Shipping Estimate
USA
- USA
- CAN
- USA
- CAN
Ships within 48 hours · Estimated delivery Jul 7 - Jul 12
Promo Codes Available:
For Your Every Summer RSVP, with Code: SUMMER15
Description
Gdp: A Brief But Affectionate History - Revised and Expanded EditionHow GDP came to rule our lives and why it needs to change Why did the size of the U. S. economy increase by 3 percent on one day in mid 2013 or Ghana's balloon by 60 percent overnight in 2010? Why did the U. K. financial industry show its fastest expansion ever at the end of 2008 just as the world's financial system went into meltdown? And why was Greece's chief statistician charged with treason in 2013 for apparently doing nothing more than trying to
How GDP came to rule our lives--and why it needs to change
Why did the size of the U.S. economy increase by 3 percent on one day in mid-2013--or Ghana's balloon by 60 percent overnight in 2010? Why did the U.K. financial industry show its fastest expansion ever at the end of 2008--just as the world's financial system went into meltdown? And why was Greece's chief statistician charged with treason in 2013 for apparently doing nothing more than trying to accurately report the size of his country's economy? The answers to all these questions lie in the way we define and measure national economies around the world: Gross Domestic Product. This entertaining and informative book tells the story of GDP, making sense of a statistic that appears constantly in the news, business, and politics, and that seems to rule our lives--but that hardly anyone actually understands. Diane Coyle traces the history of this artificial, abstract, complex, but exceedingly important statistic from its eighteenth- and nineteenth-century precursors through its invention in the 1940s and its postwar golden age, and then through the Great Crash up to today. The reader learns why this standard measure of the size of a country's economy was invented, how it has changed over the decades, and what its strengths and weaknesses are. The book explains why even small changes in GDP can decide elections, influence major political decisions, and determine whether countries can keep borrowing or be thrown into recession. The book ends by making the case that GDP was a good measure for the twentieth century but is increasingly inappropriate for a twenty-first-century economy driven by innovation, services, and intangible goods.-- "Choice"Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 09/22/2015
ISBN: 9780691169859
Pages: 184
Weight: 0.50lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.40w x 0.60d
Shipping Notes
- Free Standard Shipping on $100+ Orders to the USA.
- Except Preorder products are shipped in 48 hours.
- Delivery to the USA:
- Standard Shipping : 3-10 business days
- If time is of the essence, please consider selecting expedited delivery for faster service.
Exchange/Return Notes
- We offer a 30-day return/exchange service after receiving.
- Final sale items are not eligible for returns or exchanges.
- To process your return/exchange, please contact us at [email protected]
- Please click here for more details>>> Return & Exchange Policy
4.1 ★★★★★
Based on 1808 reviews
Sort
Product Reviews
★★★★★ 5
Spectacular Albeit Unknown History of Race Relations
Format: Hardcover
This is a great piece of historiography about something few know about at all --- slavery in New York City in the 18th century. How about a slave "rebellion" in New York City, how about more people burned at the stake than in the Salem witchcraft trials, how about dark byways and highways of old New York, barely transformed from its days as New Amsterdam, dark plots in dank places, shrill frightened tyrants overreacting with bloody retribution, burned ruins of an early African American village in Central Park?
One cannot make up this stuff, it is too real so it must be history at its best.
And written by one of our premier authors of history, a woman who makes our history live in The New Yorker to the acclaim of many, and yet whose best book, this one, is still too little known.
If you appreciate Harry Truman's remark that the only new thing under the Sun is the history you haven't read, then this is one to curl up with and marvel at; a great way to spend a rainy day or a dark night.
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on January 22, 2010
★★★★★ 4
Good, but not great.
Format: Paperback
Kudos to Lepore for delving into an important, little known subject, which she does better than most historians. At times, however, I think she felt the need to put every little piece of information she got into the book. It was way too long. Some good research, but she has done better. Still, worth checking out. I like to think I know American history, but I know nothing about this awful chapter.
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on April 1, 2019
★★★★★ 5
DAMN, this is a great book!
Format: Hardcover
All history books should be this detailed, this readable, this humane. Lepore knows how to write about a horrible, nearly forgotten episode in NYC history. Unlike many historians, she steps away from overt politics or raw emotion. She knows that this subject is too serious to be shouted. It is the rare history book that is packed with facts as well as knowledge.
I felt like Lepore was taking my hand and leading me through the smelly streets of lower Manhattan in 1741, like I could almost see the faces of...what were they, anyway? The victims of a horrible hoax? The demented planners of a plot to burn the city? Or something in between, where thieves can also be the keepers of ancient rites from a distant homeland, where the world is turned upside down?
I could go on and on, but just buy the book!
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2008
★★★★★ 3
New York Burning
Format: Paperback
.
This is an important book that explores in depth what is usually only found in textbooks as a one-sentence summation:
"In 1741 there was a slave uprising in New York City."
Scholars will probably be happier starting with the Appendix and bibliography and then reading the book. The text is disorganized and uneven, and although this is non-fiction, the characters could have been more finely drawn. Peter Zenger's trail keeps popping up in unexpected places, often disconnected from the action the author is working on. Some sections are heavy on primary documents and period writings, others are more poetic.
Yes, I do understand the parallels with the Salem Witch Trials. The Salem Witch Trials get more press today because of Arthur Miller's "Crucible." Color and religion of the participants aside, both events are stories of group think and mass hysteria, fear and anger. There is plenty of room here for a first-class film or play to be written.
Read this book, learn from it. Expect to complain about it.
Kim Burdick
Stanton, DE
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on November 7, 2014
★★★★★ 5
What You Didn't Know
Format: Paperback
Did you know that if you were a Catholic Priest on the streets of New York in 1747 that you'd be arrested and hung! Great book if you're interested in the times during which our founding Fathers were growing up. It'll give you a different concept on how slavery was different in NYC as opposed to in the South, and how many of the streets in NYC got there names from English magistrates. If you like history, especially of NYC, you'll love this book.
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on January 24, 2015