COMPUTER

Produktbeschreibung

The Patterns of History and what they reveal about the Future
Erscheinungsjahr: 2011
Gewicht: 605 gr
Von Morris, Ian

There are two broad schools of thought on why the West rules. Proponents of ''Long-Term Lock-In'' theories such as Jared Diamond suggest that from time immemorial, some critical factor - geography, climate, or culture perhaps - made East and West unalterably different, and determined that the industrial revolution would happen in the West and push it further ahead of the East. But the East led the West between 500 and 1600, so this development can''t have been inevitable; and so proponents of ''Short-Term Accident'' theories argue that Western rule was a temporary aberration that is now coming to an end, with Japan, China, and India resuming their rightful places on the world stage. However, as the West led for 9,000 of the previous 10,000 years, it wasn''t just a temporary aberration. So, if we want to know why the West rules, we need a whole new theory. Ian Morris, boldly entering the turf of Jared Diamond and Niall Ferguson, provides the broader approach that is necessary, combining the textual historian''s focus on context, the anthropological archaeologist''s awareness of the deep past, and the social scientist''s comparative methods to make sense of the past, present and future - in a way no one has ever done before.

Kurzbeschreibung

Before there was money, there was debt

Every economics textbook says the same thing: Money was invented to replace onerous and complicated barter systems?to relieve ancient people from having to haul their goods to market. The problem with this version of history? There?s not a shred of evidence to support it.

Here anthropologist David Graeber presents a stunning reversal of conventional wisdom. He shows that for more than 5,000 years, since the beginnings of the first agrarian empires, humans have used elaborate credit systems to buy and sell goods?that is, long before the invention of coins or cash. It is in this era, Graeber argues, that we also first encounter a society divided into debtors and creditors.

Graeber shows that arguments about debt and debt forgiveness have been at the center of political debates from Italy to China, as well as sparking innumerable insurrections. He also brilliantly demonstrates that the language of the ancient works of law and religion (words like ?guilt,? ?sin,? and ?redemption?) derive in large part from ancient debates about debt, and shape even our most basic ideas of right and wrong. We are still fighting these battles today without knowing it.

Debt: The First 5,000 Years is a fascinating chronicle of this little known history?as well as how it has defined human history, and what it means for the credit crisis of the present day and the future of our economy.


From the Hardcover edition.

Kurzbeschreibung

Before there was money, there was debt

Every economics textbook says the same thing: Money was invented to replace onerous and complicated barter systems?to relieve ancient people from having to haul their goods to market. The problem with this version of history? There?s not a shred of evidence to support it.

Here anthropologist David Graeber presents a stunning reversal of conventional wisdom. He shows that for more than 5,000 years, since the beginnings of the first agrarian empires, humans have used elaborate credit systems to buy and sell goods?that is, long before the invention of coins or cash. It is in this era, Graeber argues, that we also first encounter a society divided into debtors and creditors.

Graeber shows that arguments about debt and debt forgiveness have been at the center of political debates from Italy to China, as well as sparking innumerable insurrections. He also brilliantly demonstrates that the language of the ancient works of law and religion (words like ?guilt,? ?sin,? and ?redemption?) derive in large part from ancient debates about debt, and shape even our most basic ideas of right and wrong. We are still fighting these battles today without knowing it.

Debt: The First 5,000 Years is a fascinating chronicle of this little known history?as well as how it has defined human history, and what it means for the credit crisis of the present day and the future of our economy.


From the Hardcover edition.

Kurzbeschreibung

Kurzbeschreibung

The year is 1969... a time when the youth of America is standing up to its elder rulers, when minorities are demanding their fair share of the American pie. A time when an eternal war fought for misbegotten motives and fueled by a continuous stream of some of the most outrageous lies ever fed to a people by its leadership over the previous eight years continues to gut an entire generation. A time when the old values, the old expectations, the old imperatives are knocked flat.

Seen through the eyes of 21 year old college senior John Cassell, always out of money and soon to be out of college, it is a saga of coming of age at a time when the younger generation accepted very little of the old yardsticks and Thou-Shalt-Nots which traditionally helped that process along.

Based on a true story, and the stories of others, the book follows the young man into the year 1969 as he struggles with the decisions expected of him by elders and demanded of him by life.

Kurzbeschreibung

The year is 1969... a time when the youth of America is standing up to its elder rulers, when minorities are demanding their fair share of the American pie. A time when an eternal war fought for misbegotten motives and fueled by a continuous stream of some of the most outrageous lies ever fed to a people by its leadership over the previous eight years continues to gut an entire generation. A time when the old values, the old expectations, the old imperatives are knocked flat.

Seen through the eyes of 21 year old college senior John Cassell, always out of money and soon to be out of college, it is a saga of coming of age at a time when the younger generation accepted very little of the old yardsticks and Thou-Shalt-Nots which traditionally helped that process along.

Based on a true story, and the stories of others, the book follows the young man into the year 1969 as he struggles with the decisions expected of him by elders and demanded of him by life.