offer a sober lesson in understanding the modern Middle East. . Retracing the path of Jesus' life at the turn of a new millennium, award-winning journalist Charles M. Sennott finds a region riven by political revolt, religious conflict, apocalyptic prophecies and the quest for Jerusalem-just as it was 2,000 years ago. The Body and the Blood is Sennott's journalistic pilgrimage through the Holy Land from Nazareth and Bethlehem to Egypt and Lebanon and finally Jerusalem itself, during a gripping a year that was also a critical turning point in the future of the region. Sennott's journey weaves through the local Christian communities of the Middle East, a population which is disappearing dramatically in the land where the faith began. Where a century ago Christians represented as much as 20 percent of the population of what is today Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, now they comprise less than 2 percent of the total population. Historians and demographers fear that within two more generations, native Christianity could virtually disappear in the Holy Land. Timely and moving, firmly grounded in the troubled history of the region, The Body and the Blood dares to ask questions of the spirit as well as of politics. Two thousand years after Jesus' birth, is there a place for his followers in the land he called home? Has the West fatally misunderstood, even abandoned, the Christians of the Middle East? And most provocatively, could Christianity help answer the riddle of peace in the region? Sennott's elegiac, controversial book is sure to spark national, and international, discussion

Als de nazi's aan de macht komen, besluit steracteur Kurt Köpler om niet te emigreren. Ook na de oorlog is hij een ster, in dienst van een nieuw bestel. Uit integere passie voor het acteren of als volmaakt lege opportunist? De roman Mephisto. Roman einer Karriere (1936) van Klaus Mann baseerde zich op het leven van Gustav Grüngens - Manns voormalige zwager en cabaretkompaan, tevens een succesvol toneelspeler in het Duitsland van de jaren dertig. Een van Grüngens glansrollen was Mephisto, de duivel in Goethes Faust.

Als de nazi's aan de macht komen, staat de steracteur voor de verscheurende keuze: emigreren of niet? In tegenstelling tot de familie Mann blijft hij. Hij wordt al snel de directeur van het grootste staatstheater en zelfs een graag geziene gast in de hoogste kringen van het Derde Rijk. Acteren is immers zijn passie, en de kunst is hem heilig, boven alles... Maar ten koste waarvan?

Mephisto bleef in het naoorlogse Duitsland werken een verboden boek, tot het van de vergetelheid werd gered door de toneelbewerking van Ariane Mnouchkine (Théâtre du Soleil) en de Oscarwinnende film van István Szabo (starring Klaus Maria Brandauer). De bewerking die Lanoye met regisseur Guy Cassiers (Toneelhuis) nu maakt gaat verder. Zij trekken het verhaal van steracteur door tot na de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Want ook na de instorting van het Derde Rijk werd de protagonist weer een ster, in dienst van een nieuw bestel. Uit integere passie voor het acteren? Of als volmaakt lege opportunist?
Zodoende wordt Mefisto for ever geen documentaire karakterschets meer over één enkele acteur, maar een universele theaterparabel over kunst en politiek, macht en acteren, regie en propaganda.