The authors set out to unlock the secrets of money and the intimate connections between the social and institutional forms of money and human individuality and personality. The book combines a reappraisal of sociological, economic and Marxist accounts of money with a substantive assessment of the way in which money impacts on intimate areas of everyday life. The areas covered include the National Lottery, the Criminal Justice System and Local Exchange and Trading Schemes.

MAKE YOUR MONEY WORK FOR YOU... With so much at stake-family security, financial growth and retirement-it is concerning that most people have little to no understanding of financial matters, investments or how the economy works. Nor do they believe the basic concepts behind financial growth are anything they need to know. They simply look at their 401K report quarter after quarter, note the changes and wonder, "How did this happen?" Why in the most capitalistic society on earth, do we Americans understand so little about how money works? A fascinating dichotomy, really, and one rooted in both western culture and human nature. Understanding this will help you master the art of making money work for you instead of continuing to work so hard for it. What's so fascinating is that it is more about the study of human behavior than finance and money, hence the title of the book, Money and the Human Condition.

Make your money work for you... With so much at stake-family security, financial growth and retirement-it is concerning that most people have little to no understanding of financial matters, investments or how the economy works. Nor do they believe the basic concepts behind financial growth are anything they need to know. They simply look at their 401K report quarter after quarter, note the changes and wonder, "How did this happen?" Why in the most capitalistic society on earth, do we Americans understand so little about how money works? A fascinating dichotomy, really, and one rooted in both western culture and human nature. Understanding this will help you master the art of making money work for you instead of continuing to work so hard for it. What's so fascinating is that it is more about the study of human behavior than finance and money, hence the title of the book, Money and the Human Condition.

A human economy puts people first in emergent world society. Money is a human universal and now takes the divisive form of capitalism. This book addresses how to think about money (from Aristotle to the daily news and the sexual economy of luxury goods); its contemporary evolution (banking the unbanked and remittances in the South, cross-border investment in China, the payments industry and the politics of bitcoin); and cases from 19th century India and Southern Africa to contemporary Haiti and Argentina. Money is one idea with diverse forms. As national monopoly currencies give way to regional and global federalism, money is a key to achieving economic democracy.

In a career spanning more than sixty-five years, John Lukacs has established himself as one of our most accomplished historians. Now, in the stimulating book History and the Human Condition, Lukacs offers his profound reflections on the very nature of history, the role of the historian, the limits of knowledge, and more. Guiding us on a quest for knowledge, Lukacs ranges far and wide over the past two centuries. The pursuit takes us from Alexis de Tocqueville to the atomic bomb, from American “exceptionalism” to Nazi expansionism, from the closing of the American frontier to the passing of the modern age. Lukacs’s insights about the past have important implications for the present and future. In chronicling the twentieth-century decline of liberalism and rise of conservatism, for example, he forces us to rethink the terms of the liberal-versus-conservative debate. In particular, he shows that what passes for “conservative” in the twenty-first century often bears little connection to true conservatism. Lukacs concludes by shifting his gaze from the broad currents of history to the world immediately around him. His reflections on his home, his town, his career, and his experiences as an immigrant to the United States illuminate deeper truths about America, the unique challenges of modernity, the sense of displacement and atomization that increasingly characterizes twenty-first-century life, and much more. Moving and insightful, this closing section focuses on the human in history, masterfully displaying how right Lukacs is in his contention that history, at its best, is personal and participatory. History and the Human Condition is a fascinating work by one of the finest historians of our time. More than that, it is perhaps John Lukacs’s final word on the great themes that have defined him as a historian and a writer.

These reflections on contemplative life were delivered at Harvard University in 1997 in a lecture series endowed by Harold M. Wit. (Inside front cover).

With Lender Created Debt author RD Dulin brings new perspective to the ancient subject of debt. Many people assume that debt is a simple matter that gets out of control due to ineptitude and bad money management habits of borrowers. But there is another poorly understood type of debt that is as irresistible as gravity, death and taxes. Lender created debt has the ability to grow out of the control of the borrower until everything in the world and everything that is yet to come is owed to the lender. This debt supersedes concepts of morality, decency and societal responsibility. This debt supersedes constitutions and representative government. This debt even supersedes the right of some people to participate in commerce to supply their own necessities. Our society is under the control of lender created debt now. This book describes a civilized way out.

Doing well with money isn’t necessarily about what you know. It’s about how you behave. And behavior is hard to teach, even to really smart people. Money—investing, personal finance, and business decisions—is typically taught as a math-based field, where data and formulas tell us exactly what to do. But in the real world people don’t make financial decisions on a spreadsheet. They make them at the dinner table, or in a meeting room, where personal history, your own unique view of the world, ego, pride, marketing, and odd incentives are scrambled together. In The Psychology of Money, award-winning author Morgan Housel shares 19 short stories exploring the strange ways people think about money and teaches you how to make better sense of one of life’s most important topics.

An illustrated examination of the challenges of life for some four billion people on our planet, offered by the author/photographer in an effort to effect change through knowledge and awareness.