The Anti-Politics Machine

Astronomy Explained Upon Sir Isaac Newton's Principles

Restored Classics to Go Edition

James Ferguson

James Ferguson's Astronomy Explained upon Sir Isaac Newton's Principles opens the heavens to readers with no mathematical training, turning Newtonian science into a vivid, practical guide to the solar system. From the first pages, astronomy is presented as both the most useful and the most sublime of sciences: it helps people navigate the world, understand the Earth's place in the cosmos, and feel the grandeur, wisdom, and goodness of creation. Ferguson invites readers to see the Earth as tiny beside the Sun, and the Sun itself as only one among countless stars that may be other suns with their own planets and rational inhabitants. The work then leads through the structure and motion of the heavens in clear, instructive detail, explaining planetary axes, poles, the ecliptic, and orbital nodes, while showing how the Sun's attraction and each planet's own motion govern celestial order. Individual worlds come alive through descriptions of Mercury's swift path and transits, Venus's long day and strange seasons, the Moon's phases and nodes, polar light and darkness, and the causes of tides first glimpsed by Kepler and refined by Newton. Throughout, scientific explanation is joined to awe, making astronomy feel exact, expansive, and spiritually elevating. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.

Expectations of Modernity

Myths and Meanings of Urban Life on the Zambian Copperbelt

James Ferguson

Once lauded as the wave of the African future, Zambia's economic boom in the 1960s and early 1970s was fueled by the export of copper and other primary materials. Since the mid-1970s, however, the urban economy has rapidly deteriorated, leaving workers scrambling to get by. Expectations of Modernity explores the social and cultural responses to this prolonged period of sharp economic decline. Focusing on the experiences of mineworkers in the Copperbelt region, James Ferguson traces the failure of standard narratives of urbanization and social change to make sense of the Copperbelt's recent history. He instead develops alternative analytic tools appropriate for an "ethnography of decline." Ferguson shows how the Zambian copper workers understand their own experience of social, cultural, and economic "advance" and "decline." Ferguson's ethnographic study transports us into their lives—the dynamics of their relations with family and friends, as well as copper companies and government agencies. Theoretically sophisticated and vividly written, Expectations of Modernity will appeal not only to those interested in Africa today, but to anyone contemplating the illusory successes of today's globalizing economy.

Ferguson's Astronomy, explained upon sir Isaac Newton's principles, with notes and suppl. chapters by D. Brewster. [With] Plates

James Ferguson

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Faulkner's Short Fiction

James Ferguson

This comprehensive overview of William Faulkner's short fiction is a systematic study of this body of work, which Faulkner produced over a period of forty years. The author examines Faulkner's struggle to master the special problems posed by the genre. The book is organized topically. A chronological survey of Faulkner's career as a writer of short fiction is followed by chapters devoted to aspects of Faulkner's craft: thematic patterns, points of view, and other technical and formal patterns. The author offers a frank assessment of Faulkner's failures and successes as a writer of short fiction.

Lectures on Select Subjects in Mechanics, Hydrostatics, Pneumatics, Optics, and Astronomy

James Ferguson, Charles Frederick Partington

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The Dominican Republic

Beyond the Lighthouse

James Ferguson

Beyond the Lighthouse looks at a country where extreme poverty exists alongside a booming tourist industry. Where workers from neighbouring Haiti are literally enslaved in an almost bankrupt sugar industry. Where political leaders date back to a dictatorship which ended more than 30 years ago.

Development as Freedom

Amartya Sen

The main purpose of development is to spread freedom and its thousand charms to the unfree citizens. The author explains how in a world of unprecedented increase in overall opulence, millions of people living in the Third World are still unfree. Even if they are not technically slaves, they are denied elementary freedom and remain imprisoned in one way or another by economic poverty, social deprivation, political tyranny or cultural authoritarianism.

Losing Time

The Industrial Policy Debate

Otis L. Graham

The United States already has an Industrial Policy, says Otis Graham in this timely, well-written book. It is composed of many sector-specific policies of the federal government (such as airline deregulation and tariffs on Asian textiles), along with similar policies adopted in numerous states. These amount to a national Industrial Policy, but one which is uncoordinated and often harmful.

The Race Between Education and Technology

Claudia Dale Goldin, Lawrence F. Katz

This book provides a careful historical analysis of the co-evolution of educational attainment and the wage structure in the United States through the twentieth century. During the first eight decades of the twentieth century, the increase of educated workers was higher than the demand for them. This boosted income for most people and lowered inequality. However, the reverse has been true since about 1980. The authors discuss the complex reasons for this educational slow-down and what might be done to ameliorate it.

Let the Cowboy Ride

Cattle Ranching in the American West

Paul F. Starrs

A detailed and comprehensive look at one of America's most enduring institutions, this richly illustrated book combines the authentic detail of an insider's view (the author spent six years working on a cattle ranch on the high desert Great Basin range) with a scholar's keen eye for objective analysis. 130 photos & maps.

The Origin of Wealth

Evolution, Complexity, and the Radical Remaking of Economics

Eric D. Beinhocker

Over 6.4 billion people participate in a $36.5 trillion global economy, designed and overseen by no one. How did this marvel of self-organized complexity evolve? How is wealth created within this system? And how can wealth be increased for the benefit of individuals, businesses, and society? In The Origin of Wealth, Eric D. Beinhocker argues that modern science provides a radical perspective on these age-old questions, with far-reaching implications. According to Beinhocker, wealth creation is the product of a simple but profoundly powerful evolutionary formula: differentiate, select, and amplify. In this view, the economy is a "complex adaptive system" in which physical technologies, social technologies, and business designs continuously interact to create novel products, new ideas, and increasing wealth. Taking readers on an entertaining journey through economic history, from the Stone Age to modern economy, Beinhocker explores how "complexity economics" provides provocative insights on issues ranging from creating adaptive organizations to the evolutionary workings of stock markets to new perspectives on government policies. A landmark book that shatters conventional economic theory, The Origin of Wealth will rewire our thinking about how we came to be here--and where we are going.

China and the Knowledge Economy

Seizing the 21st Century

Carl J. Dahlman, Jean-Eric Aubert

Annotation Argues that, in order to address the growing economic, social, and political pressures of the 21st Century, China will have to build solid foundations for a knowledge-based economy by updating the economic and institutional regime, upgrading education and learning, and building information infrastructure.