This innovative cultural history of financial risk-taking in Renaissance Italy argues that a new concept of the future as unknown and unknowable emerged in Italian society between the mid-fifteenth and mid-sixteenth centuries. Exploring the rich interchanges between mercantile and intellectual cultures underpinning this development in four major cities - Florence, Genoa, Venice, and Milan - Nicholas Scott Baker examines how merchants and gamblers, the futurologists of the pre-modern world, understood and experienced their own risk taking and that of others. Drawing on extensive archival research, this study demonstrates that while the Renaissance did not create the modern sense of time, it constructed the foundations on which it could develop. The new conceptions of the past and the future that developed in the Renaissance provided the pattern for the later construction a single narrative beginning in classical antiquity stretching to the now. This book thus makes an important contribution toward laying bare the historical contingency of a sense of time that continues to structure our world in profound ways.

This innovative cultural history of financial risk-taking in Renaissance Italy argues that a new concept of the future as unknown and unknowable emerged in Italian society between the mid-fifteenth and mid-sixteenth centuries. Exploring the rich interchanges between mercantile and intellectual cultures underpinning this development in four major cities - Florence, Genoa, Venice, and Milan - Nicholas Scott Baker examines how merchants and gamblers, the futurologists of the pre-modern world, understood and experienced their own risk taking and that of others. Drawing on extensive archival research, this study demonstrates that while the Renaissance did not create the modern sense of time, it constructed the foundations on which it could develop. The new conceptions of the past and the future that developed in the Renaissance provided the pattern for the later construction a single narrative beginning in classical antiquity stretching to the now. This book thus makes an important contribution toward laying bare the historical contingency of a sense of time that continues to structure our world in profound ways.

Florence in the Early Modern World offers new perspectives on this important city by exploring the broader global context of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, within which the experience of Florence remains unique. By exploring the city's relationship to its close and distant neighbours, this collection of interdisciplinary essays reveals the transnational history of Florence. The chapters orient the lenses of the most recent historiographical turns perfected in studies on Venice, Rome, Bologna, Naples, and elsewhere towards Florence. New techniques, such as digital mapping, alongside new comparisons of architectural theory and merchants in Eurasia, provide the latest perspectives about Florence's cultural and political importance before, during, and after the Renaissance. From Florentine merchants in Egypt and India, through actual and idealized military ambitions in the sixteenth-century Mediterranean, to Tuscan humanists in late medieval England, the contributors to this interdisciplinary volume reveal the connections Florence held to early modern cities across the globe. This book steers away from the historical narrative of an insular Renaissance Europe and instead identifies the significance of other global influences. By using Florence as a case study to trace these connections, this volume of essays provides essential reading for students and scholars of early modern cities and the Renaissance.

Florence in the Early Modern World offers new perspectives on this important city by exploring the broader global context of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, within which the experience of Florence remains unique. By exploring the city's relationship to its close and distant neighbours, this collection of interdisciplinary essays reveals the transnational history of Florence. The chapters orient the lenses of the most recent historiographical turns perfected in studies on Venice, Rome, Bologna, Naples, and elsewhere towards Florence. New techniques, such as digital mapping, alongside new comparisons of architectural theory and merchants in Eurasia, provide the latest perspectives about Florence's cultural and political importance before, during, and after the Renaissance. From Florentine merchants in Egypt and India, through actual and idealized military ambitions in the sixteenth-century Mediterranean, to Tuscan humanists in late medieval England, the contributors to this interdisciplinary volume reveal the connections Florence held to early modern cities across the globe. This book steers away from the historical narrative of an insular Renaissance Europe and instead identifies the significance of other global influences. By using Florence as a case study to trace these connections, this volume of essays provides essential reading for students and scholars of early modern cities and the Renaissance.

Germans are often accused of failing to take responsibility for Nazi crimes, but what precisely should ordinary people do differently? Indeed, scholars have yet to outline viable alternatives for how any of us should respond to terror and genocide. And because of the way they compartmentalize everyday life, our discipline-bound analyses often disguise more than they illuminate. Written by a historian, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian, The Happy Burden of History takes an integrative approach to the problem of responsible selfhood. Exploring the lives and letters of ordinary and intellectual Germans who faced the ethical challenges of the Third Reich, it focuses on five typical tools for cultivating the modern self: myths, lies, non-conformity, irony, and modeling. The authors carefully dissect the ways in which ordinary and intellectual Germans excused their violent claims to mastery with a sense of 'sovereign impunity.'They then recuperate the same strategies of selfhoodfor our contemporary world, but in ways that are self-critical and humble. The book shows how viewing this problem from within everyday life can empower and encourage usto bear the burden of historical responsibility - and be happy doing so.

The Ultimate Comprehensive Guide To Amazon Echo Do you want to know how to work Amazon Echo? Do You want to know how to use Amazon Dot? Do you want to know the ends and outs of Amazon Alexa? When you read Amazon Echo: Update Edition!- Complete Blueprint User Guide for Amazon Echo, Amazon Dot, Amazon Tap and Amazon Alexa, you will be ready to use your amazon echo! You will discover everything you need to know about Amazon Echo. This insightful guide will help you learn what you need to know about Amazon Echo. You'll happy to find the tricks and tips whenever you didn't know existed

"Cheat River Three," is a true life adventure immersed in circumstantial fiction The adventures in this novel were based on true stories of my infamous father's wild life, intertwined with tales of a fictional heroine that rivals him with her own special free spirited exploits. Their quest for adventure would separate them and take them independently far away, but tragedy and love would eventually reunite them and return them home. Cheat River Three will take the reader on an emotional roller coaster of humor and excitement as well as pull at their heartstrings.

"if the reader is right with them hearing them speak, readers will both laugh and cry with this"

"'Cheat River Three', just as with his other stories, Sweeney knows how to hook a reader and keep them flipping pages and gobbling up his words Eugene, James and Kat are wonderfully drawn characters that seemed real and familiar. Their exploits and stories will have you laughing and crying the whole time. Melissa Caldwell, Must Read Faster

"Cheat River Three," is a true life adventure immersed in circumstantial fiction The adventures in this novel were based on true stories of my infamous father's wild life, intertwined with tales of a fictional heroine that rivals him with her own special free spirited exploits. Their quest for adventure would separate them and take them independently far away, but tragedy and love would eventually reunite them and return them home. Cheat River Three will take the reader on an emotional roller coaster of humor and excitement as well as pull at their heartstrings.

"if the reader is right with them hearing them speak, readers will both laugh and cry with this"

"'Cheat River Three', just as with his other stories, Sweeney knows how to hook a reader and keep them flipping pages and gobbling up his words Eugene, James and Kat are wonderfully drawn characters that seemed real and familiar. Their exploits and stories will have you laughing and crying the whole time. Melissa Caldwell, Must Read Faster

Christianity in America has lost its way. The cornerstone of the faith, Jesus Christ, possesses the virtues of kindness, meekness, humility, compassion and mercy. Today's national church leadership seems to stand for pride, prejudice, deception and greed. This writing stands as an indictment of those who have chosen to misrepresent the gospel. You pass judgment on others while practicing even worse things yourselves. You bow to the rich and powerful and are harsh toward the poor. You preach individual responsibility like we are all the same. Make no mistake about this: Most poor people are born into their circumstances and remain there because of limited opportunities available to them. Most well-off are born into their opportunistic, privileged circumstances. We are not all the same. The church has pushed its political agenda to the point of absurdity. How can it be an effective force for good when it offers condemnation instead of hope? Hope rests in the person of Jesus Christ, not in flawed, man-made, political ideology. America's ability to survive in the twenty-first century ultimately rests on the church's willingness to change its present course and pursue spiritual revival. Hopefully, Christians and non-Christians alike will find nutrition for the soul in this small book. In the future, demand loving deeds from the church, not pious words for show.