A brilliant reconsideration of the Gilded Age in America, whenan oligarchy of wealth triumphed over democracy, when dreams offreedom and equality died of their impossibility. Jay Gould, the“Mephisto of Wall Street,” never runs for office, but he rules.This was his time (and John D. Rockefeller’s and AndrewCarnegie’s), and this was his country. At the end of the Civil War, with the rebellion put down andslavery ended, America belonged to Lincoln’s “plain people.” But“government of the people” and economic democracy were betrayed bypolitical parties that fanned memories of the war to distractAmericans from government of the corporation. Synthesizing the research of a new generation of scholars, JackBeatty gives us a fresh look at the “revolution from above” ofindustrialization that forged modern America. In Age of Betrayal,Supreme Court justices turn the Fourteenth Amendment’s promise of“equal protection of the laws” to the freed slave into the shieldof the corpora
The book is... timely, and if it will irritate some of theexperts it will also help bring some neglected issues and theoriesinto public focus. This ... has always been Mrs. Jacobs' mostnotable taient and her most constructive contribution.
Galbraith's classic on the "economics of abundance" is, in thewords of the New York Times, "a compelling challenge toconventional thought." With customary clarity, eloquence, andhumor, Galbraith cuts to the heart of what economic security means(and doesn't mean) in today's world and lays bare the hazards ofindividual and societal complacence about economic inequity. While"affluent society" and "conventional wisdom" (first used in thisbook) have entered the vernacular, the message of the book has notbeen so widely embraced--reason enough to rediscover The AffluentSociety.
This is a book about a handful of men with a curious claim to fame. By all the rules of schoolboy history books, they were nonentities: they commanded no armies, sent no men to their deaths, ruled no empires, took little part in history-making decisions. A few of them achieved renown, but none was ever a national hero; a few were roundly abused, but none was ever quite a national villain. Yet what they did was more decisive for history than many acts of statesmen who basked in brighter glory, often more profoundly disturbing than the shuttling of armies back and forth across frontiers, more powerful for good and bad than the edicts of kings and legislatures. It was this: they shaped and swayed men's minds. And because he who enlists a man's mind wields a power even greater than the sword or the scepter, these men shaped and swayed the world. Few of them ever lifted a finger in action; they worked, in the main, as scholars -- quietly, inconspicuously, and without much regard for what the world had to say abou
In The Great Shame, Thomas Keneally--the bestselling, BookerPrize-winning author of Schindler's List--combines the authority ofa brilliant historian and the narrative grace of a great novelistto present a gripping account of the Irish diaspora. The nineteenth century saw Ireland lose half of its population tofamine, emigration, or deportation to penal colonies inAustralia--often for infractions as common as stealing food. Amongthe victims of this tragedy were Thomas Keneally's own forebearers,and they were his inspiration to tell the story of the Irish whostruggled and ultimately triumphed in Australia and North America.Relying on rare primary sources--including personal letters, courttran*s, ship manifests, and military documents--Keneallyoffers new and important insights into the impact of the Irish inexile. The result is a vivid saga of heroes and villains, fromGreat Famine protesters to American Civil War generals to greatorators and politicians.
Friedman makes clear once and for all that no one is immunefrom monetary economics-that is, from the effects of its theory andits practices. He demonstrates through historical events themischief that can result from misunderstanding the monetary system.Index.
In this short, powerful book, multimillionaire and bestsellingauthor Steven K. Scott reveals King Solomon’s breakthroughstrategies to achieve a life of financial success and personalfulfillment. Steve Scott flunked out of every job he held in his first six yearsafter college. He couldn’t succeed no matter how hard he tried.Then Dr. Gary Smalley challenged him to study the book of Proverbs,promising that in doing so he would achieve greater success andhappiness than he had ever known. That promise came true, makingScott a millionaire many times over. In The Richest Man Who Ever Lived, Scott reveals Solomon’s key forwinning every race, explains how to resolve conflicts and turnenemies into allies, and discloses the five qualities essential tobecoming a valued and admired person at work and in your personallife. Scott illustrates each of Solomon’s insights and strategieswith anecdotes about his personal successes and failures, as wellas those of such extraordinary people as Benjamin Franklin, ThomasEdis
"Economics is haunted by more fallacies than any other studyknown to man." -- Henry Hazlitt, Economics in One Lesson(1946) Every day economic claims are used by the media or inconversation to support social and political positions. Those onthe left tend to distrust economists, seeing them as friends of theright. There is something to this, since professional economistsare almost all keen supporters of the free market. Yet whilefactions on the right naturally embrace economists, they also tendto overestimate the effect of their support on free-marketpolicies. The result is widespread confusion. In fact, virtuallyall commonly held beliefs about economics--whether espoused bypolitical activists, politicians, journalists or taxpayers--arejust plain wrong. Professor Joseph Heath wants to raise our economic literacyand empower us with new ideas. In Economics WithoutIllusions , he draws on everyday examples to skewer the sixfavourite economic fallacies of the right, followed by impaling thesix