Boom and Bust: Ecuador’s Financial Rollercoaster

The interplay between finance, politics and social conditions in 20th Century Ecuador

Pablo R. Izurieta Andrade

Throughout the history of Ecuador, the ambivalent evolution of major political and social events such as the stability of serving presidents, coups and even war, has coincided with changes in the financial environment. The product of careful historical study, "Boom & Bust: Ecuador’s Financial Rollercoaster" combines evidence from prior studies with original research, including data from the Central Bank of Ecuador, unpublished diplomatic papers and documents from the personal archives of relevant historical figures. A central finding is that the export performance of Ecuador's three primary commodities - cacao, bananas and oil - has significantly shaped 20th-century Ecuadorian history. Synthesis of old and new insights reveals how the state of the nation’s economy has frequently determined the outcome of critical events. All the while, the strength, immediacy and direction of the relationships examined has varied. The book would appeal to anyone with an interest in Ecuador's recent history as well as specialists and scholars of Latin American economic and political history.

Public Assistance of the Poor in France

From the Middle Ages to the Late 19th Century (New Edition)

Emily Greene Balch

This book is a historical assessment of state institutions and other social arrangements put in place to alleviate poverty in France. It draws from both primary (notably archives of the Church) and secondary sources (such as Monnier’s Histoire de l’Assistance Publique). It offers a comparative perspective with respect to contemporary arrangements in Britain and the United States, including some early poverty statistics. The result is a useful and concise account of the history of social institutions which continues to be of relevance over a century after its initial publication. This New Edition has been typeset with modern techniques. It has been painstakingly proofread to ensure that it is free from errors.

The Road to Parnassus: Artist Strategies in Contemporary Art

Rise and Success of Glasgow Artist Douglas Gordon and of the wider YBA generation

Diego Mantoan, University of Palermo, Italy

How can one become a successful artist? Where should one start a career in the art world? What are useful strategies to achieve recognition in the art system? Such questions hoard in students' minds ever since entering art school and they probably chase every kind of art professional who is at an early career stage. “The Road to Parnassus” tries to understand what makes a good start in today's art world, who are influential players in the field and which strategies might apply. The swift career ascension of Glasgow artist Douglas Gordon – one of today's leading visual artists – and of the broader YBA generation that rose into worldwide prominence in the 1990s – Damien Hirst and Sarah Lucas among the best known – serves as a convenient case to analyse contemporary artist strategies. This book takes a multidisciplinary approach – spanning from traditional art history, to sociology and economics – pursuing the reconstruction of the field of forces in art as intended by French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. Compared to previous publications on art system dynamics, such as Thompson's “The $12 Million Stuffed Shark”, this book offers an enhanced understanding of the factors that allow a young artist to enter the arena of contemporary art. The present research should help uncover the art system logic – which appears enigmatic to non-experts – revealing that artists are aware they need to consider global trends, beat competitors and meet the demands of dealers, collectors, curators and museums. This book furthers existing contributions on the YBAs (for example Stallabrass' “High Art Lite”), offering innovative conclusions on recent British art, such as on the duality between London and Glasgow, the gender opposition among emerging artists and the predominance of resourceful authors.

The Rig-Vedic and Post-Rig-Vedic Polity (1500 BCE-500 BCE)

R.U.S. Prasad, Harvard University

The book critically examines and assesses the literary evidence available through Vedic and allied literature portraying the nature of Vedic polity, the functionalities of its various institutions, and the various social and religious practices. The book is not a narrative but critically examines the nature of changes in a host of these areas that occurred at each stage of Vedic polity from early Vedic period to post Ṛig-Vedic period. It outlines in historical perspective the various stages involved in the development of Vedic polity and Vedic canon and how the two processes have gone along together. It contains extensive discussions on political system and institutions, religious and social practices as they obtained during the Rig-Vedic and post Rig-Vedic periods. It provides a fresh approach to the cult of sacrifice and fire rituals practiced by Vedic Aryans along with an in-depth analysis of the Vedic view of Nationalism, Sovereignty and State as discernible from Vedic texts .The book also features an extensive discussion on the institution of kingship, administrative machinery, role of various entities in the polity including the Purohita, the Sabha and the Samiti, position of women, Varna system and features of tribal kingdoms, such as the Kuru-Panchalas and Kosala-Videhas. Isolating political and social aspects from the essentially religious character of Vedic literature, an attempt has been made to show with due corroboration that the tribal polity was not deficient in political content contrary to the stance of some scholars to depict Vedic Aryans as apolitical and inward looking. The present book partakes both the current and previous scholarship on the subject but breaks a new path with its exclusive focus on the Rig-Vedic and Post Rig-Vedic polity, together with a balanced and objective assessment of their features. It brings all the relevant and connected issues on to one platform, and deals with them in a holistic manner. Its unique features include: • The “Vedic Grid”: a graphical representation and tabulations of the characteristics of each of the about 50 Vedic tribes, including information on the location of their habitat, their time line, the names of their chieftains and their linkage with priestly clans. • A special focus on the Second Urbanization taking place in the Gangetic valley between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE. It explains how towards the end of the later Vedic period, the polity underwent a change in political, social and economic spheres which blossomed later during the period of Mauryas. • Two appendices dealing with the theories of Aryan migration and the relationship of the Vedic Aryans with the Harappa culture and what can be ascertained by Vedic literature.

The Distinction of Human Being

An Introduction to the Logotectonic Method of Conception

Thomas Kruger Caplan, Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences, Germany

Perhaps we are never done with thought, nor should be. If this is indeed the case, then Kant may have been right after all in supposing that folks will never lose interest in metaphysics, in thought thinking thought. But what of academics? Where would we find these days a comprehensive treatment of pure reason, of the epochs of its origins and accomplishments, that is not just another collection of interpretations of “source” texts in translation? This study introduces philosophy students and professionals to the “logotectonic” method of conception as developed by Heribert Boeder, a pupil of Martin Heidegger, which is broadly structuralist in its approach but endeavors to make evident how the principles of rationality governing the Occidental tradition of λóγος (logos) – even those dictated by the animus of our post/modern world of thought in opposition to it – are, in fact, founded upon the “nature” of pure reason itself, the intellect, the discipline, and the art of which can be understood as constituting a unique “language” containing a vocabulary of distinguished terms, a syntax that determines their ratios, and rules of inference with which these terms of principle, insight, and issue are built into trains of thought about thought, every thought. As a result, the wisdom of the Muses (Homer, Hesiod, Solon), of the Holy Spirit (the Synoptic Narratives of Mark, Luke, and Matthew, the Apostolic Letters of Paul, the Gospel of John), and of Humanity (Rousseau, Schiller, Hölderlin) can be seen to have thrice articulated, in their own terms, a moving vision of our experience with the distinction of human being, inspiring critical reflection to consider the λóγος as a destiny with regards to which even we, as the thinkers, the doers, and the builders of today, are still learning what it means to make a difference. ‘The Distinction of Human Being’ offers contemporary thinkers, beginners as well as professionals, a comprehensive reading of the origin and the tradition of metaphysics encompassing the life and times of pure reason as it unfolds across its theoretical, practical, and poetic endeavor the last of which suggests what a philological philosophy might entail and demand of a new generation of friends of wisdom.