Ants came to this planet long before man. Since then they have developed one of the most intricate civilizations imaginable - a civilization of great richness and technological brilliance. During the few seconds it takes you to read this sentence, some 700 milli0on ants will be born on earth... Edmond Wells had studied ants for years: he knew of the power which existed in their hidden world. On his death, he leaves his apartment to his nephew Jonathan with one proviso: that he must not descend beyond the cellar door. But when the family's dog escapes down the cellar steps, Jonathan has little alternative but to follow. Innocently he enters the world of the ant, whose struggle for existence forces him to reassess man's place in the cycle of nature. It is an experience that will alter his life for ever... Empire of the Ants is an extraordinary achievement. It takes you inside the ants' universe and reveals it to be a highly organised world, as complex and relentless as human society and even more brutal.

City Bankers, 1890-1914 is a major contribution to a controversial area of economic history and to the debate about the nature of British society in the late Victorian and Edwardian eras. Translated here into English for the first time, it provides a detailed analysis of the banking community of London between 1890 and 1914 when the City of London was the undisputed financial centre of the world. Attention is paid to the social origins, education, careers , business interests and fortunes of its members, to the networks of relationships of its most important dynasties, as well as to the political influence of the world of banking. The analysis is based on a sample of 460 bankers at the heart of international finance and the author has used a wide range of banking archives and private papers. Business historians and economists will welcome this comprehensive study of a most important group of capitalists at the junction of the business world and aristocratic society in the Edwardian age.

This book is a major contribution to a controversial area of economic history and to the debate about the nature of British society in the late Victorian and Edwardian eras. Translated into English for the first time, it provides a detailed analysis of the banking community of London when the City was the undisputed financial center of the world. Attention is paid to the social origins, education careers, business interests and fortunes of its members, to the networks of relationships of its most important dynasties, as well as to the political influence of the world of banking.