The Montefeltro Conspiracy

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Publisher : Doubleday
ISBN 13 : 0385526806
Total Pages : 274 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (855 download)

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Book Synopsis The Montefeltro Conspiracy by : Marcello Simonetta

Download or read book The Montefeltro Conspiracy written by Marcello Simonetta and published by Doubleday. This book was released on 2008-06-03 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A brutal murder, a nefarious plot, a coded letter. After five hundred years, the most notorious mystery of the Renaissance is finally solved. The Italian Renaissance is remembered as much for intrigue as it is for art, with papal politics and infighting among Italy’s many city-states providing the grist for Machiavelli’s classic work on take-no-prisoners politics, The Prince. The attempted assassination of the Medici brothers in the Duomo in Florence in 1478 is one of the best-known examples of the machinations endemic to the age. While the assailants were the Medici’s rivals, the Pazzi family, questions have always lingered about who really orchestrated the attack, which has come to be known as the Pazzi Conspiracy. More than five hundred years later, Marcello Simonetta, working in a private archive in Italy, stumbled upon a coded letter written by Federico da Montefeltro, the Duke of Urbino, to Pope Sixtus IV. Using a codebook written by his own ancestor to crack its secrets, Simonetta unearthed proof of an all-out power grab by the Pope for control of Florence. Montefeltro, long believed to be a close friend of Lorenzo de Medici, was in fact conspiring with the Pope to unseat the Medici and put the more malleable Pazzi in their place. In The Montefeltro Conspiracy, Simonetta unravels this plot, showing not only how the plot came together but how its failure (only one of the Medici brothers, Giuliano, was killed; Lorenzo survived) changed the course of Italian and papal history for generations. In the course of his gripping narrative, we encounter the period’s most colorful characters, relive its tumultuous politics, and discover that two famous paintings, including one in the Sistine Chapel, contain the Medici’s astounding revenge.

Napoleon and the Rebel

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Publisher : St. Martin's Press
ISBN 13 : 9780230120525
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (25 download)

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Book Synopsis Napoleon and the Rebel by : Marcello Simonetta

Download or read book Napoleon and the Rebel written by Marcello Simonetta and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2011-06-07 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lucien was the most talented of the Bonaparte brothers, who not only can be credited for helping Napoleon seize power, but who also had a promising political career of his own. He was a romantic, an idealist, and an anti-monarchist whose love for Alexandrine, the woman he married in spite of Napoleon's objections, caused him to fall out of favor with his powerful brother. In Napoleon and the Rebel: A Story of Brotherhood, Passion, and Power, authors Simonetta and Arikha draw from a massive trove of first-hand documents, allowing them to present a rare, detailed portrait of this remarkable dynasty that reveals Emperor Napoleon and his family at their most intimate and vulnerable moments. The turbulent relationship between Napoleon and his favorite brother, Lucien, of whom the emperor said, "of all my siblings, he was the most gifted, and the one who hurt me most," creates the perfect springboard to illustrate the bloody power struggles, romantic idealism, and corruption that characterized nineteenth-century Europe, as well as the rise and fall of the French empire.

The Light of Italy

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Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1800241992
Total Pages : 530 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (2 download)

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Book Synopsis The Light of Italy by : Jane Stevenson

Download or read book The Light of Italy written by Jane Stevenson and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-10-14 with total page 530 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of the Renaissance city and palace of Urbino, and the life of the extraordinary man who created it: Federico da Montefeltro. 'Painstakingly researched and yet unfailingly readable' Ross King 'An insight into one of Renaissance Italy's most glamorous courts' Catherine Fletcher 'The perfect tour guide to the past' Literary Review 'A fabulous merging of seductive design with bravura scholarship' Alexandra Harris 'A superior study... Packed with detail' TLS The one-eyed mercenary soldier Federico da Montefeltro, lord of Urbino between 1444 and 1482, was one of the most successful condottiere of the Italian Renaissance: renowned humanist, patron of the artist Piero della Francesca, and creator of one of the most celebrated libraries in Italy outside the Vatican. From 1460 until her early death in 1472 he was married to Battista, of the formidable Sforza family, their partnership apparently blissful. In the fine palace he built overlooking Urbino, Federico assembled a court regarded by many as representing a high point of Renaissance culture. For Baldassare Castiglione, Federico was la luce dell'Italia – 'the light of Italy'. Jane Stevenson's affectionate account of Urbino's flowering and decline casts revelatory light on patronage, politics and humanism in fifteenth-century Italy. As well as recounting the gripping stories of Federico and his Montefeltro and della Rovere successors, Stevenson considers in details Federico's cultural legacy – investigating the palace itself, the splendours of the ducal library, and his other architectural projects in Gubbio and elsewhere.

Apostle

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Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 030727845X
Total Pages : 514 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (72 download)

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Book Synopsis Apostle by : Tom Bissell

Download or read book Apostle written by Tom Bissell and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2017-02-07 with total page 514 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of Twelve Apostles is the story of early Christianity: its competing versions of Jesus’s ministry, its countless schisms, and its ultimate evolution from an obscure Jewish sect to the global faith we know today in all its forms and permutations. In his quest to understand the underpinnings of the world’s largest religion, Tom Bissell embarks on a years-long pilgrimage to the apostles’ supposed tombs, traveling from Jerusalem and Rome to Turkey, Greece, Spain, France, India, and Kyrgyzstan. Along the way, Bissell uncovers the mysterious and often paradoxical lives of these twelve men and how their identities have taken shape over the course of two millennia. Written with empathy and a rare acumen—and often extremely funny—Apostle is an intellectual, spiritual, and personal adventure fit for believers, scholars, and wanderers alike.

April Blood

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0195348435
Total Pages : 321 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (953 download)

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Book Synopsis April Blood by : Lauro Martines

Download or read book April Blood written by Lauro Martines and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2003-04-24 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the world's leading historians of Renaissance Italy brings to life here the vibrant--and violent--society of fifteenth-century Florence. His disturbing narrative opens up an entire culture, revealing the dark side of Renaissance man and politician Lorenzo de' Medici. On a Sunday in April 1478, assassins attacked Lorenzo and his brother as they attended Mass in the cathedral of Florence. Lorenzo scrambled to safety as Giuliano bled to death on the cathedral floor. April Blood moves outward in time and space from that murderous event, unfolding a story of tangled passions, ambition, treachery, and revenge. The conspiracy was led by one of the city's most noble clans, the Pazzi, financiers who feared and resented the Medici's swaggering new role as political bosses--but the web of intrigue spread through all of Italy. Bankers, mercenaries, the Duke of Urbino, the King of Naples, and Pope Sixtus IV entered secretly into the plot. Florence was plunged into a peninsular war, and Lorenzo was soon fighting for his own and his family's survival. The failed assassination doomed the Pazzi. Medici revenge was swift and brutal--plotters were hanged or beheaded, innocents were hacked to pieces, and bodies were put out to dangle from the windows of the government palace. All remaining members of the larger Pazzi clan were forced to change their surname, and every public sign or symbol of the family was expunged or destroyed. April Blood offers us a fresh portrait of Renaissance Florence, where dazzling artistic achievements went side by side with violence, craft, and bare-knuckle politics. At the center of the canvas is the figure of Lorenzo the Magnificent--poet, statesman, connoisseur, patron of the arts, and ruthless "boss of bosses." This extraordinarily vivid account of a turning point in the Italian Renaissance is bound to become a lasting work of history.

Casanova

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Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1440642516
Total Pages : 436 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (46 download)

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Book Synopsis Casanova by : Ian Kelly

Download or read book Casanova written by Ian Kelly and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2008-10-16 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Casanova, noted author Ian Kelly traces the life of Giacomo Casanova, a man whose very name is synonymous with sensuality, seduction and sexual prowess. But Casanova was more than just a great lover. A businessman, diplomat, spy, and philosopher, he authored more than twenty books, including a translation of The Iliad. Confidant to many infamous characters—including Madame de Pompadour, Voltaire, and Catherine the Great—Casanova was undoubtedly charismatic. But how exactly did he seduce himself into infamy? In this richly drawn portrait, Casanova emerges as very much a product of eighteenth-century Venice. He reveled in its commedia del arte and Kelly posits that his successes as both a libertine and a libertarian grew from his careful study of its artifice and illusion. Food, travel, sex: Casanova’s great passions are timeless ones and Kelly brings to life in full flavor the grandeur of his exploits. He also articulates the fascinating personal philosophy that inspired Casanova’s quest to bed all manner of women. A riveting look at the life of the most legendary lover of all time, this is destined to become the definitive biography of Giacomo Casanova.

The Collector of Lives: Giorgio Vasari and the Invention of Art

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Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 0393248399
Total Pages : 400 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (932 download)

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Book Synopsis The Collector of Lives: Giorgio Vasari and the Invention of Art by : Noah Charney

Download or read book The Collector of Lives: Giorgio Vasari and the Invention of Art written by Noah Charney and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2017-10-03 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Readers curious about the making of Renaissance art, its cast of characters and political intrigue, will find much to relish in these pages.” —Wall Street Journal Giorgio Vasari (1511–1574) was a man of many talents—a sculptor, painter, architect, writer, and scholar—but he is best known for Lives of the Artists, which singlehandedly established the canon of Italian Renaissance art. Before Vasari’s extraordinary book, art was considered a technical skill, and artists were mere decorators and craftsmen. It was through Vasari’s visionary writings that Raphael, Leonardo, and Michelangelo came to be regarded as great masters of life as well as art, their creative genius celebrated as a divine gift. Lauded by Sarah Bakewell as “insightful, gripping, and thoroughly enjoyable,” The Collector of Lives reveals how one Renaissance scholar completely redefined how we look at art.

Johnson's Life of London

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Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1101585684
Total Pages : 269 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (15 download)

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Book Synopsis Johnson's Life of London by : Boris Johnson

Download or read book Johnson's Life of London written by Boris Johnson and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2012-05-31 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The exhilarating story of how London came to be one of the most exciting and influential places on earth—from the city’s colorful, witty, and well-known mayor. Once a swampland that the Romans could hardly be bothered to conquer, over the centuries London became an incomparably vibrant metropolis that has produced a steady stream of ingenious, original, and outsized figures who have shaped the world we know. Boris Johnson, the internationally beloved mayor of London, is the best possible guide to these colorful characters and the history in which they played such lively roles. Erudite and entertaining, he narrates the story of London as a kind of relay race. Beginning with the days when “a bunch of pushy Italian immigrants” created Londinium, he passes the torch on down through the famous and the infamous, the brilliant and the bizarre—from Hadrian to Samuel Johnson to Winston Churchill to the Rolling Stones—illuminating with unforgettable clarity the era each inhabited. He also pauses to shine a light on innovations that have contributed to the city’s incomparable vibrancy, from the King James Bible to the flush toilet. As wildly entertaining as it is informative, this is an irresistible account of the city and people that in large part shaped the world we know.

Machiavelli and Political Conspiracies

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Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 0429865430
Total Pages : 158 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (298 download)

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Book Synopsis Machiavelli and Political Conspiracies by : Alessandro Campi

Download or read book Machiavelli and Political Conspiracies written by Alessandro Campi and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-06-27 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The theme of conspiracy is central to Machiavelli's writing. His work offers observations and analysis of conspiracy as part of the armoury of the Renaissance politician. Surprisingly, the theme has not yet received the attention it merits. This volume corrects an interpretation which reduces Machiavelli's position to one of censorious observer of conspiracies. Quite to the contrary, as Campi demonstrates, Machiavelli developed an anatomy of conspiracy and provided a practical manual for coup d'état" and violent seizure of power.

Christendom Destroyed

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Publisher : Penguin UK
ISBN 13 : 0241005965
Total Pages : 784 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (41 download)

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Book Synopsis Christendom Destroyed by : Mark Greengrass

Download or read book Christendom Destroyed written by Mark Greengrass and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2014-07-03 with total page 784 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mark Greengrass's gripping, major, original account of Europe in an era of tumultuous change This latest addition to the landmark Penguin History of Europe series is a fascinating study of 16th and 17th century Europe and the fundamental changes which led to the collapse of Christendom and established the geographical and political frameworks of Western Europe as we know it. From peasants to princes, no one was untouched by the spiritual and intellectual upheaval of this era. Martin Luther's challenge to church authority forced Christians to examine their beliefs in ways that shook the foundations of their religion. The subsequent divisions, fed by dynastic rivalries and military changes, fundamentally altered the relations between ruler and ruled. Geographical and scientific discoveries challenged the unity of Christendom as a belief-community. Europe, with all its divisions, emerged instead as a geographical projection. It was reflected in the mirror of America, and refracted by the eclipse of Crusade in ambiguous relationships with the Ottomans and Orthodox Christianity. Chronicling these dramatic changes, Thomas More, Shakespeare, Montaigne and Cervantes created works which continue to resonate with us. Christendom Destroyed is a rich tapestry that fosters a deeper understanding of Europe's identity today.

The Pursuit of Power

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Publisher : Penguin UK
ISBN 13 : 0241295777
Total Pages : 848 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (412 download)

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Book Synopsis The Pursuit of Power by : Richard J. Evans

Download or read book The Pursuit of Power written by Richard J. Evans and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2016-09-01 with total page 848 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ECONOMIST BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2016 'A scintillating, encyclopaedic history, rich in detail from the arcane to the familiar... a veritable tour de force' Richard Overy, New Statesman 'Transnational history at its finest ... .. social, political and cultural themes swirl together in one great canvas of immense detail and beauty' Gerard DeGroot, The Times 'Dazzlingly erudite and entertaining' Dominic Sandbrook, The Sunday Times A masterpiece which brings to life an extraordinarly turbulent and dramatic era of revolutionary change. The Pursuit of Power draws on a lifetime of thinking about nineteenth-century Europe to create an extraordinarily rich, surprising and entertaining panorama of a continent undergoing drastic transformation. The book aims to reignite the sense of wonder that permeated this remarkable era, as rulers and ruled navigated overwhelming cultural, political and technological changes. It was a time where what was seen as modern with amazing speed appeared old-fashioned, where huge cities sprang up in a generation, new European countries were created and where, for the first time, humans could communicate almost instantly over thousands of miles. In the period bounded by the Battle of Waterloo and the outbreak of World War I, Europe dominated the rest of the world as never before or since: this book breaks new ground by showing how the continent shaped, and was shaped by, its interactions with other parts of the globe. Richard Evans explores fully the revolutions, empire-building and wars that marked the nineteenth century, but the book is about so much more, whether it is illness, serfdom, religion or philosophy. The Pursuit of Power is a work by a historian at the height of his powers: essential for anyone trying to understand Europe, then or now.

The Bookseller of Florence

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Publisher : Atlantic Monthly Press
ISBN 13 : 0802158536
Total Pages : 375 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (21 download)

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Book Synopsis The Bookseller of Florence by : Ross King

Download or read book The Bookseller of Florence written by Ross King and published by Atlantic Monthly Press. This book was released on 2021-04-13 with total page 375 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The New York Times–bestselling author of Brunelleschi’s Dome captures the Renaissance spirit in this biography of “the king of the world’s booksellers.” During the Renaissance, Florence’s manuscript hunters, scribes, scholars, and booksellers blew the dust off a thousand years of history and, through the discovery and diffusion of ancient knowledge, imagined a new and enlightened world. At the heart of this activity, which bestselling author Ross King relates in his exhilarating new book, was a remarkable man: Vespasiano da Bisticci. Born in 1422, he became what a friend called “the king of the world’s booksellers.” At a time when all books were made by hand, Vespasiano produced and sold many hundreds of volumes from his bookshop, which also became a gathering spot for debate and discussion. His clients included a roll-call of popes, kings, and princes across Europe who wished to burnish their reputations by founding magnificent libraries. Vespasiano reached the summit of his powers as Europe’s most prolific merchant of knowledge when a new invention appeared: the printed book. By 1480, he was swept away by this epic technological disruption, whereby cheaply produced books reached readers who never could have afforded one of Vespasiano’s elegant manuscripts. A thrilling chronicle of intellectual ferment set against the dramatic political and religious turmoil of the era, Ross King’s brilliant The Bookseller of Florence is also an ode to books and bookmaking that charts the world-changing shift from script to print through the life of an extraordinary man long lost to history—one of the true titans of the Renaissance. “A dazzling, instructive and highly entertaining book.” —The Wall Street Journal

The Book of the Courtier

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 526 pages
Book Rating : 4.F/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis The Book of the Courtier by : conte Baldassarre Castiglione

Download or read book The Book of the Courtier written by conte Baldassarre Castiglione and published by . This book was released on 1903 with total page 526 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Passions and Tempers

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Publisher : Harper Collins
ISBN 13 : 0061973017
Total Pages : 404 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (619 download)

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Book Synopsis Passions and Tempers by : Noga Arikha

Download or read book Passions and Tempers written by Noga Arikha and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-02-20 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Passions and Tempers may excite passions and tempers in some of its readers, as a good work of intellectual history should. You will learn a lot from its pages.” —Washington Post The humours—blood, phlegm, black bile, and choler—were substances thought to circulate within the body and determine a person’s health, mood, and character. The theory of humours remained an inexact but powerful tool for centuries, surviving scientific changes and offering clarity to physicians. This one-of-a-kind book follows the fate of these variable and invisible fluids from their Western origin in ancient Greece to their present-day versions. It traces their persistence from medical guidebooks of the past to current health fads, from the testimonies of medical doctors to the theories of scientists, physicians, and philosophers. By intertwining the histories of medicine, science, psychology, and philosophy, Noga Arikha revisits and revises how we think about all aspects of our physical, mental, and emotional selves.

Machiavelli

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Publisher : Pan Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 1447275012
Total Pages : 582 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (472 download)

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Book Synopsis Machiavelli by : Alexander Lee

Download or read book Machiavelli written by Alexander Lee and published by Pan Macmillan. This book was released on 2020-03-19 with total page 582 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'A wonderfully assured and utterly riveting biography that captures not only the much-maligned Machiavelli, but also the spirit of his time and place. A monumental achievement.' – Jessie Childs, author of God's Traitors. ‘A notorious fiend’, ‘generally odious’, ‘he seems hideous, and so he is.’ Thanks to the invidious reputation of his most famous work, The Prince, Niccolò Machiavelli exerts a unique hold over the popular imagination. But was Machiavelli as sinister as he is often thought to be? Might he not have been an infinitely more sympathetic figure, prone to political missteps, professional failures and personal dramas? Alexander Lee reveals the man behind the myth, following him from cradle to grave, from his father’s penury and the abuse he suffered at a teacher’s hands, to his marriage and his many affairs (with both men and women), to his political triumphs and, ultimately, his fall from grace and exile. In doing so, Lee uncovers hitherto unobserved connections between Machiavelli’s life and thought. He also reveals the world through which Machiavelli moved: from the great halls of Renaissance Florence to the court of the Borgia pope, Alexander VI, from the dungeons of the Stinche prison to the Rucellai gardens, where he would begin work on some of his last great works. As much a portrait of an age as of a uniquely engaging man, Lee’s gripping and definitive biography takes the reader into Machiavelli’s world – and his work – more completely than ever before.

For Profit

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Publisher : Basic Books
ISBN 13 : 1541601580
Total Pages : 343 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (416 download)

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Book Synopsis For Profit by : William Magnuson

Download or read book For Profit written by William Magnuson and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2022-11-08 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A history of how corporate innovation has shaped society, from ancient Rome to Silicon Valley From legacy manufacturers to emerging tech giants, corporations wield significant power over our lives, our economy, and our politics. Some celebrate them as engines of progress and prosperity. Others argue that they recklessly pursue profit at the expense of us all. In For Profit, law professor William Magnuson reveals that both visions contain an element of truth. The story of the corporation is a human story, about a diverse group of merchants, bankers, and investors that have over time come to shape the landscape of our modern economy. Its central characters include both the brave, powerful, and ingenious and the conniving, fraudulent, and vicious. At times, these characters have been one and the same. Yet as Magnuson shows, while corporations haven’t always behaved admirably, their purpose is a noble one. From their beginnings in the Roman Republic, corporations have been designed to promote the common good. By recapturing this spirit of civic virtue, For Profit argues, corporations can help craft a society in which all of us—not just shareholders—benefit from the profits of enterprise.

The Pazzi Conspiracy

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Author :
Publisher : W W Norton & Company Incorporated
ISBN 13 : 9780500250648
Total Pages : 128 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (56 download)

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Book Synopsis The Pazzi Conspiracy by : Harold Acton

Download or read book The Pazzi Conspiracy written by Harold Acton and published by W W Norton & Company Incorporated. This book was released on 1979-01-01 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: