53 results for "Economic History"

The Struggle for Power in Europe, 1917-1921. An Outline Economic and Political Survey of the Central States and Russia

William Edmund Fmo Aughinbaugh,Leslie Haden Haden-Guest
In the aftermath of World War I, Europe was in turmoil. This book examines the economic and political struggles of the Central States and Russia during this tumultuous period. Haden Guest and Aughinbaugh's analysis is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of modern Europe. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Creative Media Partners, LLC 2023-07-18 332 pages

Hungary Between Democracy and Authoritarianism

Paul Lendvai
How has Hungary, a country once in the vanguard of political and economic reform under Communism, become a chilling example of the new threats confronting democracy in Central Europe? The return of Hungary's demons of the past--nationalism, ethnic hatred, deeply-rooted corruption and authoritarian tendencies--has engendered international concern. Since winning a two-thirds majority in parliament in the spring of 2010, the dynamic right-wing populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban has embarked on a sweeping and ruthless concentration of power and has sought to reshape the state in his own image. A new constitution and a sweeping series of laws and decrees--radical changes in the judicial and electoral system and the dismantling of constitutional safeguards ensuring the autonomy of the executive branch and the freedom of the media--seem destined to ensure a long-term hegemony of the far right. Meanwhile a campaign of vituperative nationalist rhetoric and the granting of voting rights to 2.5 million ethnic Hungarians living in neighbouring countries are bound to increase tensions in this volatile corner of Europe. Lendvai offers readers an unsparing and dispassionate account, based on his intimate personal knowledge of Hungary's major political figures and its political culture, of the turbulent events since the collapse of the Communist regime which affect not only Hungary, but also the political and economic stability of the Danube basin.
Oxford University Press 2012-05 288 pages

Menace in Europe: why the continent's crisis is America's, too

Berlinski, Claire
Old Europe’s new crisis. Europe, the charming continent of windmills and gondolas. But lately, Europe has become the continent of endless strikes and demonstrations, bombs on the trains and subways, radical Islamic cells in every city, and ghettos so hopeless and violent even the police won’t enter them. In Spain, a terrorist attack prompts instant capitulation to the terrorists’ demands. In France, the suburbs go up in flames every night. In Holland, politicians and artists are murdered for speaking frankly about Islamic immigration. This isn’t the Europe we thought we knew. What’s going on over there? Traveling overland from London to Istanbul, journalist Claire Berlinski shows why the Continent has lately appeared so bewildering—and often so thoroughly obnoxious—to Americans. Speaking to Muslim immigrants, German rock stars, French cops, and Italian women who have better things to do than have children, she finds that Europe is still, despite everything, in the grip of the same old ancient demons. Anyone who knows the history can sense it: There is something ugly—and familiar—in the air. But something new is happening as well. Indeed, Europe now confronts—and seems unable to cope with—an entirely new set of troubles. Tracing the ancient conflicts and newly erupting crises, Menace in Europe reveals: • Why Islamic radicalism and terrorist indoctrination flourish as Europe fails to assimilate millions of Muslim immigrants • How plummeting birthrates hurtle Europe toward economic and cultural catastrophe • Why hatred of America has become ubiquitous—on Europe’s streets, in its books, newspapers, and music, and at the highest levels of government • How long-repressed destructive instincts are suddenly reemerging • How the death of religious faith has created a hopeless, morally unmoored Europe that clings to anti-Americanism, anti-Semitism, and other dangerous ideologies • Why the notion of a united Europe is a fantasy and what that means for the United States In the end, these are not separate issues. Berlinski provocatively demonstrates that Europe’s political and cultural crisis mirrors its profound moral and spiritual crisis. But this is not just Europe’s problem. Menace in Europe makes clear that the spiritual void at the heart of Europe is ultimately our problem too. And America will pay a terrible price if we continue to ignore it. From the Hardcover edition.
Three Rivers Press 2007 289 pages

The Three Ages of the Italian Renaissance

Robert S. Lopez
Mr. Lopez reinterprets the civilization of the High Renaissance in Italy as a dramatic succession of three ages: Youth, 1454-1494; Maturity, 1494-1527; Decline, 1527-1559. In the first period, political and economic stabilization brings forth a mood of confident expectation which expresses itself in literature, art, and philosophy, all reaching for a goal of "self-centered aesthetic harmony." In the second period, a series of foreign invasions shatters the political and economic well-being of the Indian elite but does not slow down the artistic and literary drive. Whether in hope or in sorrow, in response to shock or in escape from reality, the Renaissance attains its glorious climax. The third period is torn between conflicting tendencies. The political battle is lost but there is a second economic revival; art and literature give out despondent notes but successfully explore new channels; philosophic permissiveness comes to an end but scientific reserach comes into its own. Mr. Lopez's tripartition of an age which is usually described as a single sweep adds depth to the definition of the Italian Renaissance. It is enhanced by his fresh translations of Renaissance poems and by twenty-four illustrations which pick out from the incomparable wealth of Renaissance art a few historically significant works. All the famous names are there, from Lorenzo de'Medici to Ariosto, Machiavelli, and Cardano, from Botticelli to Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Palladio; but one also meets a large number of minor figures and anonymous people in the street. America is discovered; new diseases appear; anti-Semitism reawakens; religious unity is destroyed - these and other events form the backdrop. The sparkling narration is thoroughly grounded in contemporary sources.
University of Virginia Press 2015-06-07 112 pages

The Cambridge economic history. Vol.2. Trade and industry in the Middle Ages

Edward Miller,Cynthia Postan,M. M. Postan
The second volume of The Cambridge Economic History of Europe, first published in 1952, was a survey by an international group of specialist scholars covering trade and industry in pre-Roman, Roman and Byzantine Europe, the medieval trade of northern and southern Europe, and the histories of medieval woollen manufacture, mining and metallurgy, and building in stone. This second edition, in addition to revising most chapters and the bibliographies appended to them, also fills gaps which arose from the wartime and post-war circumstances in which the first edition was written. New chapters provide accounts of the trade and industry of eastern Europe, of medieval Europe's trade with Asia and Africa, and of medieval coinage and currency. Taken with volumes I and III of the series, this volume is designed to complete a comprehensive review of the economic history of medieval Europe as a whole. It was planned by the late Sir Michael Postan, and was largely completed under his editorship.
Cambridge University Press 1987-08-28 999 pages

Europe in the Russian mirror: four lectures in economic history

Gerschenkron, Alexander
First published in 1970, Professor Gerschenkron's theme is the contribution which the study of Russian economic history can make to the problems which have preoccupied Western historians. He first considers the way in which the case of the old Believers in Russia, who refused to support the official church but played an important entrepreneurial role in nineteenth-century economic development, bears upon Max Weber's celebrated thesis on the relations between the Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism. In the course of his discussion, Professor Gerschenkron provides important information on the doctrinal beliefs of this group, their social status and the extent to which they were persecuted and discriminated against by the State. His conclusion is that the persecution certainly afforded sufficient impulse to engage in profitable activities and to develop the traits Weber considered as specific features of the 'capitalist' spirit.
Cambridge University Press 2008-10-14 158 pages

The anatomy of Thatcherism

Letwin, Shirley Robin
The Anatomy of Thatcherism explains how, for the first time in British history, a prime minister's name has become an 'Ism' a symbol of a profound social change. Letwin argues that Thatcherism promoted a moral agenda rather than an economic doctrine or a political theory in order to achieve a fundamental realignment in British politics. She introduces a new term "the vigorous virtues" to describe what Thatcherites have aimed to cultivate in Individual Britons and In the country as a whole. Her definition of Thatcherism is supported by a detailed analysis of the principal Thatcherite policies and the grounds on which they were advocated and opposed, Inside and outside the Conservative Party. Without departing from a lucid and lively style or resorting to technical jargon. Dr. Letwin explains such innovations as schools opting out, budget holding by GPs, and the creation of the first ever competitive spot market in electricity. Just how did the Thatcherite administrations shape the reform of the unions? How is the Thatcherite attitude to the family connected with Thatcherite policies on schools? Why does mon-etarism appear wrongly to be at the heart of Thatcherism? The Anatomy of Thatcherism is a bold and searching book about how Britain changed between 1979 and 1992. It challenges many truisms about British politics, and Is indispensable reading both for those who believe in the future relevance of Thatcherism and for those who want to demolish it. And it will be of particular interest to those con-cerned with the history of British politics, as It shows how Thatcherism both arose out of, and confronted, trends that had per-meated Conservatism for the entire twentieth century.
Routledge 2018-04-16 377 pages

Would you believe ... The Helsinki Accords changed the world? human rights and, for decades, security in Europe

Osnos, Peter,Cartner, Holly
Would You Believe. . . When the Helsinki Accords were signed on August 1, 1975, the likelihood they would have a profound and lasting impact on the world were very small. Which is why a book about them after a half century is both surprisingly topical and well worth reading for anyone with an interest in modern history. The thirty-five signatories were the nations of Europe, the United States and Canada at was formally known as the Conference of Security and Cooperation in Europe. The Final Act of CSCE contained detailed provisions on respect for human rights and set country borders that essentially held until Russia invaded Ukraine in February,2022. Only 15 years after the summit signing, the Soviet Union imploded and its Eastern European satellites broke with Communism and the broad range of human rights issues -civil, social, economic, and political - were a major factor in this historic turning point. Peter L.W. Osnos' expertise on the history of the accords is vast, as a journalist and publisher. His narrative writing skill is widely recognized. Holly Cartner provides a vivid account of how a small organization called Helsinki Watch became Human Rights Watch, the most important global NGO in its field.
Platform Books 2023-03 256 pages

The Ellen Meiksins Wood Reader

Ellen Meiksins Wood
Ellen Meiksins Wood is a leading contemporary political theorist who has been described as the founder, together with Robert Brenner, of Political Marxism,' a distinct version of historical materialism which has inspired a research program that spans a number of academic disciplines. Organized thematically, this Reader provides an overview of her original interpretations of capitalism, and many different topics.
Haymarket Books 2013-11-05 368 pages

The Growth of Philosophic Radicalism

Elie Halevy
2013 Reprint of 1928 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. This is still one of the best discussions of the 19th century Utilitarian movement in England-the rise of the Benthamites and the conflict between the growing economic philosophy and older philosophies that emphasized human and social values. Halevy discusses Locke, Newton, Gay, Hartley, Hume, Bentham, Adam Smith, Burke, Godwin, Malthus, James Mill, Ricardo, Grote and others. Remains a standard work to this day.
Martino Fine Books 2013 576 pages

Enraged citizens, European peace and democratic deficits: or, Why the democracy given to us must become one we fight for

Menasse, Robert
"In 2010, Robert Menasse journeyed to Brussels to begin work on a novel centered on the European Union. His extended stay resulted in a completely different book - Enraged Citizens, European Peace and Democratic Deficits, a work of nonfiction examining the history of the European project and the evolving politics of nation-states. Spanning from the beginning of the transnational idea with 1951's Montanunion - the European Coal and Steel Community - to the current financial crisis, Menasse focuses on the institutional structures and forces both advancing and obstructing the European project. Given the internal tensions among the European Commission, Parliament, and Council, Menasse argues that current problems that are frequently misunderstood as resulting from the financial crisis are, in fact, political. Along the way, he makes the bold claim that either the Europe of nation-states will perish - or the project of transcending the nation-states will ... [this work] analyzes the financial and bureaucratic structures of the European Union and sheds light on the state of the debt crisis. Menasse unravels the real state of the Union, along the way weaving a tale of one continent's efforts to become a truly postnational democracy."--Provided by publisher.
Seagull Books 2016 134 pages

Brothers from afar: rabbinic approaches to apostasy and reversion in medieval Europe

Kanarfogel, Ephraim
"Revisionist approach to a status of apostates in medieval European rabbinic thought. View this in full screen In Brothers from Afar: Rabbinic Approaches to Apostasy and Reversion in Medieval Europe, Ephraim Kanarfogel challenges a long-held view that those who had apostatized and later returned to the Jewish community in northern medieval Europe were encouraged to resume their places without the need for special ceremony or act that verified their reversion. Kanarfogel's evidence suggests that from the late twelfth century onward, leading rabbinic authorities held that returning apostates had to undergo ritual immersion and other rites of contrition. He also argues that the shift in rabbinic positions during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries was fundamentally a response to changing Christian perceptions of Jews and was not simply an internal halakhic or rabbinic development. Brothers from Afar is divided into seven chapters. Kanarfogel begins the book with Rashi (1040-1105), the pre-eminent European rabbinic authority, who favored an approach which sought to smooth the return of penitent apostates. He then goes on to explain that although Jacob Katz, a leading Jewish social historian, maintains that this more lenient approach held sway in Ashkenazic society, a series of manuscript passages indicate that Rashi's view was challenged in several significant ways by northern French Tosafists in the mid-twelfth century. German Tosafists mandated immersion for a returning apostate as a means of atonement, akin to the procedure required of a new convert. In addition, several prominent tosafists sought to downgrade the status of apostates from Judaisim who did not return, in both marital and economic issues, well beyond the place assigned to them by Rashi and others who supported his approach. Although these mandates were formulated along textual and juridical lines, considerations of how to protect the Jewish communities from the inroads of increased anti-Judaism and the outright hatred expressed for the Jews as unrivaled enemies of Christianity, played a large role. Indeed, medieval Christian sources that describe how Jews dealt with those who relapsed from Christianity to Judaism are based not only on popular practices and culture but also reflect concepts and practices that had the approbation of the rabbinic elite in northern Europe. Brothers from Afar belongs in the library of every scholar of Jewish and medieval studies"--
Wayne State University Press 2021 240 pages

Classical economics

Hollander, Samuel
In this unconventionial and sharply written text, Hollander introduces the work of Smith, Ricardo, and Mill, and, on specific Malthus and Marx. He leads the student through the nuances of the arguments, making clear how he agrees with or challenges recieved ideas about their writings. Attention is given to the precursors of the classics, to their immediate successors, and to the Sraffian system.
B. Blackwell 1987-09-24 485 pages

Unnecessary suffering: managing markets utopia

Glasman, Maurice
They have a dream—a dream of a world where everything and everybody can be bought and sold, a world run efficiently by managers, a world where “freedom” means the free market. Maurice Glasman argues that this dream is an unrealizable utopia—or a nightmare if put into practice. He takes the tired old clichés of management-speak of the New Right and New Left alike and turns them on their heads: managers are not efficient, they are barriers to work and production. “Liberal democracy”—which now means the free market and the strong state—should be turned upside down, with democracy at the level of the economy and liberalism at the level of the state. Drawing on the work of Karl Polanyi, Glasman argues that there is no need to surrender solidarity and human rights to the march of the managers and the market. There is another tradition, represented by the labour movement and Catholic Church in postwar West Germany, and Solidarity in Poland before 1989, when statist communitarianism and the New Right took over. Unnecessary Suffering examines this tradition and issues a call that human beings and the environment cannot, should not, and will not be treated like commodities. For all workers drowning in a sea of dogma and management.memos, Unnecesary Suffering is necessary reading.
Verso 1996-11-17 167 pages

Europe in crisis: bolt from the blue?

Berend, T. Iván
This book analyzes the European Great Recession of 2008-12, its economic and social causes, its historical roots, and the policies adopted by the European Union to find a way out of it. It contains explicit debates with several economists and analysts on some of the most controversial questions about the causes of the crisis and the policies applied by the European Union. It presents the cases of Iceland, Greece, and Ireland, the countries that first declined into crisis in Europe, each of them in a different way. Iceland is a case study for reckless banking practices, Greece of reckless public spending, and Ireland of reckless household indebtedness. At least seven other countries, mostly from the peripheries of Europe, had similarly reckless banking and spending practices. In the center of the book are the economic and social causes of the crisis. Contemporary advanced capitalism became financialized, de-industrialized and globalized and got rid of the "straitjacket" of regulations. Solid banking was replaced by high-risk, "casino-type" activity. The European common currency also had a structural problem - monetary unification without a federal state and fiscal unification. The other side of the same coin is European hyper-consumerism. A new lifestyle emerged during two super-prosperous periods in the 1950s to 1960s, and during the 1990s to 2006. Trying to find an exit policy, the European Union turned to strict austerity measures to curb the budget deficit and indebtedness. This book critically analyzes the debate around austerity policy. The creation of important supranational institutions, and of a financial supervisory authority and stability mechanisms, strengthens integration. The correction of the euro's structural mistake by creating a quasi-fiscal unification is even more important. The introduction of mandatory fiscal rules and their supervision promises a long-term solution for a well-functioning common currency. These measures, meanwhile, create a two-tier European Union with a fast-track core. This book suggests that the European Union will emerge stronger from the crisis. This book will be of particular interest to students and researchers of economics, history, political science and international finance, but will also prove profitable reading for practitioners and the interested public. Book jacket.
Routledge 2013 169 pages