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  Rhodes And His Banker - Empire...

  Richard Steyn

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  Rhodes and his Banker is an account of the remarkable friendship between a larger-than-life historical figure and a modest, unassuming banker, both of whom were personally involved in all the major political and financial developments in Southern Africa during the closing decades of the 19th century.
  The financial institution that brought diamond and gold magnate Cecil John Rhodes and Sir Lewis Michell together – the Standard Bank – was at the heart of the country's rapid transformation from an agricultural backwater to an industrial powerhouse thanks to the discovery of diamonds and gold. The book chronicles the activities and growth of the bank under the remarkable stewardship of Michell and recounts his role as the trusted confidant of Rhodes.
  Michell published the first biography of Rhodes to be written after his death and offers many intriguing insights into the character and motives of one of the most controversial and self-driven of British imperialists. He also did everything he could to fulfil Rhodes's ambition for a united South Africa and played a key role in setting up the world-famous Rhodes Scholarship programme.
  Intertwining dual narratives of Rhodes as rapacious entrepreneur with the Standard Bank under Michell tiptoeing in his wake to become the biggest bank in Africa, Steyn recounts how colonialism and capitalism took root in South Africa and Rhodesia.

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  Björn Borg: A short biography -...

  5 Minutes, 5 Minute Biographies,...

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  Björn Borg, Swedish tennis legend: Life and work in a short biography! Everything you need to know, brief and concise. Infotainment, education and entertainment at its best!

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  Elections - A Very Short...

  L. Sandy Maisel, Jennifer A. Yoder

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  Elections occur in all democracies and many nondemocratic regimes as well. They determine who will hold public office and who will have the power to govern. They connect citizens to those whom they choose to make decisions on their behalf and who regulate their behavior. This book looks comparatively at the key aspects of elections. In addition to describing types of electoral systems, it discusses the implications of the various systems for the administration of elections, voter participation, representation, government stability, and other factors. Where appropriate, it examines efforts to reform a nation's (or a sub-national entity's) system, exploring the impetus for reform and the effects of those reforms when implemented. 
   
   
   
  L. Sandy Maisel and Jennifer A. Yoder lay out the variety of electoral systems in the broadest terms—single-member district plurality systems; proportional systems; and mixed systems. They discuss voting and the various electoral institutions used to implement the ways in which voting occurs and how votes are tabulated across electoral systems. They analyze the consequences of each system, first for the functioning of the democracy, and second for the electoral strategies politicians employ, closing with a discussion of reforms under consideration in a number of countries.

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  Animals and the Greco-Roman...

  Editors Charles River

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  There were approximately 1,500 Greek city-states (poleis) in the Classical era, and sacrifices featured in every one of them. As such, animals were constantly involved in the core elements of Greek society and cults, and this centrality could be found in the numerous depictions of animals on coins and vases throughout Greece and Greek colonies. Greek thinkers and philosophers also endlessly debated issues relating to animals, which resulted in the Greeks acquiring formidable knowledge about the creatures with whom they came in contact. All the while, animals were important sources of food, companionship, and labor, and they also featured significantly in warfare. 
  Another use for foreign animals was in the preparation of medicines. Animals captured during military conflicts were considered spoils of war, suggesting their status was that of an object. On the other hand, reflecting the Greek ambiguity and ambivalence toward their status, various philosophical debates of the time indicate that animals could also be prosecuted for committing crimes and punished accordingly. It is also apparent that ancient Greeks knew a considerable amount about their animals, as various written works that survived often reflected the ethical and scientific debates surrounding them. 
  Other than the tale of the she-wolf with Romulus and Remus, the overriding images and stories of Roman animals that have come down through popular culture to modern times largely concern the vicious animal fights put on in the Colosseum, stories of Christians being thrown to the lions, and Hannibal's invasion of Italy with elephants. Indeed, the widely accepted view is that Romans were uncommonly brutal to their animals and had little empathy for them, and in terms of the Romans' scientific knowledge about animals, it appears much of it came to them from the Greeks.

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  Truth is Still Out There The:...

  Bethan Jones

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  In September 1993, a TV show like no other appeared on our screens, asking us to consider the essence of truth and belief, to think about the nature and roles of science and humanity, and to question what we were told by those in power. Combining horror, science fiction, drama, crime, and comedy with cinematic filmmaking, The X-Files transported the paranoia of the sixties and seventies to the technologically savvy nineties as it followed two iconic characters, FBI Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, in their labyrinthine pursuit of truth. Further, The X-Files reversed conventional television gender roles: Mulder was our believer in the paranormal, chasing down clues in search of his abducted sister; Scully was the skeptic, a scientist preaching rationality and objective truth. Now, thirty years later, the nature of conspiracy theories may have changed, but the anxiety surrounding them has not. In an era in which Watergate has been replaced by Gamergate and conspiracy theorists blindly embrace the myth of a stolen election and maintain that an all-powerful cabal of Satanic Democrats—defeatable by only one man—is preying on children, The X-Files remains as relevant as ever.

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  The American Transportation...

  Aaron W. Marrs

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  In the first half of the nineteenth century, transportation in the United States underwent an extraordinary transformation. In The American Transportation Revolution, Aaron W. Marrs explores the cultural influence of steamboats and railroads, which fascinated Americans across the country. 
   
   
   
  Demonstrating the wide cultural reach of steam transit, Marrs draws from an eclectic set of sources, including children's books, comic almanacs, musical works, sermons, etiquette guides, cartoons, and employee rulebooks. This rich tapestry of cultural production helped "naturalize" steam technology for Americans before they ever encountered steam transit in person. Before ever seeing a railroad, Americans could read a novel that took place on a railroad, see an image of a train on currency, or purchase piano music imitating a train. These cultural artifacts made these new forms of transport feel familiar and natural. 
   
   
   
  Marrs examines how cultural norms about travel emerged through the prescriptions of etiquette authors and the actions of travelers themselves, how enslaved people made innovative use of transportation networks to escape from slavery, and much more. Marrs convincingly demonstrates steam transportation's broad cultural impact on the United States, and how Americans, in turn, imprinted their own meaning on this new technology.

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