Credit-history

Many people have proposals for what should be done about education today. Few have looked into history to see what has been successful in the past. This book does that. Few have hard data to back up their theories. This book does. It cites more than one thousand authentic historical and statistical sources. Half of these are original documents (or translations thereof).

The bibliography alone is worth the price of this book. I had been searching for statistics on literacy, and I found so much more here! This book is not only an excellent survey of educational methods throughout history, but also a comprehensive list of sources for future research.

The author is biased toward completely privatized education, and in this book he explains why. He starts where democracy started, in Ancient Greece. Most of us have heard of Athens and Sparta. We know Spartans were dedicated warriors. We know they had to come home from war "with their shield or on it." We know the city state of Sparta was everything, and each individual citizen was dispensable.

We know that Athens, not Sparta, became the capitol in Greece's Golden Age. What I did not know before reading about it in this book was that Athens had no official school system, no regulation of teachers, and no required curriculum. Athenian teachers simply charged parents directly for educating their children. Each teacher specialized in a subject, and the parents simply chose teachers with good reputations who taught the subjects they wanted their children to know. Competition for students kept prices down. Some excellent teachers were wealthy and did not charge, notably Plato and Aristotle. The result of this free market education method was a city that became its country's leader in art, philosophy, and science.

This is but the first exploration in this timely book that examines what has worked in education. My BellaOnline School Reform Forum will be full of references to this book. So far it is the only one of its kind!

I also recomend Murray Rothbard's "Education: Free and Compulsory" for in depth historical analysis of government involvement with education. Any politicians that truly give a darn should be reading these books. Democrats rhetoric about "helping the poor" is sickening when you realize how much government involvement in education has specifically hurt the poor.

I have been doing research on what can be done about the sad state of public education. I read this 391 page book gripped by fascination. Any lover of history, ideas, civilization, or America should read this book. Why are our schools in serious decline? For some of the same reasons the Soviet Union collapsed. Andrew Coulson examines our current system of public education, and argues for revitalization through direct parental control. He looks at times in history when education has been free from state control, and shows that those have been some of the times of greatest cultural flourishing, such as Periclean Athens. He also looks at education in other countries, historically and currently. Public vs. private education in England, and Japan and the Netherlands are particularly of interest. He examines the history of American education, and dispells myths like the idea that people were illiterate until publicly funded education came along. The truth is that the literacy rate was much higher BEFORE Horace Mann first started promoting the idea of state schooling based on the Prussian military model of that time. Coulson also looks at constitutional questions, and deals with the legitimacy of government compelling belief. Anyone who supports the ailing status quo of public education is going to have to come to terms with the formidable research and persuasive arguments presented by Senior Research Associate and former softwear engineer, Andrew Coulson, who devoted four years to producing this book. They will also have to answer the other growing advocates of education liberation, among whom are Thomas Sowell (Inside American Education: The Decline, The Deception, The Dogmas) Stephen Arons (Compelling Belief: The Culture of American Schooling) and Sheldon Richman (The Separation of School and State). I salute Andrew Coulson as having done a magnificent job in writing this well documented and thoughtful study.

This guide was just what I was looking for! I have my heart set on CSFB and this guide gave me an insider view. The insider scoop section was especially interesting. You won't find this stuff on a recruiting website! Now I feel like I know something that other interview candidates don't. Try it and get the edge!

I was gratified to read this guide as it's made me that much more prepared as I start thinking about what I need to do to snag an internship at CSFB. I liked how in-depth the front of the book was in chronicling the company's merger and the subsequent ups and downs the company has been going through. I feel more convinced that this company is a good fit with my goals and aspirations. I enjoyed the insider insights on what's great and what's not so hot at CSFB. And I really appreciated the in-depth info on the recruiting and training of associates and analysts who get into CSFB. As I'm fluent in 2 languages other than English, I'm definitely looking for a place such as CSFB that will call that into action and give me the chance to live abroad.

February, 1813. A powerful British fleet takes control of Chesapeake Bay. The British admiralty orders the destruction of the port complex of Norfolk and Portsmouth, the Navy Yard at Gosport, and the frigate USS Constellation. The most important obstacle to success is little, barren, poorly defended Craney Island.
The story is told in its entirety here, for the first time. Included in facinatindg detail is the little known feud between the militia artillerists and the Regular Navy gunners over which is entitled to the credit for breaking the British attack. The spectacle of the Virginia legislature investigating the conduct of a battle fought 35 years before is probably unparalled in the annals of American military history.

A tightly written, thoroughly researched and eminetly readable account of a unique joint service action that never received the serious attention it deserves.

The author is a retied Army officer and former professor of political science.

this is a great book on the history and development of credit use in the united states. i recommend it highly.

impact of credit cards in INDIAN economy and its effects in INDI

Financial assets grow in value with the passage of time. For debt, we call this "interest", and for equity, we call it "yield". Homer's book is the superbly recorded history of this phenomenon. Perhaps its greatest value is that when you hear or read a new theory, you can assess its validity by comparing the theory's implications with the historical evidence.

Walter Tracy's "Letters of Credit" is a classic book on the construction of letterforms and typefaces. It includes historical information on each of the type families and designers it examines. The chapter that discusses the correct spacing of letters is a classic. Highly recommended to anyone with a strong interest in typeface design (along with Alexander Lawson's "Anatomy of a Typeface").

From approximately 1312 to 1415 Bruges was the hub of European trade. English wool came to the Staple where it was distributed to the Flemish weavers, made into cloth and sold all over the world. Spices and silks from the caravan trade arrived in Venice and were carted to Bruges for sale in northern Europe. The bulky goods were moved about by the merchant; what about his money? One day he has many bags of gold coins and another day he has few or none. He needs to be able to deposit his gold somewhere and have a written certificate of deposit for it--that is, credit. So one merchant becomes a banker--he stays in one place, receiving and paying out. The coins--from all over the world--are a problem. The banker becomes money-changer. He takes gold coins to the mint to be melted down and made into local coinage.

The Lombards ran pawn shops, the equivalent of today's plastic credit card. Consumer debt, at fairly high interest rates, with the pawned objects as security, starts here. Very poor people who needed to borrow small sums from time to time depended on the Lombards--and hated them too. Notice that widows and others could invest in the pawn shop--loan money to the Lombards--and receive interest once a year. This was working capital for the pawn shop owner; otherwise he would have a warehouse full of objects and no money to lend to his customers.

Goods flowed and credit flowed and business boomed. There were defaults; too many defaults would drive the bankers, money-changers and Lombards into bankruptcy which in turn ruined merchants and manufacturers. Finally Bruges lost out to Antwerp.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The author gives interpretations as well as facts. One can get a clear picture of Bruges in its heyday.

It's past time that someone put some thought and effort into a book of this nature. We've had "Science Fiction TV" guides before, and they've uniformly been written by authors whose axes could be heard grinding away throughout as they slagged shows they disliked and drooled over shows they (often unaccountably) were fans of. Mark Phillips and Frank Garcia have done a good job of research and writing here, with few and minor mistakes. The chapter on "Battlestar Galactica," which is accurate and contains a good deal of information, much of it from new interviews done especially for this book, is worth the price of admission alone. If you're a fan of science fiction on TV, this book, in spite of its price, should be on your bookshelf. Very highly recommended.

This book represents the pinnacle in terms of a blend of behind-the-scenes insights and anecdotes combined with basic reference data. The multitude of interviews that went into the text give the material a depth that the more common coverage of sci-fi shows rarely attains. Like other books by McFarland, it's pricey, but I can think of none that give the reader better value for their dollar.

What makes this guide especially fascinating are the numerous candid in-depth interviews with the producers and writers of these shows, giving much insight into the creative process and the trials and tribulations of creating innovative television shows. There are countless behind-the-scenes anecdotes that have, I am sure, never seen print before. I thought I knew a lot about certain shows, but this book contained info that was new to me; and even reading the articles about shows I never watched (and the entries on each show are long and detailed) I could scarcely put the book down. This book serves as a reference, but it is more than that; it has a wealth of fascinating insights into the television industry itself.

If you love to read books about the history of empires and success stories, you will love this! I currently work for Bank of America Bank Card Services (Visa) and I loved it. I knew a lot of the history, but there were a lot of things I didn't know.

It is a must read for anyone who works in this industry or has a card.

If you're looking for the more positive side of the Visa story, or of the impact of American Banking systems, this is a great start. Not a lot about statistical results and analysis, this is more of a story about the people side of building one of the largest global enterprises on the planet, and how that came about during the past 3 decades. Paul Chutkow is not a finanical analyst or banker, so he brings a fresh perspective to the story, and it's a very compelling read. This is also a story about leadership and vision, with the leading characted being Dee Hok. Paul Chutkow has captured many insights into the strategies in building Visa, and how the obstacles were overcome. The pictures of course are wonderful, and the historical views of many different phases of consumerism make this an important read for the student of payment systems. With the new dot-com startups of the day scratching their way in the markets, such as PayPal, BillPoint, and so many others, this book helps us develop a keener appreciation for the visionary and dramtic efforts of the 'fore-fathers' of the payments industry. I really enjoyed learning about the battles Dee Hok worked through to create that little start-up, to eventually be called Visa. The business development and marketing decisions in working with the International Olympic Committee are important for any marketer, and I was introduced to some important people in the the history of credit card fraud. I do recommend this book whole-heartedly, and I will be referring my asociates working in the payments and banking industries read it.

This book is a fascinating read about the history and evolution of "plastic." The book recounts how the visions and innovations of a few revolutionized the world of banking and provides an interesting profile of Visa's rise to global success. Particularly interesting was the story of Visa pioneer and innovator, Dee Hock. Additionally, the historical look at San Francisco in the late 1800s and early 1900s, both in photos and text, was a real treat, especially for this East Coast transplant to the Bay Area. The photos and graphics of Visa's early advertisements are fun to see, especially the Visa "chicks" -- an ad concept that would not fly today. This is a compelling, educational, and even inspirational story -- it's a great read and should be a welcome addition to any coffee table or library.