The Development of the French Economy, 1750-1914 (Studies in Economic and Social History)

Book Description

Understanding French economic development in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries has always proved a formidable challenge for historians. This concise survey is designed to make clear the areas of controversy among historians, and to guide the reader through the debates. The author provides succinct surveys of recent findings on the pattern of development, and on the underlying causes of that pattern. He argues that France provides a quietly successful case of economic development, avoiding the massive social upheaval experienced elsewhere in Europe.

Book Description

Drawing on numerous commonsense examples, in addition to his extensive knowledge of Chicago-school economics, David D. Friedman offers a spirited defense of the economic view of law. He clarifies the relationship between law and economics in clear prose that is friendly to students, lawyers, and lay readers without sacrificing the intellectual heft of the ideas presented. Friedman is the ideal spokesman for an approach to law that is controversial not because it overturns the conclusions of traditional legal scholars--it can be used to advocate a surprising variety of political positions, including both sides of such contentious issues as capital punishment--but rather because it alters the very nature of their arguments. For example, rather than viewing landlord-tenant law as a matter of favoring landlords over tenants or tenants over landlords, an economic analysis makes clear that a bad law injures both groups in the long run. And unlike traditional legal doctrines, economics offers a unified approach, one that applies the same fundamental ideas to understand and evaluate legal rules in contract, property, crime, tort, and every other category of law, whether in modern day America or other times and places--and systems of non-legal rules, such as social norms, as well.

This book will undoubtedly raise the discourse on the increasingly important topic of the economics of law, giving both supporters and critics of the economic perspective a place to organize their ideas.

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What does economics have to do with law? Suppose legislators propose that armed robbers receive life imprisonment. Editorial pages applaud them for getting tough on crime. Constitutional lawyers raise the issue of cruel and unusual punishment. Legal philosophers ponder questions of justness. An economist, on the other hand, observes that making the punishment for armed robbery the same as that for murder encourages muggers to kill their victims. This is the cut-to-the-chase quality that makes economics not only applicable to the interpretation of law, but beneficial to its crafting. Drawing on numerous commonsense examples, in addition to his extensive knowledge of Chicago-school economics, David D. Friedman offers a spirited defense of the economic view of law. He clarifies the relationship between law and economics in clear prose that is friendly to students, lawyers, and lay readers without sacrificing the intellectual heft of the ideas presented. Friedman is the ideal spokesman for an approach to law that is controversial not because it overturns the conclusions of traditional legal scholars--it can be used to advocate a surprising variety of political positions, including both sides of such contentious issues as capital punishment--but rather because it alters the very nature of their arguments. For example, rather than viewing landlord-tenant law as a matter of favoring landlords over tenants or tenants over landlords, an economic analysis makes clear that a bad law injures both groups in the long run. And unlike traditional legal doctrines, economics offers a unified approach, one that applies the same fundamental ideas to understand and evaluate legal rules in contract, property, crime, tort, and every other category of law, whether in modern day America or other times and places--and systems of non-legal rules, such as social norms, as well.

Customer Reviews:

Layman Introduction to Economics of Law.......2007-08-04

Law's Order is an introduction of applying economics analysis on laws for common layman. Comparing with the other textbooks on economics analysis of law, Law's Order is less academic. In Law's Order, David Friedman firstly introduces daily life situations, such as "marriage, sex and babies", "tort", "antitrust", etc..., and apply the economic analysis on these situations and discuss how the law can help these situations attain a better result according to economics analysis. The reader should find that the Law is more or less economics efficiency. Although this is not a textbook but it is suitable to be used as a textbook on Law and Economics.

chris tam
hong kong

Enlightening, Fun & Important Read.......2006-05-27

It's a dense and fun work in a very interesting and important topic. It was my first book on law&economics, and I am very satisfied with it. I highly recommend it especially for those who love economics--you will learn fascinating insights. The chapters on tort and criminal law were my favorites. David Friedman is a great teacher, in print or talk (if you haven't seen him speak, don't miss a chance).

Should Voodoo practice be punishable?.......2004-01-06

As soon as I was finished with this book, I turned around and read it again. Friedman is picking up a theme that he introduced towards the end of the revised Machinery of Freedom, in which he states that in order to understand certain mechanisms, we must undertake the economic analysis of law. This discipline was generally considered to have been initiated by Ronald Coase and taken up and popularized by Richard Posner. Friedman's own work advances the study into areas of law that relate to the internet and computers.
This particular book, however, concentrates on advancing the work done by Posner to a wider audience. Posner's perspective is that of a very, very talented legal theorist attempting to apply economic tools to law; Friedman's is that of a very talented economist applying his own discipline to law.
The complete book is available online; in fact the book was intended to be an off-line anchor for a number of other links. Friedman does away with references to landmark cases, mathematics, and other references in the book, and moves them all to the online version. While it seemed like a good idea at thte time, I ultimately found it to be annoying.

I would say that this is the first book I've read that connects technical economic ideas - like efficiency, the Coase Theorem, externalities, and rent-seeking - to the real world with practical applications.

Like whether or not voodoo practice should be punishable as attempted murder (huh? Read the book - this and other stories are both entertaining and enlightening).

interesting read, annoying footnote approach.......2003-08-07

Liked the book. But instead of using citations and footnotes, he uses icons that point to his web site. This is supposed to be make it easier to read, but it's very annoying. I hope this doesn't become a trend.

Nice, but a little bit too biased.......2003-07-14

David Friedman is anarcho-capitalist who teaches economics to law students. This book, written mainly for laymen, shows both sides of him. He explains the relevant ideas from economics quite well and applies them to legal questions. He argues that even apart from moral arguments, many laws can be justified by economic efficiency.

The logic is something like this: Stealing is a process where someone takes something away from someone without the consent of that person. One loses, one gains. So what's the problem? The problem is that the thief spends energy on stealing, the potential victims on securing themselves and to some degree they produce less, since they may not keep everything. Therefore stealing is inefficient in a certain sense. Many laws can be justified on such grounds.

He also describes the legal system of ancient Iceland, a system that worked without government. Inspired by that, Friedman proposes some rather radical ideas like allowing murderes to buy themselves free. It also happens that the more radical ideas are the ones with the worst arguments in favor of them. He makes some rather strange assumptions (like that murderes are able to pay millions of dollars...).

Book Description

This digital document is an article from McGill Law Journal, published by McGill Law Journal (Canada) on November 1, 2000. The length of the article is 697 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: David D. Friedman, Law's Order: What Economics Has to Do with Law and Why It Matters.(Book Review)
Publication: McGill Law Journal (Refereed)
Date: November 1, 2000
Publisher: McGill Law Journal (Canada)
Volume: 46 Issue: 1 Page: 312(2)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

Although fertility drugs are increasing the incidence of twin births, conjoined twins remain rare at about 1 in 75,000 births. Nonetheless, they present a unique opportunity to learn about human development, as well as a challenge to medical professionals. In Conjoined Twins, Rowena Spencer, M.D., provides a comprehensive guide that thoroughly reviews the past century's literature on the subject and develops her theory of how these cases occur.

After introductory chapters on history and embryology, the book presents a separate chapter for each of the eight main types of conjoined twins. Detailed descriptions of conjoined twins are accompanied by information valuable in planning surgical treatment, as well as extensive tables summarizing the available data on each type. Conjoined triplets and unusual conjoined twins receive attention in the final two chapters. Including line illustrations and photographs, this encyclopedic book about a complex subject will be a valuable reference for the many professionals who evaluate, treat, and study conjoined twins.

Book Description

"Provides a lot of reading pleasure and many new insights." -Journal of Molecular Structure

"This is the most entertaining, stimulating and useful book which can be thoroughly recommended to anyone with an interest in computer simulation." -Contemporary Physics

"A very useful introduction . . . more interesting to read than the often dry equation-based texts." -Journal of the American Chemical Society

Written especially for the novice, Molecular Dynamics Simulation demonstrates how molecular dynamics simulations work and how to perform them, focusing on how to devise a model for specific molecules and then how to simulate their movements using a computer. This book provides a collection of methods that until now have been scattered through the literature of the last 25 years. It reviews elements of sampling theory and discusses how modern notions of chaos and nonlinear dynamics explain the workings of molecular dynamics.

Stresses easy-to-use molecules
* Provides sample calculations and figures
* Includes four complete FORTRAN codes

Customer Reviews:

Great introduction.......2005-04-27

If you're just getting started in molecular dynamics, especially if it's not really where you wanted to be in the first place, this may be the book for you.

The pace is brisk. Readers unsure of their calculus or Newtonian physics may struggle. The brief first chapter addresses the basics: what are the questions, which ones can computation address, and with what result. Chapters two to five develop successively more refined models up through Lennard-Jones soft-sphere models. That puts the reader about half-way through the book, to the point where it becomes less about physics and more about real chemistry. The next two chapters deal with the basics of thermodynamics and a bit on evaluating stability of the computed results.

The last third of the book is mostly appendices. The first three are decidedly of interest to the chemistry beginner, but the next dozen or so could have been dropped with no harm to the book's main content. "A Random-Number Generator" and "Conventions for Naming Variables in Fortran" are redundant and irrelevant (respectively) in most contemporary computing environments. If someone needs computing advice at that level, they're probably not ready for the load this book presents.

What's good is very good, though. The introduction material is sensible and adequately rigorous, with many and varied references at the end of each chapter. My interest in computational chemistry is mostly in the computation, not in the chemistry. Given that computational chemistry is a huge field, Haile has done a good job of keeping a sharp focus on one range of techniques and on a specific level of reader.

//wiredweird

A great book for begginers........1999-05-17

As it's name implies this book covers only elementary methods, and this makes it extremely useful for beginners. Particularly higher undergraduate and graduate students with no previous knowledge of computer simulation methods. It is very kind with the reader, being very explicit on many topics other books take for granted. The sections on hard sphere simulation are particularly long compared with other books on the subject. The code included is very well organized and helpful, every book should have it documented this way!. If you program in fortran it's very useful, but if you program in C I recommend Rapaport's book instead, altough it's a little more difficult. I particularly liked the introduction about simulation and some phylosophical aspects of it.

Book Description

The struggle for independence by minorities in the Middle East (those people who are non-Arab or non-Muslim) is affecting the political climate around the world. War and terrorism are threatening the safety of many minority communities and repression of minorities still remains standard state policy in some countries.

This updated and revised edition of the 1991 original provides a wealth of historical and political detail for all the indigenous peoples of the Middle East. Pressed to persist in a threatening environment, these minorities (Kurds, Berbers, Baluchi, Druzes, `Alawites, Armenians, Assyrians, Maronites, Sudanese Christians, Jews, Egyptian Copts, and others) share similar experiences and have been known to cooperate for shared goals. Important events and new trends regarding the welfare of these groups are covered, and numerous oral histories add to the new edition.

Customer Reviews:

in depth account of middle eastern minorities.......2003-03-04

This book is an in depth account of middle eastern minorities betrayed by European colonizers. Very relevant to today's problems in the Middle East.

Alive but Oppressed.......2003-03-04

By Bat Yeor

To the average observer, the Middle East appears to be a homogeneous,
gigantic Arab-Muslim continent. Under this heavy blanket of uniformity,
however, the remnants of colonized, extinguished nations, crushed and
dispossessed by imperialism, survive in pain and anguish. These peoples -
Kurds, Alawites, Copts, Jews, and others - have withstood jihad, genocides,
persecutions, and continual sociopolitical repression. Yet their hearts
still beat, inspired by the hope of freedom and survival.
It is their history that Mordechai Nisan tells, combining clear scholarship
with a perspicacious sensibility. Who are these peoples? In his subtle
analysis, Nisan demonstrates that they represent diverse ethnic groups, with
unique historical experiences. The author constructs a fascinating mosaic of
peoples, beliefs, and intertwined histories. This work expands upon a 1991
study, with much new material.
Nisan begins by specifying the characteristics these people share in their
diversity. What inner forces of cohesion shaped their resistance to the Arab
and Islamic onslaught on their lands and civilizations from East Persia to
North Africa? The factors promoting survival are neither fixed nor stable.
Throughout the political dynamism of historical events, each of these
peoples has preserved a collective self-consciousness that spans millennia.
"The crux of a minority struggle," writes Nisan, "often revolved around the
ability to define identity from within as a matter of group
self-articulation, and not be the victims of a superimposed identity from
without." Crushed by cultural and religious Arab-Islamic imperialism, the
group's identity and cohesion is a testimony to its indigenous uniqueness.
But can this human and cultural diversity of the Middle East survive after
millennia of hardship, unforeseen challenges, and resistance?
One discovers, for instance, beneath the uniformity of Arabism a
substructure of living, resistant, minority peoples cultivating their
pre-Arab and pre-Islamic native languages, cultures, and religions. Nisan
organizes the groups into four main categories: (1) the Islamized peoples
who resisted Arab/Muslim colonialism and kept their own culture and
languages, like the Kurds (Iraq, Syria, Iran, Turkey), the Berbers (Algeria,
Tunisia, Morocco), and the Baluch (Pakistan); (2) the heterodox Muslim
minorities who were Arabized but resisted Islamization by keeping their
ancestral beliefs and customs under a Muslim veneer, like the Druzes
(Levant) and the Alawites (Syria); (3) the Christian minorities: Armenians,
Assyrians, Copts, Maronites, and Sudanese; and (4) the Jews, the only
minority who succeeded in liberating a part of their historical land from
Arab-Islamic imperialism.
Nisan describes the rich history of each group and the inevitable tensions
that accompany cultural, linguistic, and religious resistance to
Islamization. Their histories include the difficulties entailed in
maintaining the history and culture of the group, the processes of survival
they adopted, the modalities of adaptation, and the compromises employed to
save a modicum of freedom without disappearing. This analytical survey
carries us through several levels of understanding, from the policy of
conquest and domination that included spoliation, slavery, deportation, and
genocide to the various mechanisms of survival adopted by each crushed,
humiliated, oppressed, or tolerated community. Not every group developed the
same self-consciousness of its history, culture, and ethnic characteristics,
but all resisted.
The political and social tensions highlighted by Nisan are most urgent and
topical for the West. In our age of multiculturalism, which has seen the
recent development in the West of large immigrant communities, what does
integration mean? Can some groups integrate more easily than others? Can
integration succeed when fundamental values clash? Nisan's sober and
scholarly analysis of the conflict between territorial ethnicity and
religious imperialism is of great relevance to the West.
In history, chance is a fugitive fairy that rarely passes twice. The light
of freedom sparkled for the oppressed Christian minorities in the Middle
East after World War I. It was quickly extinguished by France and Britain in
their eagerness to appease Muslim hostility in their Arab colonial
dominions. Sacrificed were the legitimate aspirations of the Armenians,
Kurds, Assyrians, and Copts.
Their ancestral homelands were arbitrarily lumped into enormous Arab-Islamic
entities, while concessions to Islamic demands violated their rights. Some,
like the Armenians, Assyrians, and Jacobites, were simply abandoned to
bloody reprisals, while the promises they had been given were broken. Only
the Maronites and the Jews were given a chance; even for these, it was a
delusion and a snare. British pro-Arab policy in the 1930s in Palestine, the

gestation of the Shoah in Europe, and the closure of all routes of escape
for the Jews at the Evian Conference in 1938 seemed to have delivered the
last blow to the Zionist dream of national liberation. The Maronites had to
wait a generation to experience the bitterness of world abandonment and the
betrayal of their friends. Hence, among all the dhimmi peoples, only Israel
survived the lethal Euro-Arab alliance against the indigenous Middle Eastern
minorities.
This history of blood, hope, and massacres that Nisan recalls in a masterly
way is not over. The martyrdom perpetrated on the Lebanese Christians by the
Palestinians and their Muslim allies, generalized jihad, the slavery and
butchery inflicted on the rebellious non-Muslim Sudanese populations, the
oppression of the Copts and the Assyrians, the massacres of the Kurds, the
negation of the Berber's cultural rights, the jihad Intifada against Israel
- all are ignored or explained away by European governments and the media.
Do these ancient and courageous peoples still have a chance to deliver
themselves from the shackle of dhimmitude, and the manipulations of Eurabia
? Now that a new Middle East is
being projected, in spite of old Europe's lethal alliance with the most
repressive regimes, maybe the good-luck fairy will pass a second time, to
console and redress the cynical injustice inflicted on vulnerable and
martyred peoples. Nisan's book is invaluable for a fuller understanding of
Middle East history, past and present.
In the mid 19th century, the French Turcophile writer Abdolonyme Ubicini
(translation from The Decline of Eastern Christianity
) described the subjected dhimmis of the
Ottoman Empire - Christians and Jews - awaiting liberation despite centuries
of oppression:
The history of enslaved peoples is the same everywhere, or rather,
they have no history. The years, the centuries pass without bringing any
change to their situation. Generations come and go in silence. One might
think they are afraid to awaken their masters, asleep alongside them.
However, if you examine them closely you discover that this immobility is
only superficial. A silent and constant agitation grips them. Life has
entirely withdrawn into the heart. They resemble those rivers which have
disappeared underground: if you put your ear to the earth, you can hear the
muffled sound of their waters; then they emerge intact a few leagues away.
Such is the state of the Christian populations of Turkey under Ottoman rule.
Will his observations prove relevant today for the Christian and other
ethnic minorities of the Arab-Muslim dominions?
- Bat Yeor is the author of three books on jihad
and dhimmitude. Her latest study Islam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations
Collide

Average customer rating:

a good book

He trusted his own intellect - a great scientist's credo

Short story of his works

smart quotations from a smart biochemist

Chemisrty was only the beginning!

Linus Pauling in His Own Words: Selections From his Writings, Speeches and Interviews
Barbara Marinacci
Manufacturer: Touchstone
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Linus Pauling: A Man and His Science

ASIN: 0684813874

Book Description

Two-time Nobel Prize winner, Linus Pauling was known for his scientific discoveries and of his breadth of knowledge, which spanned disciplines. The author, who knew Pauling well, has chosen from among more than 60 years of essays, letters, articles, books, speeches and interviews. As Pauling himself says in the Introduction, "This book will take me as close to writing my memoirs or autobiography as I shall ever get".

Customer Reviews:

a good book.......2006-08-28

This book is a good introduction into the world of Linus Pauling, a most fascinating person; rather than tell his story for him, Barbara Marinacci allows him to tell his own story. For those, who have already read a good biography or good biographies of him, this book contains no surprises.

All the same, it certainly is inspirational and worth reading.

He trusted his own intellect - a great scientist's credo .......2005-06-28

Linus Pauling is the only person to date to win two unshared Nobel Prizes in science. His researches were in a wide variety of areas including nuclear science, genetics, molecular biology , X-ray chrystallography, mineralogy, physical chemistry.
The most valuable parts of his memoirs are his descriptions of his own scientific work and discoveries.
Pauling's motto was " Never put your trust in anything but your own intellect" and he was a tremendously independent researcher, and thinker.
His reputation and his great work were in science, but he also thought out loud and independently on political and health subjects.
I remember hearing him talk years ago at Harpur College in Binghamton New York. I was expecting to hear him talk about his scientific work and discoveries. Instead he went on endlessly about Vitamin C as a cure to all our health problems. Yes, Pauling along with being a pioneering intellect and scientist was a crank also.
His crankiness had its political side in his Pacifism , a pacificism which led to his being accused of being a fellow traveler.(i.e.Communist ).
In fact the idea that nuclear war is insane is one of the most sane ideas imaginable. But equating the US and the late Soviet Union as Pauling often did was mistaken and wrongheaded.
Above all it is best to think of Pauling as a scientist. The enthusiasm he had in exploring nature is felt throughout this work.
He believed himself and other scientists fortunate in that he thought scientists could appreciate and enjoy so much more of the world than others.
He was a true American original , a pioneer researcher at the highest level, and not without a certain sense of humor.
This book may not bear a cover- to - cover reading but whoever looks and searches in it will find much material for the investigating human soul.

Short story of his works.......2002-09-04

Book is about more his professional life more than his private life. After very short introduction his scientific life story is told through abbreviated sayings, speeches of his own. Since most of the text is from his speeches and abstracts you get a lot of his opinions and comments on various subjects including use of atomic power.

smart quotations from a smart biochemist.......2000-02-27

i hope that everybody who read this book realy deeply,could understand the true meaning of the two times noble price winner wich is gathered and explained in a very easy to follow,and the real messages that he explined in this super-book!this book reflects his total life-history, philosophy,orthomolecularly,and the real man as a human.very interesting book, and highly recommanded.

Chemisrty was only the beginning!.......1997-06-17

Pauling started with no intentional ambition of earning two Nobel Prizes. The passion for what he felt were the logical conclusions of his studies, resulted in his often controversial image. He did not realize the impact these opinions would have both on himself and the world.

It's often surprising that few people understand the great influence this man had on the modern world. His voice in opposing nuclear testing, his insights into the value of nutritional supplements, and the many other, now common, issues he initited is truely inspiring.

It is quite satisfying to read of a person whose personal ideals could withstand so much ridicule and resistance. Even more gratifying is that today these opinions are considered "mainstream". All considered, those intrested in science and the difficulties encountered in its advancement will find this a quite enjoyable reading.

Average customer rating:
Linus Pauling in His Own Words : Selections From his Writings, Speeches and Interviews
Barbara Marinacci
Manufacturer: NY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000MU85NC

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Parks & Recreation, published by Thomson Gale on November 1, 2005. The length of the article is 528 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Perspectives: lessons to be learned: the education needs of the association's members are constantly changing.
Author: John Thorner
Publication: Parks & Recreation (Magazine/Journal)
Date: November 1, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 40 Issue: 11 Page: 2(1)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

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