Download or read book The Gold Standard at the Turn of the Twentieth Century written by Steven Bryan and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2010-08-31 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By the end of the nineteenth century, the world was ready to adopt the gold standard out of concerns of national power, prestige, and anti-English competition. Yet although the gold standard allowed countries to enact a virtual single world currency, the years before World War I were not a time of unfettered liberal economics and one-world, one-market harmony. Outside of Europe, the gold standard became a tool for nationalists and protectionists primarily interested in growing domestic industry and imperial expansion. This overlooked trend, provocatively reassessed in Steven Bryan's well-documented history, contradicts our conception of the gold standard as a British-based system infused with English ideas, interests, and institutions. In countries like Japan and Argentina, where nationalist concerns focused on infant-industry protection and the growth of military power, the gold standard enabled the expansion of trade and the goals of the age: industry and empire. Bryan argues that these countries looked less to Britain and more to North America and the rest of Europe for ideological models. Not only does this history challenge our idealistic notions of the prewar period, but it also reorients our understanding of the history that followed. Policymakers of the 1920s latched onto the idea that global prosperity before World War I was the result of a system dominated by English liberalism. Their attempt to reproduce this triumph helped bring about the global downturn, the Great Depression, and the collapse of the interwar world.
Download or read book A Global History of Gold Rushes written by Benjamin Mountford and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2018-10-16 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nothing set the world in motion like gold. Between the discovery of California placer gold in 1848 and the rush to Alaska fifty years later, the search for the precious yellow metal accelerated worldwide circulations of people, goods, capital, and technologies. A Global History of Gold Rushes brings together historians of the United States, Africa, Australasia, and the Pacific World to tell the rich story of these nineteenth century gold rushes from a global perspective. Gold was central to the growth of capitalism: it whetted the appetites of empire builders, mobilized the integration of global markets and economies, profoundly affected the environment, and transformed large-scale migration patterns. Together these essays tell the story of fifty years that changed the world.
Download or read book One Nation Under Gold How One Precious Metal Has Dominated the American Imagination for Four Centuries written by James Ledbetter and published by Liveright Publishing. This book was released on 2017-06-13 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One Nation Under Gold examines the countervailing forces that have long since divided America—whether gold should be a repository of hope, or a damaging delusion that has long since derailed the rational investor. Worshipped by Tea Party politicians but loathed by sane economists, gold has historically influenced American monetary policy and has exerted an often outsized influence on the national psyche for centuries. Now, acclaimed business writer James Ledbetter explores the tumultuous history and larger-than-life personalities—from George Washington to Richard Nixon—behind America’s volatile relationship to this hallowed metal and investigates what this enduring obsession reveals about the American identity. Exhaustively researched and expertly woven, One Nation Under Gold begins with the nation’s founding in the 1770s, when the new republic erupted with bitter debates over the implementation of paper currency in lieu of metal coins. Concerned that the colonies’ thirteen separate currencies would only lead to confusion and chaos, some Founding Fathers believed that a national currency would not only unify the fledgling nation but provide a perfect solution for a country that was believed to be lacking in natural silver and gold resources. Animating the "Wild West" economy of the nineteenth century with searing insights, Ledbetter brings to vivid life the actions of Whig president Andrew Jackson, one of gold’s most passionate advocates, whose vehement protest against a standardized national currency would precipitate the nation’s first feverish gold rush. Even after the establishment of a national paper currency, the virulent political divisions continued, reaching unprecedented heights at the Democratic National Convention in 1896, when presidential aspirant William Jennings Bryan delivered the legendary "Cross of Gold" speech that electrified an entire convention floor, stoking the fears of his agrarian supporters. While Bryan never amassed a wide-enough constituency to propel his cause into the White House, America’s stubborn attachment to gold persisted, wreaking so much havoc that FDR, in order to help rescue the moribund Depression economy, ordered a ban on private ownership of gold in 1933. In fact, so entrenched was the belief that gold should uphold the almighty dollar, it was not until 1973 that Richard Nixon ordered that the dollar be delinked from any relation to gold—completely overhauling international economic policy and cementing the dollar’s global significance. More intriguing is the fact that America’s exuberant fascination with gold has continued long after Nixon’s historic decree, as in the profusion of late-night television ads that appeal to goldbug speculators that proliferate even into the present. One Nation Under Gold reveals as much about American economic history as it does about the sectional divisions that continue to cleave our nation, ultimately becoming a unique history about economic irrationality and its influence on the American psyche.
Download or read book Gold Mining in the Nineteen Nineties written by Dave McCracken and published by New Era Publications International Aps. This book was released on 2003-06-01 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: GOLD MINING IN THE 1990's--This one book outlines EVERYTHING a beginner will need & want to know about getting started at gold mining today, either as a hobby or as a small-scale commercial activity. In easy to understand language, supported by clear photographs & graphic demonstrations, this book covers all of the important subjects--including what gold is & looks like, where it comes from & where to find it, how gold deposits & how to find & recover it, & also touches on the legal aspects of how to claim the gold for yourself. The book covers the up-to-date mining procedures of panning gold, sluicing, dredging, high-banking, drywashing, electronic probing, hardrock mining, basic refining techniques, cleaning procedures, selling gold, & much, much more. Herein lies the most comprehensive & thorough work on electronic prospecting techniques (locating gold with metal detectors) available in any publication on the market today. Virtually an encyclopedia of modern gold mining techniques, there is no other book available more up to date, more simple to understand, or which covers the entire subject as thoroughly as this manual.
Download or read book Meadows Of Gold written by Masudi and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-10-28 with total page 495 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1989. Mas'udi was born in Baghdad about 896 AD, during the Caliphate of Mu'tadid and died in Egypt sometime around the year 956, eleven years after the Buwaihids, a Shi'a dynasty of Iranian origin, had occupied Baghdad and taken control of the Caliphate. His full name was Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn al-Husain ibn Ali ibn Abd Allah al-Mas'udi and he was notable as a Muslim historian. His two major works were Meadows of Gold (Muruj al-Dhahab) and the Book of Notification (Kitab al-Tanbih).
Download or read book Caravans of Gold Fragments in Time written by Kathleen Bickford Berzock and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2019-02-26 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Issued in conjunction with the exhibition Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time, held January 26, 2019-July 21, 2019, Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.
Download or read book Pulitzer s Gold written by Roy J. Harris and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Published to coincide with the 2016 centennial celebration of the Pulitzer Prize, a new edition of the "stories behind the stories" that won American journalism's most coveted award.
Download or read book Floating Gold written by Christopher Kemp and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2022-05-12 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating natural history of an incredibly curious substance. “Preternaturally hardened whale dung” is not the first image that comes to mind when we think of perfume, otherwise a symbol of glamour and allure. But the key ingredient that makes the sophisticated scent linger on the skin is precisely this bizarre digestive by-product—ambergris. Despite being one of the world’s most expensive substances (its value is nearly that of gold and has at times in history been triple it), ambergris is also one of the world’s least known. But with this unusual and highly alluring book, Christopher Kemp promises to change that by uncovering the unique history of ambergris. A rare secretion produced only by sperm whales, which have a fondness for squid but an inability to digest their beaks, ambergris is expelled at sea and floats on ocean currents for years, slowly transforming, before it sometimes washes ashore looking like a nondescript waxy pebble. It can appear almost anywhere but is found so rarely, it might as well appear nowhere. Kemp’s journey begins with an encounter on a New Zealand beach with a giant lump of faux ambergris—determined after much excitement to nothing more exotic than lard—that inspires a comprehensive quest to seek out ambergris and its story. He takes us from the wild, rocky New Zealand coastline to Stewart Island, a remote, windswept island in the southern seas, to Boston and Cape Cod, and back again. Along the way, he tracks down the secretive collectors and traders who populate the clandestine modern-day ambergris trade. Floating Gold is an entertaining and lively history that covers not only these precious gray lumps and those who covet them, but presents a highly informative account of the natural history of whales, squid, ocean ecology, and even a history of the perfume industry. Kemp’s obsessive curiosity is infectious, and eager readers will feel as though they have stumbled upon a precious bounty of this intriguing substance.
Download or read book Streets of Gold written by Ran Abramitzky and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2022-05-31 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Forbes, Best Business Books of 2022 Behavioral Scientist, Notable Books of 2022 The facts, not the fiction, of America’s immigration experience Immigration is one of the most fraught, and possibly most misunderstood, topics in American social discourse—yet, in most cases, the things we believe about immigration are based largely on myth, not facts. Using the tools of modern data analysis and ten years of pioneering research, new evidence is provided about the past and present of the American Dream, debunking myths fostered by political opportunism and sentimentalized in family histories, and draw counterintuitive conclusions, including: Upward Mobility: Children of immigrants from nearly every country, especially those of poor immigrants, do better economically than children of U.S.-born residents – a pattern that has held for more than a century. Rapid Assimilation: Immigrants accused of lack of assimilation (such as Mexicans today and the Irish in the past) actually assimilate fastest. Improved Economy: Immigration changes the economy in unexpected positive ways and staves off the economic decline that is the consequence of an aging population. Helps U.S. Born: Closing the door to immigrants harms the economic prospects of the U.S.-born—the people politicians are trying to protect. Using powerful story-telling and unprecedented research employing big data and algorithms, Abramitzky and Boustan are like dedicated family genealogists but millions of times over. They provide a new take on American history with surprising results, especially how comparable the “golden era” of immigration is to today, and why many current policy proposals are so misguided.
Download or read book Fires of Gold written by Lauren Coyle Rosen and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2020 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fires of Gold is a powerful ethnography of the often shrouded cultural, legal, political, and spiritual forces governing the gold mining industry in Ghana, one of Africa's most celebrated democracies. Lauren Coyle Rosen argues that significant sources of power have arisen outside of the formal legal system to police, adjudicate, and navigate conflict in this theater of violence, destruction, and rebirth. These authorities, or shadow sovereigns, include the transnational mining company, collectivized artisanal miners, civil society advocacy groups, and significant religious figures and spiritual forces from African, Islamic, and Christian traditions. Often more salient than official bodies of government, the shadow sovereigns reveal a reconstitution of sovereign power--one that, in many ways, is generated by hidden dimensions of the legal system. Coyle Rosen also contends that spiritual forces are central in anchoring and animating shadow sovereigns as well as key forms of legal authority, economic value, and political contestation. This innovative book illuminates how the crucible of gold, itself governed by spirits, serves as a critical site for embodied struggles over the realignment of the classical philosophical triad: the city, the soul, and the sacred.
Download or read book Temples of Gold written by Santi Leksukhum and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Santi Leksukhum's text traces the complex history of these paintings. It examines the development of their distinctive style, from the arrival of Buddhism, to the overwhelming influence of the royal workshops of Bangkok to the incorporation of Western techniques as Thailand opened to the West in the mid-nineteenth century." "The renowned French photographer Gilles Mermet made several expeditions to Thailand to photograph these magnificent murals especially for this volume.".
Download or read book Battles for the Standard written by Ted Wilson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-11-01 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This title was first published in 2000. This is a history of the monetary developments in the international economy of the 19th century. It reviews the monetary developments in the core economies of the period: Britain, the United States, France, Germany, and also India. Particular attention is given to the expansion of the gold standard in the context of the intense national and international debates about the role of precious metals and the author also examines the conflict between supporters of gold, silver and bimetallism, both in terms of competing financial and economic theories and in terms of the varying social and cultural backgrounds that informed them. The main thrust of the work is that the sheer plurality of ideas and contexts helped to ensure the eventual victory of the gold standard, despite the inherent superiority of bimetallic systems.
Download or read book Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea written by Gary Kinder and published by Grove/Atlantic, Inc.. This book was released on 2009-10-20 with total page 526 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Titanic meets Tom Clancy technology” in this national-bestselling account of the SS Central America’s wreckage and discovery (People). September 1875. With nearly six hundred passengers returning from the California Gold Rush, the side-wheel steamer SS Central America encountered a violent storm and sank two hundred miles off the Carolina coast. More than four hundred lives and twenty-one tons of gold were lost. It was a tragedy lost in legend for more than a century—until a brilliant young engineer named Tommy Thompson set out to find the wreck. Driven by scientific curiosity and resentful of the term “treasure hunt,” Thompson searched the deep-ocean floor using historical accounts, cutting-edge sonar technology, and an underwater robot of his own design. Navigating greedy investors, impatient crewmembers, and a competing salvage team, Thompson finally located the wreck in 1989 and sailed into Norfolk with her recovered treasure: gold coins, bars, nuggets, and dust, plus steamer trunks filled with period clothes, newspapers, books, and journals. A great American adventure story, Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea is also a fascinating account of the science, technology, and engineering that opened Earth’s final frontier, providing “white-knuckle reading, as exciting as anything . . . in The Perfect Storm” (Los Angeles Times Book Review). “A complex, bittersweet history of two centuries of American entrepreneurship, linked by the mad quest for gold.” —Entertainment Weekly “A ripping true tale of danger and discovery at sea.” —The Washington Post “What a yarn! . . . If you sign on for the cruise, go in knowing that you’re going to miss meals and a lot of sleep.” —Newsweek
Download or read book Fool s Gold written by L. Sargisson and published by Springer. This book was released on 2012-07-17 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What's wrong with the world today and how might it become better (or worse)? These are the questions pursued in this book, which explores the hopes and fears, dreams and nightmares of the 21st century. Through architecture, fiction, theory, film and experiments with everyday life, Sargisson explores contemporary hopes and fears about the future.
Download or read book New World Gold written by Elvira Vilches and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2010-05-15 with total page 375 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The discovery of the New World was initially a cause for celebration. But the vast amounts of gold that Columbus and other explorers claimed from these lands altered Spanish society. The influx of such wealth contributed to the expansion of the Spanish empire, but also it raised doubts and insecurities about the meaning and function of money, the ideals of court and civility, and the structure of commerce and credit. New World Gold shows that, far from being a stabilizing force, the flow of gold from the Americas created anxieties among Spaniards and shaped a host of distinct behaviors, cultural practices, and intellectual pursuits on both sides of the Atlantic. Elvira Vilches examines economic treatises, stories of travel and conquest, moralist writings, fiction, poetry, and drama to reveal that New World gold ultimately became a problematic source of power that destabilized Spain’s sense of trust, truth, and worth. These cultural anxieties, she argues, rendered the discovery of gold paradoxically disastrous for Spanish society. Combining economic thought, social history, and literary theory in trans-Atlantic contexts, New World Gold unveils the dark side of Spain’s Golden Age.
Download or read book Grains of Gold written by Gendun Chopel and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2014-01-17 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Translated with grace and precision . . . gives us a rare glimpse of how Asian religion and life appeared from the perspective of the Tibetan plateau.” —Janet Gyatso, Harvard University In 1941, philosopher and poet Gendun Chopel sent a manuscript by ship, train, and yak across mountains and deserts to his homeland in Tibet. He would follow it five years later, returning to his native land after twelve years in India and Sri Lanka. But he did not receive the welcome he imagined: he was arrested by the government of the regent of the young Dalai Lama on trumped-up charges of treason. He emerged from prison three years later a broken man and died soon after. Gendun Chopel was a prolific writer, yet he considered that manuscript, to be his life’s work, one to delight his compatriots with tales of an ancient Indian and Tibetan past, Now available for the first time in English, Grains of Gold is a unique compendium of South Asian and Tibetan culture that combines travelogue, drawings, history, and ethnography. Chopel describes the world he discovered in South Asia, from the ruins of the sacred sites of Buddhism to the Sanskrit classics he learned to read in the original. He is also sharply, often humorously critical of the Tibetan love of the fantastic, bursting one myth after another and finding fault with the accounts of earlier Tibetan pilgrims. The work of an extraordinary scholar, Grains of Gold is a compelling work animated by a sense of discovery of both a distant past and a strange present. “The magnum opus of arguably the single most brilliant Tibetan scholar of the twentieth century.” —Lauran Hartley, Columbia University
Download or read book Flowers of Silk and Gold written by Sumru Belger Krody and published by Merrel. This book was released on 2000 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This exhibition catalogue features The Textile Museum's collection of Ottoman embroidery.
