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Showing 1 - 25 of 35 matches in All Departments
A comprehensive account of the rise and fall of one of the major shapers of American foreign policy
The question of how far mathematical methods of reasoning and inves tigation are applicable in economic theorising has long been a matter of debate. The first part of this question needing to be answered was whether, outside the range of ordinary statistical methods, such application is in fact possible. In my opinion the controversy on this point has been a fruitful one, which has led, as might have been expected, to an affirmative answer. What, however, has not yet been decided - for the simple reason that hitherto it has not been investigated - is whether the application of mathematical methods to our science is expedient. From the point of view of economic methodology this seems to me the more important part of the question, although the only considerations hitherto brought to bear upon it have been of a rather general character, based on uncer tain ideas which have led to uncertain conclusions. That is why I welcome this attempt of Dr. Heinz W. Brand to bring the solution nearer by his present work. The conclusion he reaches here is that mathematical methods cannot unreservedly be employed in our science. The arguments which he carefully weighs, in the course of a criticism which is never destructive, are centred on his own criterion of asking whether it is not merely possible, but at the same time profitable, to apply mathematics in economic science."
In Dreams of El Dorado, H. W. Brands tells the thrilling, panoramic story of the settling of the American West, from Lewis and Clark's expedition in the early 19th century to the closing of the frontier by the early 20th. He introduces us to explorers, mountain men, cowboys, missionaries and soldiers, taking us from John Jacob Astor's fur trading campaign in Oregon to the Texas Revolution, from the California gold rush to the Oklahoma land rush. Throughout, Brands explores the contradictions of the West and explodes its longstanding myths. The West has been celebrated as the proving ground of American individualism; in reality, the West depended on collective action and federal largesse more than any other region. The West brought out the finest and the basest in those who ventured there, evoking both selfless heroism and unspeakable violence. Visons of great wealth drew generations of Americans westward, but El Dorado was never more elusive than in the West. Balanced, authoritative, and masterfully told, Dreams of El Dorado sets a new standard for histories of the American West.
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
The 1803 purchase of the Louisiana Territory was a watershed event for the fledgling United States. Adding some 829,000 square miles of territory, the Louisiana Purchase set a striking precedent of Presidential power and brought to the surface profound legal and constitutional questions. As the nation continued to expand westward and into the Pacific and Caribbean, critical social, political and constitutional questions arose that greatly tested American resolve and reshaped the nation's founding premises. In this exciting collection, Sanford Levinson and Bartholomew Sparrow bring together noted scholars in American history, constitutional law, and political science to examine role that the Louisiana Purchase played in shaping both the expansionist policies of the nineteenth century and critical interpretations of the Constitution. The Louisiana Purchase and American Expansion, 1803 1898 provides a fascinating overview of how the U.S. Constitution and the American political system is inextricably tied to the Louisiana Purchase and the territorial expansion of the United States."
In 1909, the Smithsonian Institution commissioned ex-President Theodore Roosevelt to collect specimens of African wildlife for the National Museum. Roosevelt went to Africa with his son Kermit, several prominent naturalists, and many journalists, thereby initiating the safari industry and setting the standard for the big game hunt. Yet Roosevelt never killed for thrills, instead hunting only specific animals in the amounts requested by the Smithsonian. Making his way from the Kenyan coast to the Upper Nile, he records his impressions of the African landscape, witnesses a traditional lion hunt by African pastoralists, and recalls his meetings with East Africans, to whom he was known as 'Bwana Tumbo (belly).'
For two hundred years, Americans have believed that they have an obligation to improve the lot of humanity. This belief has consistently shaped US foreign policy. Yet within this consensus, two schools of thought have contended: the 'exemplarist' school (Brands' term) which holds that what America chiefly owes the world is the benign example of a well-functioning democracy, and the 'vindicationist' school which argues that force must sometimes supplement a good example. In this book, H. W. Brands traces the evolution of these two schools as they emerged in the thinking and writing of the most important public thinkers of the last two centuries. This book, first published in 1998, is both an intellectual and moral history of US foreign policy and a guide to the fundamental question of America's relations with the rest of the world - a question more pressing than ever in the confusion that has succeeded the Cold War: What does America owe the world?
The question of how far mathematical methods of reasoning and inves tigation are applicable in economic theorising has long been a matter of debate. The first part of this question needing to be answered was whether, outside the range of ordinary statistical methods, such application is in fact possible. In my opinion the controversy on this point has been a fruitful one, which has led, as might have been expected, to an affirmative answer. What, however, has not yet been decided - for the simple reason that hitherto it has not been investigated - is whether the application of mathematical methods to our science is expedient. From the point of view of economic methodology this seems to me the more important part of the question, although the only considerations hitherto brought to bear upon it have been of a rather general character, based on uncer tain ideas which have led to uncertain conclusions. That is why I welcome this attempt of Dr. Heinz W. Brand to bring the solution nearer by his present work. The conclusion he reaches here is that mathematical methods cannot unreservedly be employed in our science. The arguments which he carefully weighs, in the course of a criticism which is never destructive, are centred on his own criterion of asking whether it is not merely possible, but at the same time profitable, to apply mathematics in economic science."
For two hundred years, Americans have believed that they have an obligation to improve the lot of humanity, a belief that has consistently shaped U.S. foreign policy. Yet within this consensus, there are two competing schools of thought: the "exemplarist" school (Brands' term) which holds that what America chiefly owes the world is the benign example of a well-functioning democracy, and the "vindicationist" school which argues that force must sometimes supplement a good example. In this book, H.W. Brands traces the evolution of these two schools as they emerged in the thinking and writing of the most important public thinkers of the past two centuries.
For the past nine years, acclaimed historian H. W. Brands has been tweeting the history of the United States. But this has been no ordinary version of the American tale. Instead, Brands gives his 5,000-plus followers a regular dose of history and poetry combined: his tweets are in the form of haiku. Haiku History presents a selection of these smart, shrewd, and always informative short poems. "Shivers and specters / Flit over souls in Salem / As nineteen are hanged; describes the Salem witch trials, and "In angry war paint / Men board three Indiamen / And toss the cargo" depicts the Boston Tea Party. "Then an anarchist / Makes one of the war heroes / The next president" recalls the assassination of William McKinley and the accession of Teddy Roosevelt to the presidency, while "Second invasion: / Iraq, where Saddam is still / In troubling control" returns us to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. As he travels from the thirteen colonies to the 2016 election, Brands brings to life the wars, economic crises, social upheavals, and other events that have shaped our nation. A history book like no other, Haiku History injects both fun and poetry into the story of America-three lines at a time.
The story of our nation from the A-bomb to the iPhone-from
bestselling historian H.W. Brands
Historian H.W. Brands offers a fresh look at Johnson's handling of international relations, putting Vietnam in the context of the many crises he confronted and the outdated policies of containment he was expected to uphold. The result is a fascinating portrait of a master politician at work, manouevring through a series of successes that made his ultimate failure in Vietnam all the more tragic.
A sophisticated and provocative analysis of the United States' involvement in the Cold War that will provoke both the left and the right. Brands analyses what was done, what should have been done, and what should never have occurred in US foreign policy.
He was the foremost American of his day, yet today he is little more than a mythic caricature in the public imagination. Benjamin Franklin, perhaps the pivotal figure in colonial and revolutionary America, comes vividly to life in this masterly biography.
"Large-scale economic change, job uncertainty, the politics of
extremism and paranoia, arguments over America's international
role, racial conflicts. Sound familiar?"(Fritz Lanham, "Houston
Chronicle") Just as we do today, Americans of the 1890s faced
changes in economics, politics, society, and technology that led to
wrenching and sometimes violent tensions between rich and poor,
capital and labor, white and black, East and West. In "The Reckless
Decade," H. W. Brands demonstrates that we can learn a lot about
the contradictions that lie at the heart of America today by
looking at them through the lens of the 1890s.
In this grand-scale narrative history, two-time Pulitzer Prize
finalist H. W. Brands brilliantly portrays the emergence, in a
remarkably short time, of a recognizably modern America. |
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