Bess of Hardwick was one of the most remarkable people who lived in England in the late Tudor period. Born a daughter of a relatively humble Midlands family, she was married and widowed four times, on each occasion raising her social status until she ultimately became the Countess of Shrewsbury. An enthusiast of fine buildings, she left behind Hardwick Hall and Chatsworth House as prime examples of Elizabethan prodigy houses. She also left important genetic legacies in the form of her descendants, and is an ancestress of much of the British aristocracy for the last few hundred years. Whilst she lived at a time when the laws and customs of the land made it difficult for women to exercise any real form of economic or social independence, Bess succeeded in acquiring a personal fortune which not only made her the second wealthiest woman in the kingdom after Queen Elizabeth herself, but for generations after her served as the financial bedrock upon which her descendants would continue to build, in some cases right up to the present day.

Hetty Howland Green (1834-1916), born Hetty Howland Robinson, and known in her later years as "The Witch of Wall Street," was born in the whaling town of New Bedford, Massachusetts to Quaker parents. This biography charts Hetty Green's extraordinary ascent up the pyramid of wealth to a point where, in the earliest years of the twentieth century, she was being identified as the richest woman in America. The first in a series of brief biographies of significant tycoons, this is an insight into the life and methods of one of the earliest and most influential business women in the US. It examines the source of her wealth, and her method of building upon it. It also profiles those who helped or thwarted her along the way.

The Roaring Twenties, jazz music, Hollywood glamour - the end of World War I ushered in a golden age for America, with a booming stock market and rampant property speculation. It seemed as if - with President Harding and then President Coolidge in charge - the good times would never end. In marked contrast were the fortunes of many European countries, which were struggling to repay war debts while the terms of the Treaty of Versailles were plunging Germany into economic catastrophe. Later, with Herbert Hoover as President, the US markets continued to climb, even though some investors began to sell, sensing trouble ahead. The stock market crash came in October 1929, and America slid into deep depression. Against a background of bank failures, industrial decline, rural poverty, and unemployment, there was an outbreak of protests, strikes, and riots. Hoover was swept from power in 1932, and it fell to the new President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, to revive America's fortunes with a number of ground-breaking new programs which made up the New Deal. Dark Realities covers this turbulent period in America's history. The book introduces the key figures of this time period and reveals the impact that the Great Depression had on the American people. *** "Written to be accessible to lay readers and historians alike....a straightforward chronicle of some of the bleakest years in America's history. Dark Realities is an excellent contribution....highly recommended especially for public and college library collections." - Midwest Book Review, Library Bookwatch, March 2013, American History Shelf

John Jacob Astor - Cornelius Vanderbilt - Andrew Carnegie - John D. Rockefeller - Henry Ford - Joseph P. Kennedy - Even today, long after their deaths, the names of these six men continue to be associated with wealth and power. When they were alive, they dominated their worlds as few men had done before, and few have done since. Now in paperback, this book contains the life stories of six of the richest men who ever lived in America. Their lives offer us windows into ways of life that most of us can only imagine - an opportunity to glimpse times when laws, attitudes, prejudices, and opportunities were very different from today. Their achievements - financial, political, and social - continue to affect us to this day, for good or ill. Additionally, their mistakes still offer important lessons about the acquisition, use, and abuse of wealth and power. And had they not lived, the history of America - and the world - might have been very different indeed.

Jean Paul Getty (1892-1976) - a powerful, oil tycoon who was at one point the richest man in the world, with a private life described as 'bizarre beyond belief', but what drove him and shaped the man he was? While there is no shortage of books, documentaries and online material focusing on the tabloid-filling content, this book takes a chronological approach, and examines the four key relationships which shaped his life: parents, business, money, women and art. Marriage and parenthood served to punctuate that life. Living in the shadow of his father, who never fully trusted in Paul's maturity, judgement and moral values, seems to have driven him to strive for ever more financial success. Getty was viewed as a skilled, shrewd and talented businessman, but in his personal life, he left behind him a string of failed marriages and difficult relationships with many of his children and grandchildren. The author looks at the difficulties Getty had in interacting with others on a personal level, and why many have portrayed Getty as living a solitary, even lonely life, despite being surrounded by guards, staff, visiting business colleagues and female companions. Instead he suggests that Getty's fortune was to serve as the central foundation of his life. His need to create, defend and expand that fortune - all of which he successfully did - is key to understanding his life.

The Roaring Twenties, jazz music, Hollywood glamour - the end of World War I ushered in a golden age for America, with a booming stock market and rampant property speculation. It seemed as if - with President Harding and then President Coolidge in charge - the good times would never end. In marked contrast were the fortunes of many European countries, which were struggling to repay war debts while the terms of the Treaty of Versailles were plunging Germany into economic catastrophe. Later, with Herbert Hoover as President, the US markets continued to climb, even though some investors began to sell, sensing trouble ahead. The stock market crash came in October 1929, and America slid into deep depression. Against a background of bank failures, industrial decline, rural poverty, and unemployment, there was an outbreak of protests, strikes, and riots. Hoover was swept from power in 1932, and it fell to the new President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, to revive America's fortunes with a number of ground-breaking new programs which made up the New Deal. Dark Realities covers this turbulent period in America's history. The book introduces the key figures of this time period and reveals the impact that the Great Depression had on the American people. *** "Written to be accessible to lay readers and historians alike....a straightforward chronicle of some of the bleakest years in America's history. Dark Realities is an excellent contribution....highly recommended especially for public and college library collections." - Midwest Book Review, Library Bookwatch, March 2013, American History Shelf

John Jacob Astor. Cornelius Vanderbilt. Andrew Carnegie. John D. Rockefeller. Henry Ford. Joseph P. Kennedy. Even today, long after their deaths, the names of these six men continue to be associated with wealth and power. When they were alive, they dominated their worlds as few men had done before, and few have done since. These are the life stories of six of the richest men who ever lived in America. Their lives offer us windows into ways of life for over two centuries that most of us can only imagine - an opportunity to glimpse times when laws, attitudes, prejudices, and opportunities were very different from today. Their achievements - financial, political, and social - continue to affect us to this day, for good or ill. Additionally, their mistakes still offer important lessons about the acquisition, use, and abuse of wealth and power. And had they not lived, the history of America - and the world - might have been very different indeed.

In the UK, a cascade of Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations/TUPE cases - notably and centrally upon the service provision change, as well as the subsequent enactment of the Collective Redundancies and the TUPE (Amendment) Regulations 2013 by the UK government - have made necessary this fourth edition of TUPE: Law & Practice. The new 2013 Amendment Regulations, in force from January 2014, are intended to clarify the issues raised by recent cases and also to reduce the burdens on employers of small enterprises in the UK. This guide provides analysis of: the scope to "service provision changes" (i.e. outsourcing/contracting-out and in), as well as clarification of the Regulation 3 * key changes relating to transfer dismissals and changes to terms and conditions * pensions obligations under TUPE * clarified 'joint' consultation rights * the confusing application of TUPE where the transferor is insolvent. Lawyers, politicians, policymakers, HR practitioners, as well as academics, will find that this book brings them up to speed on TUPE. This book aims to keep pace with these changes, providing practical advice and cutting edge analysis.