Economics

An introduction to the economics of the rare book and manuscript trade in the half-century before the second world war.

"A new economic history which uncovers the forgotten left-wing, anti-imperial, pacifist origins of economic cosmopolitanism and free trade from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. The post-1945 international free-trade regime was established to foster a more integrated, prosperous, and peaceful world. As US Secretary of State Cordell Hull (1933-1944), "Father of the United Nations" and one of the regime's principal architects, explained in his memoirs, "unhampered trade dovetailed with peace; high tariffs, trade barriers, and unfair economic competition, with war."

Profit -- getting more out of something than you put into it -- is the original genius of homo sapiens, who learned how to unleash the energy stored in wood, exploit the land, and refashion ecosystems. As civilization developed, we found more and more ways of extracting surplus value from the earth, often deploying brutally effective methods to discipline people to do the work needed. Historian Mark Stoll explains how capitalism supercharged this process and traces its many environmental consequences. The financial innovations of medieval Italy created trade networks that, with the European discovery of the Americas, made possible vast profits and sweeping cultural changes, to the detriment of millions of slaves and indigenous Americans; the industrial age united the world in trade and led to an energy revolution that changed lives everywhere. But when efficient production left society awash in goods, a new sort of capitalism, predicated on endless individual consumption, took its place. This story of incredible ingenuity and villainy begins in the Doge's palace in medieval Venice and ends with Jeff Bezos aboard his own spacecraft. Mark Stoll's revolutionary account places environmental factors at the heart of capitalism's progress and reveals the long shadow of its terrible consequences.

"This book examines the economic relationship between Africa and Europe. It highlights the stigmatized narratives about Africa and analyses how they influence a range of key actors and processes. This is illustrated by the actions of European actors who reinforce negative narratives through replacing real economic transformation and development with charity, while African leaders compete to maximize aid donations and help further these narratives. This book acknowledges the complex history of the relations between Africa and Europe and details the ways in which Africa has become a peripheral player in the world economy."

"How to understand the mistakes we make about those on the other side of the political spectrum -- and how they drive the affective polarization that is tearing us apart. It's well known that the political divide in the US -- particularly between Democrats and Republicans -- has grown to alarming levels in recent decades. Affective polarization -- emotional polarization, or the hostility between the parties -- has reached an unprecedented fever pitch. In Undue Hate , Daniel F. Stone tackles the biases undergirding affective polarization head-on. Stone explains why we often develop objectively false, and overly negative, beliefs about the other side -- causing us to dislike them more than we should. Approaching affective polarization through the lens of behavioral economics, Undue Hate is unique in its use of simple mathematical concepts and models to illustrate how we misjudge those we disagree with, for both political and nonpolitical issues."