From the early forms of loans to farmers to present day credit cards, consumer credit has always been part of human life and economics. However, ever since the Bible, controversy has reigned as to its legitimacy. It is the history of this controversy that is presented here by the authors. Outlining significant developments in different aspects of consumer credit from the Hammurabi Code through to current questions such as household overindebtedness, they shed some historical light on modern debates.

Many books have been written about Tin Pan Alley--the colloquial name assigned to popular music before the advent of rock 'n' roll--yet little is available about the individual songs defining this enormously significant style of American music. This encyclopedia of over 1,200 songs written from the middle of the 19th century through the 1950s provides information and commentary on the music embraced by the American public.

No other single volume contains as much information on the subject. Author Thomas Hischak provides an exhaustive yet highly readable guide to the songs, their periods, their styles, and their performers. His study explains in layman's language how this music survived over time, and how it came to play such an influential role in American popular culture. Ideal for researchers and browsers alike, this encyclopedia is a long overdue examination of an American musical institution.

These songs were not written for stage or screen, but for saloons, singalongs, dance orchestras, sheet music, piano player rolls, recordings, nightclubs, concerts, and radio broadcasts. They colored the fabric of American popular culture for centuries, from early American folk songs to Civil War melodies, 19th-century sentimental ballads, minstrel songs, ragtime, and jazz.

In early 1969, New York City and all it represented was in disarray: politically, criminally, and athletically. But while Simon and Garfunkel lamented the absence of a sports icon like Joe DiMaggio, a modern Lancelot rode forth to lead the New York Mets to heights above and beyond all sports glory. This book tells the complete, unvarnished story of the great Tom Seaver, that rarest of all American heroes, the New York Sports Icon. In a city that produces not mere mortals but sports gods, Seaver represented the last of a breed. His deeds, his times, his town-it was part of a vanishing era, an era of innocence. In 1969, six years after John F. Kennedy's assassination, Seaver and the Mets were the last gasp of idealism before free agency, Watergate, and cynicism. Here is the story of "Tom Terrific" of the "Amazin' Mets," a man worthy of a place alongside DiMaggio, Ruth, Mantle, and Namath in the pantheon of New York idols.

The first comprehensive history of the Chrysler Corporation, this book is intended for readers interested in the history of automobiles and of American business, and for fans and critics of Chrysler's products. From the Chrysler Six of 1924, to the front-wheel-drive vehicles of the 70s and 80s, to the minivan, Chrysler boasts an impressive list of technological "firsts." But even though the company has catered well to a variety of consumers, it has come to the brink of financial ruin more than once in its seventy-five-year history. How Chrysler achieved monumental success and then managed colossal failure and sharp recovery is explained in Riding the Roller Coaster, a lively, unprecedented look at a major force in the American automobile industry since 1925. Charles Hyde tells the intriguing story behind Chrysler--its products, people, and performance over time--with particular focus on the company's management. He offers a lens through which the reader can view the U.S. auto industry from the perspective of the smallest of the automakers who, along with Ford and General Motors, make up the "Big Three." The book covers Walter P. Chrysler's life and automotive career before 1925, when he founded the Chrysler Corporation, and traces the company's history to 1998, when it merged with Daimler-Benz. Chrysler made a late entrance into the industry in 1925 when it emerged from Chalmers and Maxwell, and further grew when it absorbed Dodge Brothers and American Motors Corporation. The author follows this journey, explaining the company's leadership in automotive engineering, its styling successes and failures, its changing management, and its activities from auto racing to defense production toreal estate. Throughout, the colorful personalities of its leaders--including Chrysler himself and Lee lacocca--emerge as strong forces in the company's development, imparting a risk-taking mentality that gave the company its verve.

Napoleon's youngest brother, Jerome, has over the centuries been portrayed as a military commander who was completely incompetent and unimportant to his famous sibling. This first biography of Jerome by an American author utilizes many firsthand accounts ofJerome's abilities that have never before been available to readers in English, as well as archival material that has never been published in any language, to challenge this view. Focussing on the lesser-known theaters of operation from 1800 to the Russian campaign in 1812, this study completes the gaps in the military history of the Napoleonic Wars. As Lamar demonstrates, Jerome was not responsible for the failure of Napoleon's early maneuvers during the invasion of Russia, nor did he lose the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

Jerome's relationship with Napoleon was affected by his position as the youngest member of the Bonaparte family. Much of Emperor Napoleon I's true nature can be seen through his dealings with Jerome and his naval career. After discussing Jerome's experiences as the only Bonaparte to serve in the navy, Lamar detailsJerome's involvement in land campaigns, in such varied places as Silesia, Russia, and Waterloo. Another important aspect of Jerome's career was his leadership role as King of Westphalia. This objective account sheds new light on the life and accomplishments of one of the most maligned figures of the Napoleonic era.

Camillo Agrippa's widely influential "Treatise on the Science of Arms" was a turning point in the history of fencing. The author - an engineer by trade and not a professional master of arms - was able to radically re-imagine teaching the art of fencing. Agrippa's treatise is the fundamental text of Western swordsmanship. Just as earlier swordsmanship can be better understood from Agrippa's critiques, so too was his book the starting point for the rapier era. Every other treatise of the early-modern period had to deal explicitly or implicitly with Agrippa's startling transformation of the art and science of self-defense with the sword. Likewise, all of the fundamental ideas that are still used today - distance, time, line, blade opposition, counterattacks and countertime - are expressed in this paradigm-shifting treatise. This is a work that should be on the bookshelf of anyone interested in the history, practice or teaching of fencing. His treatise was also a microcosm of sixteenth-century thought. It examines the art, reduces it to its very principles, and reconstructs it according to a way of thinking that incorporated new concepts of art, science and philosophy. Contained within this handy volume are concrete examples of a new questioning of received wisdom and a turn toward empirical proofs, hallmarks of the Enlightenment. The treatise also presents evidence for a redefinition of elite masculinity in the wake of the military revolution of the sixteenth century. At the same time, is offers suggestive clues to the place of the hermetic tradition in the early-modern intellectual life and its implications for the origins of modern science. Camillo Agrippa's "Treatise on the Science of Arms" was first published in Rome in 1553 by the papal printer Antonio Blado. The original treatise was illustrated with 67 engravings that belong to the peak of Renaissance design. They are reproduced here in full. "Mondschein has at last made available to English-speaking readers one of the most important texts in the history of European martial arts. Agrippa marks a turning point in the intellectual history of these arts.... Mondschein's introduction to his work helps the reader understand Agrippa - and the martial practices themselves - as pivotal agents in the evolving cultural and intellectual systems of the sixteenth century. Above all, Mondschein's translation is refreshingly clean and idiomatic, rendering the systematic clarity of the Italian original into equally clear modern English - evidence of the author's familiarity with modern fencing and understanding of the physical realities that his author is trying to express. Mondschein's contextualization of his topic points the way for future scholarly exploration, and his translation will doubtless be valued by both students of cultural history and practitioners of modern sword arts." - Dr. Jeffrey L. Forgeng, Paul S. Morgan Curator -Higgins Armory Museum, Adj. Assoc. Prof. of Humanities, Worcester Polytechnic Institute First English translation. Hardcover, 234 pages, 67 illustrations, introduction, bibliography, glossary, appendix, index."

Which Scunthorpe defender was tapped up in the dressing rooms by Brian Clough? Who helped get him changed on top of Princess Diana's car? What did the club's record goalscorer really think about the manager sacked in a promotion season? How does it feel to miss a penalty at Wembley? Win the European Cup? And how on earth did a future England captain manage to break the club's tractor? Throughout their 120 year-plus history, Scunthorpe United have been many things... But boring? Never! Following extensive archive research and exclusive interviews with ex-managers and players spanning seven decades, 20 Legends: Scunthorpe United is packed with stories aplenty. From breath-taking cup upsets, to the raw ecstasy of promotion, the agonies of failure, lifelong friendships, boardroom coups, and good old-fashioned fallings-out; the people in the heat of the action spill the beans like never before. Each chapter tells a different story; focusing on a legend apiece from the club's history and sharing their adventures throughout the beautiful game. Brian Laws also provides the foreword. If you really want to get under the skin of a brilliant, bonkers football club at the very heart of its community; then look no further than 20 Legends: Scunthorpe United.

African Proverbs as Epistemologies of Decolonization calls for a rethinking of education by engaging African proverbs as valuable and salient epistemologies for contemporary times. The book addresses the pedagogic, instructional, and communicative relevance of African proverbs for decolonizing schooling and education in pluralistic contexts by questioning the instructional, pedagogic, and communications lessons of these proverbs and how they can be employed in the education of contemporary youth. It presents a critical discursive analysis of proverbs from selected African contexts, highlighting the underlying knowledge base that informs these cultural expressions. Explore alongside the book the ways in which these Indigenous teachings can be engaged by schools and educators to further the objective of decolonizing education by providing a framework for character education. This character-based framework equips the learner to be knowledgeable about power, equity, ethics and morality, and to develop a conscience for social responsibility, as well as to embrace traditional notions of self-discipline, probity, and hard work. This text goes beyond the mere documentation of proverbs to tease out how embedded knowledge and cultural referents in these knowledge bases and systems are critical for transforming education for young learners today.